Spikes23 Apr 2014


YouTube yourself better

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Andreas Thorkildsen

It's not just Kenya's Julius Yego who likes watching other javelin throwers on YouTube. Double Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen talks SPIKES through his online viewing habits.

"I'll often spend a couple of hours watching throwers on YouTube. It would depend on what I was looking for as to which athletes I would choose to watch.

"If I want to watch an athlete with a great upper body or powerful legs I would look at different athletes. Steve Backley [four-time European champion] is great for upper body, Jan Zelezny [three-time Olympic champion and world record holder] great for legs, as is Tero [Pitkamaki, 2013 world silver medallist and 2007 world champion].

"What I try to do is piece it together and try to make it my own."

 

 

"For rhythm, the legs and speed of delivery Zelezny has by far been the best. The best upper body there has been in javelin is Backley: he just connected with his javelin. It was something else.

"Probably a combination of these two guys would make the perfect javelin thrower. So to replicate what Jan did with Backley's height would get an even better result.

"Having said that, everyone has got to do what they have to do in javelin. It is so difficult because there is not one mould to fit every athlete. The same model does not fit the thrower who is 1.80m compared to the thrower who is 1.95m because the taller thrower is not going to be as fast or co-ordinated.

"Really, you have to see your own possibilities and limits and work on those."

 

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