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Track and Field Training: Shot Put, Discus, and Jumping Techniques
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Mar 27, 2025
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0:00
Hey, we're going to talk about the strength standards today on the THP Strength Podcast
0:05
Enjoy. That actually looks perfect. Yeah. As you saw there, he's really athletic
0:11
He's also real athletic, and I'm really athletic. If you want to get athletic like us, go to THPstrength.com
0:18
Use code THP at checkout for 10% off your first month if you're weary
0:23
I love you. Thank you. We're very grateful for you. What's a strength standard
0:29
done well as i set up my isos i will tell you um basically it's how strong you need to be to do x y
0:37
or z activity which i actually purchased a book which i referenced the other day called transfer
0:42
training by bonder chuck bonder chuck and yeah he's good i like him he basically goes through
0:50
a chart which is so funny didn't someone say once they bought the book and they were like it's just
0:54
a bunch of charts yeah yeah the amazon review that was the amazon review it's like exactly there
1:00
are a bunch of charts that are very valuable so basically this guy went through found a bunch of
1:04
correlative correlational data for different track and field events but it's probably really relevant
1:09
to what we do because some of the events resemble the physical qualities that you need for two foot
1:14
jumping specifically and one foot jumping what would you say is the can you grab my bag actually
1:18
for two foot jumping and one foot jumping respectively what track and field event is
1:22
like the most correlates the more the most more which correlates the more what the more
1:28
words this is the infamous book and now i am going to go to which one all right so for two foot i
1:40
would say actually shot put standards believe it or not i've actually seen a lot of the time the
1:45
same things that make shot putters really really good are the same things that make two footers
1:49
really, really good outside of some slight differences. I think that they resemble each other
1:53
in terms of the physical capacities you need. Who was that one athlete that you used to train before
1:57
THP was a thing that was a shot-putter that was like, you went to school with him or something, he was able to elbow
2:00
doing a bunch of crazy dunks. Oh, you're talking about the discus thrower? Yeah. Sam? No, no, no. No, I thought he was a shot-put
2:05
There's a discus thrower. Oh, the discus. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was, Sam. I think he might have done both
2:11
I swear I saw both. We didn't coach him. We never trained him. You did. Oh, you helped him. Yeah, yeah. You were talking about the freak dude
2:17
Yeah, he actually wrote his training? I remember we, no, we did coach him. He was on THP for a while
2:21
Wait, you're talking about the kid that throws for Harvard now? I think so, yeah
2:25
I don't think we actually coached him. We did maybe a call for him about tendon health
2:30
We might have helped him with his tendon health. Yeah, I don't know if we actually coached him, but we consulted, I would say, for sure
2:35
But, yeah, he was a, he was a, he's a discus thrower. He was, actually, I think he competes for Rice now
2:42
I think he's, why did I forget his first name? It slipped in my mind. I think it's Sam. Yeah, there's also the other guy I went to high school
2:47
with um he's the olympic he's an olympic discus guy or jav i don't know he's shot his name's uh
2:53
sam mattis mattis sam mattis he's an olympian but we went to high school together so look up sam
3:00
welsh on instagram by the way yeah yeah i went to high school with him um we did track together
3:04
yeah but he was in the olympic dude he was a freak like he would literally just walk into the
3:08
gym no warm-up he's also like 6'5 and jacked he was like 17 like just you know who else has
3:13
a shot putter discus thrower level strength that jumps high? It's a cohort of people
3:21
Dunctors? NFL players. Oh. I was like. I thought that was a name
3:25
I thought you said cohort people. No, no, no. And I was like, cohort people? NFL players
3:28
All right, so I actually have the key performance indicators, KPIs, for discus throwers
3:36
Dick throwers. I said dickus. I didn't know about that. Yeah. So here we have the actual exercise
3:42
and it tells you how far they throw, and then it gives you a number of exercises. I don't know what the current world record is or the best throws
3:50
I should probably look that up first, but we should. Dick throwing gets some Olympics before dunking
3:57
Let's look up world record. And I think the implement is, I want to say it's a 1 kg disc
4:05
Oh, the slowest Wi-Fi ever, Isaiah. You have to connect to my amplifier, my Wi-Fi amplifier
4:10
That's right there. This is obnoxious. Can you look this up while I..
