1. The Runup

• “Run with your feet out ahead of you” – This helps avoid forward lean and fosters the idea of an active landing ahead of the center of gravity.
• “Look out the bottom of your face” or “Look down your nose” during the run up. This makes #1 easier, and makes for less big adjustments in body angle at the last moments.
• “Make a “C” not a “J” on the final crossover – Again, this helps the thrower stay back coming into the throw.
• “Run with an obvious rhythm” – This helps the athlete gain a sense of timing.
• Compare to the rhythm of running up to kick a ball.
• “More hang time on the final crossover” – This helps the previous cue.
• “Run into the throw like you’re sliding into second base” – Useful for those with baseball experience. Gives the idea of running leaning back, not forward.
• “Run off of the left foot like a long jump takeoff”- Gives a feeling of really running into the throw. Unfortunately, many throwers have too little experience in the other events.

2. The Right Foot Landing

• “Land running, “Land like you’re landing off a hurdle” – These give the idea of running into the throw, not stopping.
• “Drive onto the left foot” – This can be misunderstood, but is supposed to mean add to the momentum that’s coming onto the left foot from the run. The thrower must do this motion without stopping to do it, that is, smoothly add the drive while on the run. The left foot plant feeling is that of trying to shift a square of carpet across a floor by having the left foot land onto it moving forward instead on downward.
• “Run away from the hand” – Some throwers can use this, some can’t. It is supposed to give the idea of getting a big distance from the foot to the hand.
• “Arch the back, shoulder blades together, big breath”- Sets up for good torso mechanics by eliminating slack from the throwing hand to the hips.

3. The Throw

• “Drive the stomach onto the left foot” – Tries to tell that the throw is from the body, not the arm.
• “Catch the throw early” – Very important. “Catch” means have the slack in the arm/shoulder/torso/hip chain all taken up early, so the entire system can be dragged and the separation deepened early in the throw. This helps avoid the feeling of no pull on the javelin, then a huge jolt just before release. That is the feeling for throwing lighter, rounder things like rocks and baseballs.
• Heavy, linear objects like javelins need to be pulled with increasing force into a very deep back arch (separation) to put the shoulder at the best advantage for the arm part of the throw. The feeling is that the throw has a much bigger early part than baseball or rock throws. Another phrase is “Build pressure into the throw” – similar idea.

4. The Flight

• “Throw it so it flies flat” – Big problem for most beginners.
• “Keep the point down” or “Keep the tail up” – Both aimed at the same thing.
• “Start with the point by your cheek” – This can be a challenge.
• “Make it so it flies out low, then lands on it’s point.” – Hopefully self-explanatory.
• “Throw it so it looks like a dot in the sky” – This helps avoid stalling flights.

Developing the runup in the javelin can be a struggle. Done well, the runup can add up to 80 feet to a throw. Done poorly, a full run can subtract distance from a 3 or 5 step approach. Many coaches and athletes deal with it by throwing from a short run most of the time then hoping it solves itself when the season arrives. Sometimes it does, usually it doesn’t.

We can think of the javelin runup as being an amped-up version of the runup used to kick a ball for distance. Both runs accelerate, both require a predictable number of steps so as to arrive at the ball or scratch line without overstepping, both have a rhythm with a final leap into the plant, both add power to the kick or throw, and both result in a follow-through. This comparison is useful because most athletes and coaches have enough experience with kicking to get the idea. Few have seen many good javelin runups, and even fewer have done it themselves.

Many styles exist for making the run effective. To allow for this, a system for developing the run should include “athlete determined” aspects of the run, such as the number of steps, rhythm pattern, and overall length of the run. As with the ball kick, the javelin run needs to be automatic enough to allow the athlete to hold the sense of the throw in mind during the runup rather than, for example, watching for the scratch line. The athlete must have confidence that the run will truly contribute to the throw or bad things can happen at meets.

Here’s how to start:

1. Select an unmarked grass field. In the beginning, extra steps are necessary and a grass field eliminates scratch line apprehension and worries about distance. Make sure the spikes are long enough. After a good warm up and stretch, have the athlete stand with the javelin already withdrawn and mark the spot.
2. Have the athlete run up and throw. The runup should be a build-up like that of a ball kick or long jump. They’ll usually ease into something like a final crossover. If necessary, acquaint them with the basics – upper body sideways for a few steps, with the lower body working to a final crossover and plant. DO NOT throw hard!! Mark the spot where they come to a stop after the throw. This is their temporary scratch line. Also mark the landing point of the javelin. This is not to later measure the best throw but to provide feedback about how effective the runups are relative to each other. Move the mark to the farthest throw of the day. It can be exciting for an athlete to experience easy throws going farther than hard ones. If possible, set it up so that there is no objective knowledge of the distance so experimentation is easier.

