Shot Put “Westside” Style
Bringing the Conjugate System to the Throwing Ring
By Jeremy Herring
Disclaimer
I have employed the conjugate system of training with my throwers’
lifting program for four years with tremendous success. One highlight in
the weight room was taking a male thrower with a 385-lb squat freshman
year to a 615-lb squat/500-lb front squat as a junior. We also had a
thrower make a 60-lb PR in the hang clean after not attempting a single
training rep in that lift for six months.
This being said, I only toyed with the idea of bringing this system
out of the weight room and into the throwing ring my first three years
at Florida International University (FIU). However, last year was the
first year that I was able to make this transition, and our results far
out-produced all other more traditional shot put methods that I’ve used.
(My data, though, only measures the results of one annual plan following
the conjugate system of shot put training.)
Results
The data presented here is only a reflection of my throwers on the
women’s team. The mean average for my group’s top high school throws was
40’ 5”. The average of their top throws the year preceding
implementation of the conjugate system of training was 42’ 7.25”. This
low level of improvement caused me to ask many questions about what we
were doing different in the shot put because our discus results were
taking off. (I’m not including data from the hammer and
javelin because none of my throwers had any prior experience with these
events, which dictates a faster rate of development than the shot and
disc that they had been throwing in high school).
After thinking about why our training gains were disproportional in
the shot and disc, I realized that we were training these events exactly
the same way. My first thought was that it’s working in the discus so
why isn’t it working in the shot? I then came to the realization that
most of us know already—these events are different! While all throwing
events share basic elements, there are stark differences in the shot and
disc.
So with this being said, why would both events be trained using
identical training protocols (I’m not talking about drills or technique
but training protocol)? Anyhow, once I came to this obvious realization,
I decided that the conjugate system would be a perfect fit for my
group’s shot put training. I spent the off-season deciding how I would
go about setting up this type of training plan, and I implemented it in
mid-fall training (late October) after we had increased our levels of
preparedness through early fall training. After one season of utilizing
my version of the conjugate system for the shot put, the mean average of
my group went from 42’ 7.25” to 49’ 5” in one year.
Program design
We’ve always varied the weights of our implements in training from
6–12 lb training shots with the percentage of usage of underweight,
competition weight, and overweight shots dependant on the phase of the
season. However, currently, we utilize heavy implements (12-lb shot) on
our “maximum effort” day and light implements (6-lb shot) on our
“dynamic effort” day. We use
our competition weight (4 k) implement for competition only. Our shot
put training is only done
on these two days.
Maximum effort day
We start each maximum effort training session with an event specific
warm-up including part-to-whole dry drills without any implements. We do
several technical drills working on posture, rhythm, balance, footwork,
and timing, all within actual throwing segments on both dominate and
non-dominate sides of the body.
This warm-up takes about 15–20 minutes and prepares the body for the
throwing portion of the workout. Once the warm-up is complete, we are
ready to begin the max effort training for the day. We select one, and
only one, special exercise similar to a competitive effort throw. We
rotate using a different special exercise each week. We never take any
full competitive type throws on ME day. We do take 10–12 single efforts
and measure and record daily “bests” for each special exercise.
ME special exercises
Power position throw
Step back throw (2–3 steps)
Hop back throw (single-multiple hops)
Kneeling put
Dynamic effort day
This day is designed to incorporate all technical elements in a full
competition type throw. On this day, we use an underweight (6 lb) shot
exclusively. We haven’t measured results on this day because the main
focus is placed on the neurological response to high speed full
competition throws. We generally do 15 sets of two throws on our DE day.
I know that this style of training isn’t typical, but I wasn’t after
typical results. I wasn’t concerned with following the norm or afraid of
going against the grain. My only concern was that my throwers were
putting in quality work and reaping the benefits in the discus, hammer,
and javelin but seemed to be beating a dead horse in the shot put. I
felt it was my job to find a solution to our problem by any means necessary.
Because we’ve only followed this type of training for one year, there
isn’t any long term data. However, we’re constantly changing what we are
doing in search of a better way. All that I know is that in the short
time that I’ve been at FIU, we’ve had regional and national qualifiers
in every throwing event (except the shot) each year. Last year was the
first year that we utilized the conjugate system in the shot, and we had
our first two regional qualifiers. Train hard, train smart, and throw
far.
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