4:15
Let's hear it. What is the world record for discus throw? 74 meters 74 meters All right so that this one and I am assuming yeah that going to be the 1 kg disc So the thing that he sees correlates the best is going to be throwing the 1 kg disc throwing the 1 kg disc and throwing the 2 kg disc Those are the strongest correlates
4:39
and then it basically, it doesn't show you the R values for these, which is a measure of a
4:43
correlational data, but because we know that a significant difference in your squat, clean
4:50
or discus throwing ability causes or leads means there is a significant difference in your ability
4:55
to throw the regular disc we know these things are strongly related not only related but that
5:00
one actually causes a change in the other that said when you look at these metrics if we were to go
5:06
to let's say like 65 to 70 this is probably where guys in the olympic olympics are throwing right now
5:10
their snatch is 125 kilos isaiah what is that in kilos mind you these guys are fat not fat they're
5:17
big they're not fat i wish it was relative strength no multiple times that sorry by 2.2
5:23
275 275 power snatch that's crazy and they probably weigh like sam probably weighs
5:32
100 kilos probably two he probably weighs 240 so do 275 or 240
5:38
all right so it's about 1.4 1.15 probably something like that that'd be like me doing 210
5:45
Which makes sense. That's about your snatch. All right, so we get a clean, 160 kilos for clean
5:53
Let's say Sam weighs 225. 350. Divide that by 225. So 1.56
5:59
What's your 286? So you're actually better when it comes to clean
6:04
Dude, you should discus. And then you would be good at discus if you weighed 225
6:08
And I have long arms. Yeah. All right, do squat is 240
6:12
Squat is 240 kilos. 240. times 2.2. 5.28 divided by 2.20, 2.4 times body weight
6:21
What's yours? This is probably a half squat, though. 4.39. So what's your deep squat
6:27
For my all-time was 4.10. So that's probably similar. That's probably around there
6:32
If that's a half squat, you're definitely winning excess of that. Bench press, this one doesn't matter
6:36
but it's 190 kilos, which is ridiculous. What? That's like 4.40, bro
6:41
That's like 400 plus pounds. So you would, based on that alone, your max, you just dropped down to a 40
6:50
You just dropped to a 40-meter discus thrower. So if you want me to go discus, I should probably just eat a lot, bench a lot, and discus throw a lot
6:59
Yeah, exactly. You'd be really, really good. All right, so then their standing triple jump is 930 centimeters, which is, I can convert this one if you want
7:11
It is 2.54. So we do 930 divided by 2.54. Yeah, 930 meters divided by 12
7:19
That's 30.5 feet. That's pretty good, actually. 30 1⁄2 feet standing is – that's really good for standing triple jump
7:25
And then vertical jump. This is in meters, and this is standing
7:29
This is the one you guys were all waiting for. 0.85 – or I'll do 85 divided by 2.54
7:36
33. Oh, 33, 34 inches. That's actually kind of whack. So that's probably not as much of a correlate
7:41
and then shot throw backwards. That's crazy. That's around where mine is, though. Yeah, I guess
7:47
Their 30-meter sprint is so fast, though. A 30 and 4-0, that's like as fast as you
7:52
but you have to bench press 400 pounds. And be 220. And be 220
7:58
That's crazy. Experiment time. All right, so let's talk about what the strength standards
8:03
Like, if I were to go through this, maybe we – let's look at high jumpers, actually, because this would be a really �
8:08
oh, you want to look at shot putters first or no? Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, so snatch. 130 kilos, which is around the same
8:16
Joe probably weigh – Joe Kovacs and they probably weigh 250 plus
8:22
You look up world record – Look up Joe Kovacs' weight. That's – Varshinikov
8:31
Look up weight. Just look up heavy weight, body weight. I'm curious to see what this is
8:36
World record holder. This is like Jamie. Jamie, look that up. Ryan Krauser is actually the guy
8:42
I would look up Ryan Krauser body weight Ryan Krauser body weight
8:49
because this will be insightful it should say 320 that a big boy I seen him in person throw you know that several times yeah yeah he a beast he is huge all right so he the world record right now it
9:06
like 21 22 so snatch 130 kilos times 2.2 that is 286 but 286 he put his numbers in here
9:15
352 is so yeah yeah that makes wait wait he said 352 for power snatch 160 kilos what bro that's