It is worth repeating that the runup should power the throw; the idea is to get throws that increase in distance because of increasing the speed of the runup, as the athlete continues to report very little throwing effort. A quality flight is also important, as is the plant. Those are big topics in themselves but sometimes they happen naturally if the runup is in order.

Briefly, the javelin should fly at about 30 – 35 degrees and the plant needs to hit heel first with the leg at about a 50 degree angle. A slight knee bend is OK, a major bend is not. Post up and over the plant into the follow-through.

The path of the throwing arm is much discussed but is almost completely a function of the runup. Most arm problems, in both mechanical-efficiency and injury areas, can be traced to the runup.

1. Repeat 2 as many times as it takes for the athlete to become consistent with the number of steps taken. Keep the start point the same but move the scratch line as necessary. The javelin landing point mark should be moved each time as well. This helps the athlete gain a sense of what’s working and what isn’t. The throws should be very light with the emphasis on smoothness, continuity of the run into the throw, and ease of throwing effort.
2. Once the steps are consistent, the coach needs to count them, noting how many crossovers have been chosen. Most throwing coaches don’t have much experience counting steps and so don’t value this element of coaching, but it’s critical. The javelin is a runway event first and a throw second. You can be sure that in the other runway events very careful attention to step counting is basic.
3. The next throwing session picks up where the last one left off. It is a big mistake to allow random runups to the scratch line, guessing at the start point and blowing over the line by 10 feet. Still on the unmarked field, the athlete needs to establish the “rhythm of the day” (hopefully not too different from the previous session, but it can vary widely in the beginning), establish a start point and stick to it, and repeat Step 3, striving for consistency while keeping a smooth, building runup.
4. After perhaps 5 sessions of starting with the javelin already withdrawn and some consistency has been reliably established with the number of steps to the throw, try establishing an initial start point about 20 – 25 feet back from the original start point. The athlete should now begin the run facing forward, throwing hand roughly by the head and javelin flat, to see if a drawback at the old start point can be established. This may require several sessions to reestablish the steps. Now that there is speed into what was a static start point, the scratch line will probably have to be moved, perhaps up to 10 feet further down the field.
5. Other elements to vary are speed and rhythm. Speed changes need to be very incremental – if the changes are too large, it’s too hard to sort out what’s going on. Add speed until the control suffers; back off in tiny amounts until control returns. Then add speed in small amounts again until control is a struggle, then back off again. Repeating this process helps the athlete learn how the runup speed influences the throw. Rhythm changes can occur spontaneously. This spring I had an athlete say that he felt like he needed to add a small, quick step before going into his final crossover. He was able to test it effectively because his steps were consistent. It worked for him by giving him a better sense of the timing of the throw. A coach can suggest a change such as this but knowing what’s going to work is trial and mostly error.
6. Don’t forget the follow-through! As the runup speed improves, the follow-through should lengthen. Allow this; in fact, if the follow-through is short after a long, fast run, it’s a sign of slowing down during the throw. The throw takes place during a RUN, not during a STOP. The follow-through can be two or even three steps long.
7. Practice, practice, practice. In maybe 10 to 15 sessions, the athlete should begin to establish a decent runup that can be tinkered with without having to start over. As throwers improve, their stride length will increase so the same number of steps doesn’t fit on the runway. Just move the check points back. I’ve seen throwers be uncertain about moving their steps back as much as two javelin lengths in a meet when they’re psyched and blowing over the line. Move the start point back three lengths if necessary.

To back up this development, javelin throwers need to R-U-N. I try to get my athletes to build up to 5 – 10x 60m of crossovers with the javelin. They need 10m to get going,15m to have a few bad ones, another 15m to figure it out (or I yell at them what to fix), then maybe 20m to have a good series before tiring. They need to learn to run FAST with floating steps while holding the javelin BACK and STEADY. It’s harder than most coaches and athletes realize, but it does respond well to actually practicing it. Add a backward lean and it really is a special skill. All the top javelin throwers make it look easy, which it is if you practice but not if you don’t.

