DGTT/Throwing: Struggle, Passion, and Commitment

Throwers! I have not directed a post toward you all in quite some time now. However, in all that I write, it can easily apply to you. This post is going to be specially directed toward the throwers, so gear yourself up and enjoy!

Throughout my seven years being a part of this awesome sport, I have unfortunately made plenty of mistakes. However, I don't think anyone could ever doubt the amount of effort that I have put into all of this time throwing. In high school, I would always be the last one throwing. I would throw until it was too dark to throw. I carried that same mentality into college as well. John Powell's logic of throwing 10,000 repetitions per year was not something that I took all that lightly. I never actually counted how many times I threw each year, but I always went into practice with a mindset of throwing until I could not physically throw anymore. Most people would think that it would be boring to do the same thing over and over again, day in and day out, night after night. For me, the emotion that I felt, and still do feel for throwing, is located on the complete opposite end of the spectrum of boring. It never failed to take me away from the daily struggles of life. I know the older population are probably saying, "Dude, you don't even know what struggle is!" I understand your point, but even as teenagers, the youngins get stressed every once in a while too. Throwing just has a way of relieving all of the stresses that you have in your life. Most of you reading this could probably agree with that statement. Even on a day where nothing seems to be going right, it just plants a seed of passion and excitement.




Last year during an outdoor season practice nothing seemed to be going right. Everything that was working for me in previous weeks was no longer working out for me. It started to pour down buckets of rain in a fast and explosive manner, kind of how I wished the shot put was flying out of my hand. It was freezing all at the same time. There I was in my shorts and my tee-shirt living it up! I refused to stop throwing until I got it right. Eventually, I did get it right. Everything started to click for me! The determination I had that night to get back on track is something that will stick with me for the rest of my life.

As I am spending this time to talk about my own experiences and the passion that I have for this sport, I want to diverge onto the real reason of why I am stating all of this in the first place. I was talking about how I have made plenty of mistakes throughout my throwing career. I have mentioned before that I always refused to lift when I was in high school. That would be one of my mistakes. As I have mentioned in previous posts, you need to lift. Most of the other mistakes involved my mindset of throwing until I could not throw anymore. You're probably saying to yourself, "What does that even mean?" Yea, I get it. I always talk about how much I believe in taking countless repetitions when throwing.

Here's the deal, there is a right way to train as a thrower, and a wrong way. Now, I don't claim to be an expert or anything, I am speaking purely from experience. The point that I am at now as thrower did not come easy and it was not a short fix. It was something that I struggled with, and something that took me a long time to get to where I am at now. I still believe whole-heartedly in the idea that repetition is key to the success of a thrower. I also want to back up the fact that transitioning into a successful thrower requires a lot of hard work and commitment. The bottom-line is this; I took the wrong path to get to where I am now. Obviously, I am out of commission right now due to this tendinitis injury in my right arm. That tells you I didn't do something right. Yet, it's not all about this injury in my arm. What I am talking about is the fact that I was not taught the "right way" when I first started throwing. I developed a lot of bad habits, and it took me a long time to break a lot of these bad habits. For instance:

• My left side carried me through the circle rather than my right side.

• I lead with my knee rather than the inside of my right thigh.

• My arms were all over the place.

• I never, ever turned my right foot.

These are just a few of the basics that I did not do as a high schooler. The list could become real nasty, real quick, if I spent the time really thinking about it. Yet, I was able to manage average numbers as a high school thrower. I honestly think that repetition, hard work and commitment had a lot to do with this. I became real good at what I did. Unfortunately, what I did was not real good. I also had more guidance than most high school throwers do around this area. I was fortunate in those regards. However, I lacked the basics needed to be the thrower that I always dreamed of being. Obviously, once this arm gets all doctored up, I'll be back at it again. Yet, I always wonder to myself what is it that I could have been? What could I have achieved as a thrower in high school if I had that basic guidance from the beginning? When I say basic guidance, I mean everything from training, mental preparation, and technique.