9:24
what your clean is supposed to be his snatch is the metric for clean you guys are ignoring that
9:29
his squat is well that's definitely wait no that's that that falls in line with it snatch
9:33
130 bro he cleans 30 kilos over the what is the best yeah no and his squat is 725
9:42
260 times 2.2. 572, so 720. He's 200 pounds over that, 100 kilos higher than that
9:50
Bench press 220. What's his bench, though? His bench is 550. 550, 220
9:56
Yeah, that's close. That's why he's the world record holder. But what is his vertical
10:01
Does he have any other metrics? Does he have broad jump or anything? No, I think those are the only three
10:06
Whose podcast was this? Oh, that's USATF. Wow, that's crazy. Did you know Ryan Krauser, like, seemingly at least
10:12
I don't think he really even gave a shit about the event. Yeah, he's just like, yeah, I just kind of do it
10:16
I don't even really like it. It's crazy. Yeah, shot putters are insane
10:22
Yeah, they're – oh, no, I say it all the time. People don't realize how freakishly strong shot putters are
10:26
They're disgusting freak athletes. All right, so now let's go to high jumpers because I think this will be
10:30
insightful to see. Triple jumpers are more insane. All right, so on the men's side, we have a 30-meter sprint block start, all right
10:38
And if you want to jump 230, which is, like, really high, you need to – let's go two meters is, like, I should be able to jump based on these metrics
10:47
This will be interesting. So I know my best 30 meters time from the blocks with reaction – well, it was from a three-point stance, but that's close enough
10:55
I have done 405, so that puts me in the 220 to 210 range, which I don't jump
11:03
Mind you, I've barely cleared two meters maybe once. I'm like in this middle column here. 60 meter block time. I've also done that. I've done 705
11:12
to 710. 100 meter time. I'm also around 11 seconds. I think I maybe just, just underneath
11:19
that snatch 75 kilos. What's 75 times 2.2. I've definitely done that. Yeah, easily. I've done that
11:26
I've done 200 half squat, half squat, 150 to one time. What's a, so that is full squat. Cause he
11:34
said half squat yeah 330 i've definitely done that i've full squatted 330 broad jump 30 that's
11:42
far that's like 10 feet do uh do three time uh times 2.5 300 times 2.54
11:50
divided by 12 but that's not right wait so three meters wait 300 centimeters times
12:01
or divided by 2.54, divided by 12. Yeah, I've done that actually in broad jump
12:08
Triple jump, standing triple jump. That's not 9.84 feet, by the way. Yeah, I've done about 10 feet in standing broad jump
12:14
Standing vertical, standing vertical is 90 centimeters. What is that? That's like, again, 30-some inches
12:19
I've done that. Standing triple jump. Probably like 36. Standing triple jump might be the only one that I don't have for the 220 guys
12:27
I wonder about how good I'd be at that. I don't know. We don't have to wonder. We could figure it out
12:31
I'm okay. He screamed at that. 366 divided by 12. So, again, 30 feet
12:41
I've done also that. That's kind of crazy. So, I've hit almost every single one of these metrics, but I do not jump 220
12:48
Not even close. Well, 210 is the bottom range. Okay. I don't even jump 210
12:53
I don't jump 220. I'm on the upper end of all of these, and I don't hit
12:56
I have never hit any of those. Is that 210? 210 would be just under 7 feet
13:02
Just like right about 7. 220 would be like 7'3". Well, actually, another factor is body weight
13:07
Which they don't have here. Because what does a 220 high jumper look like and weigh
13:12
Well, Jordan Wessner weighs over 200 pounds. He's also a big mother
13:16
Yeah. He's 6'2". Oh, really? 6'3", yeah, maybe. He looks like he like 4 But he an outlier though in terms of All of them are He would suck at all of these he wouldn make any of these metrics weird yeah so the book don pay attention to strength no i
13:30
mean the the thing is you're looking at a bunch of okay to that point actually now that we have done
13:36
this what what does any of that mean because we've now gone through we've looked at my numbers we
13:40
looked at isaiah's numbers austin's we don't really know but he's probably similar to mine and we know that my vertical is like 40 41 austin's is 45 isaiah's is 50 and we know that we're all
13:50
kind of jumping high but we're doing it very different ways and i realized this early on
13:55
