August’s Challenge – The Shot Put

After much deliberation, it is official… This month’s Half as Good challenge is the shot put.

This one, I think, is guaranteed to be an all round failure! I’m happy to be proved wrong, but I think that it takes years of fine training, and possibly a very special diet, to hurl a 7kg weight over 20m. It’s not really something that comes in useful in everyday life – in fact, I found this great article article on the web asking how useless is the Shot Put?

I contemplated buying a shot put (only £15 on eBay, but the postage adds on a bit more!), or making a shot put (cast from lead!) but I’ve had a much better idea.

Considering how difficult the challenge is this month, I’m going to make the distance fixed and the weight variable. Start with a tennis ball, move onto a cricket ball, progress to heavy stones, half a brick, and then maybe the metal weights. Here’s how it’s going to work:

The world records come from an era when (in Olympic throwing events) men were men, and women were too! The distances we’ll be using will be from the 2012 Olympics. They are 21.89m for the men, 20.70m for the women.

Take a piece of string, and measure out half the distance(10.95m for the men, 10.35m for women). Put a tag on each end of the string at the right distance, so you can see where to stand, and where the shot should land.

Go to a quiet bit of parkland, field, etc (not a sports stadium – see last post) with your light weight, throw the distance, then try again with something heavier. Weigh what you’ve thrown (take kitchen scales to the park!), and report in with your achievements!

The weight to work up to (good luck!) is 16lb for men (7.26kg) and 8.8lb for women (4kg).

One final thing – the shot must be ‘put’ not thrown… The shot must be placed against the neck and then not go lower than the shoulder during the throw. You can’t stand with your back to the field, and swing it from your knees over your head! Shame….! You don’t have to do a standing start – either a spin or a glide are fine, but don’t step past the start of the string!

Anyone who manages to get up to the full weight gets straight onto Team Half as Good, and gets major kudos! The best attempt in the men’s and women’s category also gets onto Team Half as Good…

Good luck – and watch out for small dogs!