I really think that the struggles that I had to go through is one of the biggest driving factors for me wanting to help out throwers who may be in a similar position to that of what I went through. Since throwing is something that I am so passionate about and knowing that I put all of the hard work in that I did, to now being able to see a clear path that I could have taken if there was the opportunity of someone being there to direct me to that right path; really gives me no other choice but to reach out and help you guys and girls. I see myself work so hard at this for so long, and realize that I have been underachieving for all of these years, because I didn't have the proper guidance from the beginning. I am sitting here wondering what could have been, what could I have accomplished if I had that ever-so important guidance; the experience that is so vital to being the absolute best that you can be. 

I now have this mindset about life where I never want to open a new door to my life and wish that I would have done more. I didn't always have this mindset. I gained it through investing in others. Investing in others helped me realize who I really am, and I think that it is so important to find out who you really are. Some people spend their whole lives trying to figure out who they are. If you ask me, I think that is a waste of your life. Do not let yourself sink into the same hole that I did. The kind of hole where you sit all day and wonder what you could have been if you had the proper guidance. I am putting myself out there to provide that guidance to you high school throwers in the area. Before me, there was no one in the area who could provide what it is that I desire to provide.

I was watching an interview on Zach Even-Esh last night, and he asked the simple question along the lines of, "what is your purpose to be put on this Earth?"

I had a dream last night, where I was walking through a place where I used to hang out as a kid. As I was walking, I looked up and noticed my best friend walking by me. My friend went off to the military so it is always rare occasion when I do see him. It was an exciting moment to say the least. We ended up walking to the movie theatre. As I imagined him to be loaded with cash, he whipped out a hundred dollar bill and bought around 5 tickets for the surrounding people, including myself. We end up getting into the movie theatre, sit there for a little while, and the movie starts. Maybe five minutes into the movie, the movie suddenly stops. Someone starts typing on the screen, listing her accomplishments. Under this list she writes, "thank you Greg Pearson, you saved my life." If you could cry in your sleep, I think that would have been the moment for me. It is not because I am a cry-baby or anything like that. It is because I am so passionate about affecting other's lives in the utmost positive manner through what I do. I want to be the reason why a lost and befuddled teenager, finds their path to success. 

There are so many high schoolers these days who are athletes, that have tremendous abilities, but they don't know who they are. They run around to all of these different groups, they get caught up with drugs, and basically throw their lives out of the window. I see it time and time again. It is this reason why I want to create a family of training and success. A place where these teenagers can always fall back on and know that they always have a place of acceptance built around respect, hard work, and commitment. I feel that as I have grown, this is the major purpose to why I have been put on this Earth. To provide my experience in a way that allows the younger generation to find a successful path.

This is who I am. This is my purpose to live. You're either with me, or you're against me. If you're with me, great! Give me a call. If you're against me, even better. I only want to deal with those who have a desire to the best that they can be.

Before we close this down, I would like to mention that I am perfectly happy about where I am now. I know I spent a lot of time talking about how I wish this and how I wish that. The truth is that without the experiences that I went through, I wouldn't be the person I am today. I wouldn't be here looking to share my experiences with all of you.

Let's Make It Happen.

Learn From Those Who Have Already Experienced.

Save Yourself The Trouble.

Training: Like A Jog In The Park

As an athlete, you want to be explosive. If you are not explosive, you're probably not an athlete; or you're not all that good. You can be as strong as you dream to be, but if you're not explosive, that strength is useless. I have seen many powerlifter/bodybuilder types that are not athlete material. Yes, they are muscular. Yes, they are really strong. Unfortunately, they have trained their muscles to be slow. Not all, but most. Especially in today's day of age, it is rare to see a bodybuilder with the true, brute strength that it takes to be an athlete. I have seen powerlifters who are strong as hell, not be able to throw a shot put worth a damn. It's because they train their body's to be slow and non-explosive. As a shot putter you need to be explosive!


I am not a big believer in training anything that can be considered long distance and slow moving. I feel that it defeats the purpose of attaining utmost explosiveness as an athlete. You train your body to be explosive, but then you break down all that you've worked for to take a mile or two mile run? I find that silly.