because i became so obsessed with these standards and trying to hit these standards you can see i
13:59
hit most of those standards however i'm not a 220 high jumper i'm not a 210 high jumper i struggled
14:04
to jump two meters in high jump and even when my body weight was 173 and i was still hitting close
14:11
to those numbers, I still was not, like in college, when I jumped 6'6 in college, I was higher than all
14:19
of those numbers, and I'm not jumping seven feet, and I weighed 175, so probably 185, 184
14:31
I don't know what I am today, we'll see when I get to the gym, so yeah, I think it's all to say
14:36
that these are general goals. They're not things that, it doesn't mean if you do this, you will do
14:44
this. It is not an if-then statement. It's saying there are correlations when we look at all of
14:49
these athletes and we look at their numbers, generally speaking, these are the correlations
14:53
that we see. These are the metrics that we see for these athletes. It doesn't mean that you will
14:58
do whatever thing, X, Y, or Z outcome, but if you get to those strength standards, there's a chance
15:04
that you will. There's more of a likelihood that you'll be able to do those things. It doesn't mean
15:09
you will. It just means your likelihood or your chances of doing that thing go up. And the reason
15:14
for that is that squat is not high jump. Squat is not shot put. Squat is not discus. They are
15:21
different things, right? And that might sound kind of obvious, but that's why correlational data is
15:27
just relationships. It's not the same thing. The more specific you get, the more the activity mimics
15:33
the thing that you want to do, the higher it's going to transfer to your sport. That's why the
15:38
book's called Transfer of Training. And there is other charts in there that show the relationships
15:42
between those numbers. Again, it's not perfect. We saw Ryan Krauser did 725. Is that what it was
15:47
in a squat? Which is insane. That's madness, especially at his height. So strength standards
15:52
do they matter? Yes or no? I think they're correlated. Strength standards, do they matter
15:59
Yes or no? I think they're correlated, but there's obviously going to be a lot of outliers too. I think
16:02
Like, my outlook on it is there's correlation, but you shouldn't become obsessed with training
16:09
I think you should continue to try to become stronger. You shouldn't be obsessed with hitting the standard
16:14
But don't number chase. Yeah, yeah. You're goal oriented. You need to be process oriented
16:20
I agree. And I think what you can fall into, the trap you can fall into is, oh, I'm just going to do a whole cycle focusing on getting my cleanup
16:27
or train for six months and just go become an Olympic weightlifter to hit whatever metric
16:31
and then I'll go work on sprints and then I'll go work on this and then I'll go work on that
16:35
The problem with that is that you detrain one quality while you're working on another and it just doesn't really work
16:40
That's already been factored into the training whenever I write it. I know that those are things you should be good at if you want to jump higher, run faster, be more athletic
16:48
But just because it says whatever standard doesn't mean you can go chase that thing, you know
16:55
in light of all the other things that you have to do or, you know
16:59
at the expense of doing other things and expect to be a certain athlete
17:03
expect to be Isaiah or me or Austin. Your individual capacities or capabilities are going to be determined by your genetics
17:10
It's going to be your training compliance, your sleep, all of those variables
17:14
your body weight, your height. We talked about some of those things. All those variables play a role
17:17
So if you're 6'5 and you squat 725, that's different than Austin squatting 725 at 180 pounds, right
17:25
I can't even imagine that. I think my spine might break. I'm on 60, so that would be even crazier
17:30
Yeah, it's wild. So, yeah, do strength standards matter? Yes, as a goal and something to shoot for, for sure
17:38
But at the end of the day, just train to be the best athlete you can be and be the most freakish you can be in all of those things
17:44
and you're probably going to get closer to your goal than you ever thought possible. All right, get a teach-me strength if you want to jump higher and be a better athlete
17:50
Thanks for watching, guys. We will see you tomorrow
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