A couple weeks ago I left TrackTown USA to train with some of the best throwers in the world in Germany. The German throwers have been medaling at major championships for decades now and my coach and I thought it would be great to see what was in the water in Germany.

We planned a five week training camp in Offenburg, near the southwest boarder of Germany, where Christina Obergföll (2013 World Champion) trains under her coaches, Werner Daniels and Boris Henry (90m national record holder for Germany).

It’s a good time in the year to do a short training camp. I have a decent training base under me, but it’s still early and not close to outdoor season.

In my mind the Germans have this no bull, train hard mentality; they are technically perfect and strong. And honestly I have been here for a couple of weeks and my idea of Germans is still the same.

The facilities are polar opposite of the US training facilities I have ever seen. While America has an extreme focus on the sprints and distance running, it seems as if the Germans (at least in Offenburg) have put their focus on the javelin.

The indoor facility has a 140m straight stretch of six wide running lanes that finish into a six lane wide long jump pit. There is a giant net for discus/javelin/shot and a high jump apron for short approach jumps. This all doesn’t seem too special, but I left out the main attraction; the javelin runway crosses all six lanes and the foul line ends at a giant garage door that must be 4m wide and 6m tall. This ensures that the javelin throwers can throw indoors no matter what the weather conditions may be outside.

That’s not all…

There is a machine to throw javelin indoors at the training center here. They call it the KTG, which stands for something in German, but I can never remember. I would say it’s a one of a kind, but turns out there are two in the world; one in Offenburg and the other in Boris Henry’s home town in Germany as well. The machine is basically a giant metal beam set at an angle and there is a sled with a javelin handle attached to it. You can load the sled up with weight and throw it. It’s all engineered perfectly and is a thing of beauty to any javelin thrower.

I hope to post a video of the facilities here, maybe some of my training. It’s just hard/awkward to ask someone to film you just because you want documentation that Boris Henry coached you for a few weeks.

We throw here a lot. We just started using the KTG last week and we threw three times a week with it. We add more weight each set until we finish with 10k (22lbs) plus the weight of the sled. Sounds like a lot but the bearings are smooth and since it’s on an engineered track you are throwing through a perfect motion.

The KTG also has a speed measuring device that tells you in milliseconds how fast the sled moved through two predetermined points. So you try to throw as fast as you can and keep record of your best throw each round.

Coaching

Boris is pretty freaking awesome. You would think he would try and hide some of his secrets so that I don’t throw 90m and win any medals, but he’s super open about everything. Multiple times telling me he would tell me everything he has ever done.

Language barrier is a little bigger than I thought. While most Germans speak English it’s pretty bad. Boris used to live in America for years and trained all over the US but if you don’t use it you lose it. Good news is he is getting better each day and we are getting a better understanding of each other now.

Werner Daniels is overseeing all my jumps, sprints, as well as helping with javelin technique on throwing days. They all are a huge help to my training

Where I am staying

I am staying at a person’s house that had a bed for rent. It’s a super nice family with one 15 year old son living in the house as well. Their daughter moved out to Amsterdam to study abroad, so I am staying in her room.

It’s a really great living situation, much better than a hotel, because I am always getting human interaction, it’s a lot cheaper than a hotel, we are downtown and only 3k bike ride from the training center, and they are very generous and cook me food from time to time. I am going to cook them dinner once a week including dessert. I figured it’s only fair, and they need to experience American food too. A lot of food here isn’t the best. Seems as if their food is too dry, cooked too long, or doesn’t have enough spices or sugar. So cooking a big meal for the family is a big treat for me too!

#TrainBIG #KeepFighting