The running crossovers also go a long way to strengthening the adductor (groin) muscles which are easily strained in javelin throwers. Additional specific strength is gained in holding the arms up and becoming stronger running with a torso twist. These are strengths vital to a comfortable runup that don’t come from the weight room.

A few other ideas:

1.Hurdling. Set up four intermediate height (or lower if needed) hurdles down the backstretch. Have the thrower run over them, counting their steps. Maybe they’ll take 15 if they are runners, maybe they’ll take 21 if they aren’t. No matter – it’s great for conditioning and to learn how to count steps. The leap over the hurdle is like a crossover in the effort made to spring off the ground, and landing running is like the landing after the crossover – the athlete must keep moving into the throw. Javelin throwers should learn to hurdle alternating the lead leg; this creates a skilled, flexible, dynamic lower body so often lacking in javelin throwers. Make it easy at first!

2. Skipping. In Finland, children (most of whom are already familiar with skipping) are taught the runup by skipping with the javelin and trying to put the skip into the throw. Like a crow hop in baseball, but with more momentum, skipping into the throw is an easy way for beginners to feel how to put a hop (the precursor to the crossover) into the throw. It is essential that any throw include a follow-through. Again, the kick analogy shows up. The final leap the kicker makes into the kick is like the skip or crossover into the throw, and a good long kick always has a natural follow-through.

Start with continuous sideways skipping holding the javelin in a drawn back position. Use the non-throwing arm to help balance and amplify the skip. It may take a few practices to get control of the point while skipping. Make sure it is done while leaning back along the shaft of the javelin. Then add a short toss as the athlete is landing from a skip. Make sure that the throw is virtually no effort and that the javelin flies through the point. After that is consistent (30+ good flights), the thrower can move to running into the skip with an easy toss. The run can be facing forward, crossovers, or in between – it’s the skip and timing of the throw that counts.

3. Exaggerating the rhythm. Add moments of hang time, quick bursts of legwork, and anything you can think of to get the athlete to add rhythm to the throw. The best runups have noticeable breaks in the continuity of the run worked into an overall smoothness.

4. Don’t forget the left arm! (Or right arm for you lefties) By being active, the non-throwing arm can really help to balance and smooth things out.

5. The javelin starts flying as soon as the thrower starts down the runway. Each step of the runup needs to contribute to the smooth flight of the javelin. When this is done well, throwers report that all they did was run up and let it go. It’s usually the farthest throw of the day.

By training the runup the way the other runway events do, that is, by having consistent start, check and finish points, the javelin thrower can add huge distance and improve consistency. When a thrower is confident that they won’t run out of room at the line, they can attack the throw, follow through, and then wait for the big number to come up on the board.

The old time method was to drag a 50′ garden hose, and as you got better, add sand to the hose. It was stable, not too heavy, and the dragging length acted as a bit of a guide. Tom Petranoff did many many many of these, 5 x 50m-100m. Be sure to hold the arm high and don’t lean forward. Reach with the feet in front.

Others have used an overturned frisbee with a hole punched in the rim for a 20′-30′ rope, and weights (5-25 lbs) are duct-taped to the frisbee. Not as stable/guiding as the hose but ok.

The surface available obviously makes a big difference. You’ll want enough friction/resistance to hold your arm back but not so much that it forces you to lean forward.

Holding the arm up is a big deal – the rope/hose tends to drag it down.

Most track surfaces are highly abrasive and even frisbees will wear out quickly. The hose is the first choice.

Some coaches will run along with the athlete, holding a rope or bungee cord at the correct angle and providing just the right resistance. This also allows the coach to make form suggestions as they run along. Added benefit – the coach gets in shape!

This is best done after a throwing workout or on a day for drills only. If the thrower is new to dragging, it should be done as a warmup for a throwing session – but only 2 or 3x 50m.

A lot of progress in both speed and load can be attained with this drill, but it takes time. For college training, it should be part of the Fall workouts, 3x week, starting with just a few but working up to 5 x 80m by December. Once this capacity has been established, a maintenance program for the rest of the year will do. Twice a week, 4 x 60 – 80m is usually not too hard but keeps up the skill and training.

High school throwers have less time. Twice a week, 3 x 50m is about all that can be expected. It’s still enough to make a difference.