You may question, "If you are telling me that running one, two or even more miles is silly, then how do I become enduranced for my sport?" It's simple. Running long and slow distances is not the only way to achieve muscular endurance. Have you ever done sprints and then you were gasping for air? Yea, that would be endurance. Those sprints will keep you fast and explosive, at the same time as increasing your endurance. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. Do beware though, doing these sprints will take a little more effort and stronger mentality. I don't know about you, but when I take a really slow run, I become extremely bored; really, really fast. You might be brutally exhausted after doing the sprints, but at least you won't fall into a pit of never-ending boredom. If prevention of boredom, increases in endurance, and increases in explosiveness are not enough to convince you, let me add that you will also be saving some time. It can take you anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to run 2 miles. It may only take you 10 to 15 minutes for a good, explosive, muscular endurance workout. Time is a valuable thing!


Sprints are not the only workouts you can do either. You can do anything that is explosive! Make a circuit if you want too. Circuits can be a real good way to train, and have some fun all at the same time. You can flip tires, pull sleds, and jump everyway that you can think of. They are all explosive, and will build up your endurance mightily if you do it for an extended period of time.


Let's say you were on a basketball team, and your team didn't do any conditioning what-so-ever. You started the season, had your first game and your whole team was gasping for air. Each player had to be subbed in for every so often. You end up losing the game. You actually end up losing a lot of games. However, you start to get to the end of the season and you notice that your endurance is almost in tip-top shape. How can this be? We never did any conditioning work... The answer to this question is that playing basketball was actually your conditioning. There is nothing slow about basketball. It is one of the most explosive sports that you can play. Okay so, playing basketball is explosive and it is a type of conditioning? Get outta here! I hope you see where I am going with this. I am not telling you in order to increase your muscular endurance you need to play full court, 5-on-5 basketball. What I am telling you is that you can work on your muscular endurance by doing explosive activities for a certain period of time. As I said earlier, you can kill two birds with one stone; maintain your explosiveness, at the same time as increasing your muscular endurance.


I believe I have proved my point as to why I do not believe in doing anything slow and long distance.

Life: My Philosophy

One's life is nothing more than a timeline. I say timeline, but I don't mean the timeline on Facebook. Just want to clear that up first. The timeline of your life is a little more true. It's not something that you can fake or make look a certain way to leave an impression. Throughout your life, you have these periods of time that you venture through. You are born, you start school, you graduate from different levels of school, you're involved in sports, you go through puberty, you get your first job, you graduate from high school, you choose the college that you want to attend, you graduate from college, you start your career, you decide to start a family, etc ... all the way up until the day that you die. You are who you are.


As each period of time comes and goes, you open a door to a new period of your life, and close the door on another. The way I look at life, is that when I am opening a new door to my life, I don't want to be sitting there with any regrets of something that I did or did not do. I don't want to be saying to myself, "well, I wish I would have done things differently. I wish I would have taken available opportunities when they were there." Why do people think these things when they get ready to walk through a new door to their life? It's because they don't live. They don't live every day with a purpose. They don't attack what it is that they desire most. They see something they want, whether it be something physical or a dream, and they just sit back and hope that it comes to them. It is so easy to sit down on your ass, and watch your life flash before your eyes. Living an aggressive life takes effort. You cannot live your life expecting everything to just happen for you, because it will never happen. You have to live life aggressively and go get it. Go get what you desire most; attain your wildest dreams. Make it happen! Do not let it happen, but make it happen! In the end, your life is what you make of it. It doesn't matter how old you are either. It is never too late to start living the life that you want; the life that you desire most.


When I finish up my college throwing career, I don't want to look back and realize that I could have done more. I don't want to look back and see my life flash before my eyes. In fact, I won't let it happen. I have a mindset of making what I want, mine. Under no costs, will I let the things that I want most in my life slip out of my reach. The same holds true to any period of my life that I open. I don't want to open the door to starting a family, wishing I would have done more. Regretting that I didn't achieve what I wanted to achieve. Most importantly, I don't want to be in my death bed and wishing that I would have done things differently. Wishing that I would have went sky diving, bungee jumping or spending more time with my family, for example. You only have one life... why not make the most of it.


What's it going to be?