At 8:25 a.m. on the Friday of Spring Break is when most students have their faces buried in their pillows enjoying the last day before school starts again.
However, for Palomar freshman De’ondra Young and Sophomore Simone Everet, this is when they begin their warm up for practice.
What practice requires this much dedication? You might ask. The practice of a Palomar track and field athlete; a thrower to be exact. Young and Everet, Palomar’s throwing duo, show up to throwing practice early to get their warm up laps and dynamic stretching in.
Everet, who has thrown for 12 years, and Young, for 7 years, know exactly how much dedication goes into being a thrower but many outside of the sport have no idea, if they even know much about throwing at all.
The throwing events in track and field encompass the shot put, discus, hammer throw, and javelin; all of which take meticulous efforts and full body training to be executed. The thrower needs tremendous strength, an air of caution, grace and quickness to be successful. This makes the throwing events collectively unique.
When 9 a.m. rolled around, Young and Everet were at the throwing ring ready to get going. According to Palomar’s throw coach, Whitney DeWeese, the girls practice two throwing events every practice.
She said that all the throwing events are quite taxing on the body, so to practice more than one can be quite tiring. Young and Everet both practice the shot put, discus and hammer throw, which for team scoring is a huge advantage.
Sharing the throwing ring, Young and Everet took turns practicing discus technique. Taking anywhere from 20 to 30 throws, the goal is to really focus on improving their leg strength and footwork technique.
“People think throwing is all muscle and that any one can do it, throwing is actually really technical,” Young said. Contrary to popular belief, throwers put in a lot of work.
Palomar’s throwers run, lift and eat well because as Everet put it, “It takes your entire body to get throwing right.”
Around 10:30 a.m., they head over to the shot put ring. The goal for this part of practice is similar to that of the discus – work on using the legs and improve footwork. After re-warming up their arms for a smooth transition from discus to shot put they begin to cycle through the rest of practice. Throwing high and far while putting every ounce of effort into each throw.
By 11:15 a.m., it was clear to see just how much effort had gone into practice. Practice ended with some stretching and friendly repertoire between the group. Before leaving however, Everet and Young wanted to make sure people knew that throwers are nothing like the common misconceptions people have of them.
DeWeese said, “Throwers are a different breed of athletes.” They bring a calm nature and hard work ethic to the sport that many people overlook, she added.
Throwers matter as much as any other track-lete and as Young said, “are some of the nicest people you will ever meet.”
Image Sources
- De’ondra Young, Simone Everet, Track & Field 2015: Amber Rosario/The Telescope | All Rights Reserved