Jade Lally Training Update April 5th

So my last update was a couple of months ago, since then quite a lot has changed!

I went on a self-funded 7 week training camp in Sydney from mid-January to early March. The purpose of the camp was to utilize the weather as much as possible to get a feel for the technical changes I had made indoors during the winter, and see what impact it had when put in a more favorable throwing environment. I also had the chance to enter 4 competitions with high level throwers, again, enabling me to test my technique and see how it holds up under added pressure. I was pleasantly surprised at just how well my technique not only held up, but became so ingrained! Throwing far with minimal effort is every throwers dream, and this is what I was managing there!

I worked with Denis Knowles who coaches Dani Samuels, 2009 World Champ and Christie Baker (nee Chamberlain), 2014 Commonwealth finalist. I cannot stress enough how much a good environment will complement your training! For me, to get out my comfort zone and challenge myself by training with stronger, faster athletes had proven invaluable.

I started that training camp with a PB of 60.76m (from 2011). I ended it with 65.10m

People have asked me repeatedly how I managed to do it and what changes did I make. Both my coach and I have spoken about this and we agree that it has been a number of things that have contributed, not just one major ‘discovery’. So…

• Strength.

Both my general strength and specific strength have gone up over the past 5 years quite dramatically. Snatch PB’s, Bench PB’s, overweight implements, overhead shot to name a few. I have also improved technically in these lifts and improved the efficiency of the movements, something my coach highly values- coordination under stress!

• Speed and Power 

Again, in both general terms (lifting) and more specific terms (throwing). This is something that has not obviously translated directly in to my throwing over the years. But is still something that has been developed since my last PB and I am noticeably better in both now. This is also now measureable with the help from the biomech team at Solent University in Southampton- this isn’t something we had ever had access to in the past.

• Consistency.

I had not thrown further than 60.76m in 5 years but I was still managing to throw 60m every year, and in harder conditions. One of which was the Commonwealth Final in 2014 (60.48m) where of course there is minimal help from the wind as it was stadium conditions.

In 2015, 7 weeks after my parathyroidectomy (which is basically the removal of a benign tumor in the chest), I threw 60.01m in France in a very high level competition which included World number 1 and 2015 World Champ, Denia Caballero, World number 3 Yaimi Perez and 2013 World Silver medalist Melina Robert-Michon. I also had my best average over a season- despite the operations.

• Health

I believe this one to be the biggest reason for my improvement. I was put on funding in November 2011 from my Governing Body. In November 2012 I was going through a divorce and needed a kidney stone removal operation.

In 2013 my divorce came through. In November 2014 I had a second kidney stone removal operation. In May 2015 I had a parathyroidectomy. In November 2015 I was taken off funding from the Governing Body. I believe these things had the biggest impact on my progression. The constant interruptions during the winter season affected my results for the summer. This year, I have trained uninterrupted since August 2015. The effects of that continual training has now had a chance to show itself.

• Technical changes.

Techniques evolve all the time and all athletes are looking to become stronger, faster, more powerful, become more technically efficient.

I am no different. Out technical points during the winter were mostly to do with the entry. Becoming more vertical with the upper body, wider sweeping right leg and increasing the how hard we ‘sweep’. The drawback of doing this indoors is we can’t tell what kind of impact it is actually having on the throw. Of course this changes when you get outside and start to see the flight of the disc and the distances you throw.

The next step for me is to go back to San Diego on 5th April for another warm weather training camp. This will be for 4/5weeks. Here I will compete probably around 4 times as the conditions are good and the level of competition is very high. Then I hope to compete in the Shanghai Diamond League then back to Europe to start the European circuit.