How do we develop javelin throwers?

[underpants]

I don’t know of any high schools that have javelin throwers. Obvious safety concerns.

Garth Brooks was a scholarship javelin thrower at Oklahoma State.

Are there some high schools that have javelin as a part of track & field?
Is this a club thing?

[tonyt53]

1. Just watch "Revenge of the Nerds". I couldn't resist.

[Bob Loblaw]

3. None of us will truly be free

until nerd persecution has ended

[SeattleVet]

2. ...as opposed to the ever-decreasing pool of javelin catchers?

[Bleacher Creature]

4. Washed out quarterbacks? NT

[underpants]

11. It could actually be something like that

I know that a lot of divers are gymnast who grew too big or just weren't quite at the elite level. I know a gymnast instructor (very high end) who had a student get a full ride at a major university for diving. She'd never been on a diving team but since she was very good at gymnastics they figured they could train her to dive.

[pangaia]

5. If the women's 4x400 is being run at the same time,

NOBODY is going to be watching the javelin tossers.

[Onyrleft]

6. The only way to stop a bad guy with a javelin.....

[Brother Buzz]

7. I believe Oliver Harmon Jones learned in college

Oliver Harmon "Spearchucker" Jones went to college for football, but he did track in the spring to keep in shape. College agreed with him and he stuck around to earn his doctors degree......then like a lot of us back in the day, he got drafted.

[bluedigger]

8. We still had them in the 70's.

As we were running 220 conditioning sprints and walking back across the football field our coach would constantly implore us, "Be cognizant of the javelin throwers".

[ProfessorGAC]

9. We Didn't

No hammer throw either. Both for safety reasons. Those were the only events the IL track teams didn't have at all, as i recall.

I suppose we didn't have every distance race we'd see at the World's or Olympics, but half, one and two mile. So, we would have lacked the 3 mile and 6 mile races that the 5k and 10k would represent.

There was 100, 220, 440, high and intermediate hurdles, although the intermediate hurdles was only a 220 not a 440 back then. And long and high jump, pole vault, discus and shot. But i never saw a javelin until i got to college.

[bluedigger]

10. I don't think we had the hammer throw.

I had some success with the discuss in practice, but as a half miler my event was third to last in the track competition, and I couldn't mess around with field events in meets. Broke a hurdle and a high jump bar in my fabulous career, though. So I got that going for me.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. My Cousin. . .

. . .who grew up with me when his parents died threw discuss for the super track team in the area. They were DOMINANT in the field events. They had the only guy i ever lost to in long jump more than once and that guy beat me every time. I'd do 22'5", he'd do 22'7". I'd do 22'8", he'd do 22'9.5".

They had the sprinters too! Great track team every year.

Another nearby HS had the great distance team. CC and long events in track. My sophomore year, they had the #1 and #6 high school milers in the country. Pretty much in the half, one and two mile, you just chalked them up for the 9 points and figure out if you could make up that lead somehow.

[underpants]

12. We had pole vaulting too

I was going to do it then I found out how much running was involved and decided to get a job bagging groceries.

I've run for a long time but that was in immense amount of running including wind sprints which is NOT my game.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Funny Pole Vault Story

So, my buddy on the track team (a year older, but he went to the same grade school and his sister and i were pals) was an excellent high school pole vaulter.

I was doing high jump and long jump. In my junior year, i was high jumping about 6'5". (Which was pretty good for a kid 5'7".)

Anyway, we're at a meet during warmups and he tells me i should try pole vault. Now, i don't have the upper body strength he had. Not by a long shot! (He could do 300 pushups, and then go do pull ups with ease.)

I take a run and the pole hits the box, and i didn't even bend the pole enough to get off the ground. When he gets down laughing, he gives me a tip. So i try again.

I barely clear the bar, set at 8 feet, and hit my heels on it and knocked it over. I could jump over a bar 77 inches up with no help and couldn't do 84 inches with the stupid pole in my hands. I decided that was not my event!

[rsdsharp]

15. Our high school had pole vault.

In our junior year, at a home meet, someone accidentally unplugged the device that inflated the landing zone. It didn't deflate immediately and one of our vaulters landed on it and was badly hurt.

Next track meet they used whole roll of athletic tape to hold that plug in place.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Seems fairly simple to organise safely

All you have to do is use a field when others aren't using the target area.

Javelin and shot putt were the 2 throwing events our school did have everyone have a go at - because everyone can throw the object in the right direction - even if for some of us, our distances were truly pathetic. Discus and hammer are another matter, what with the spinning around. I don't think the hammer was done regularly at all; discus was just something they did with a few who seemed likely to be good at it.

[chelsea0011]

17. Javelin is very common up in Northeast. I threw it in high school.

Unless, I am showing my age and they are starting to back out of it as the years go on, but I still see it listed at year end championship meets.

[underpants]

18. Really? I didn't know that

Thanks.