Throwing the hammer and putting the shot are the only two weight events now practised by college and school athletes, although many of the athletic clubs still retain the putting of the 56-lb. weight on their cards. The last-named, however, is merely a sort of exaggeration of the second, and only practicable for very large and very strong men. The welfare of amateur sport will never suffer if the art of throwing the weight should be entirely lost, for there is nothing particularly interesting in the practice, and success in it is more largely due to beef than to skill. With the other two events it is different. Strength, of course, is a prime requisite, but to attain perfection in either of them the performer must combine skill with muscular power.
The inter-collegiate rules which govern the throwing of the hammer require that the hammer-head shall be a metal sphere; and the handle may be of any material. Up to within three or four years the handle used to be made of hard wood, but recently athletes have shown a preference for a flexible steel handle. The combined length of the head and handle must not exceed four feet, and the combined weight must be sixteen pounds. The hammer is thrown from a circle seven feet in diameter. In making an attempt a competitor may assume any position he pleases, but he must not step outside of this circle. In a contest each competitor is allowed three throws, and the best three men in the first trial are allowed three more throws. The measurement of a throw is made from the nearest edge of the first mark made by the head of the hammer to the point of the circumference of the circle nearest this mark. There are three kinds of fouls in hammer-throwing, which are not measured, but which count against the competitor as throws. They are: letting go of the hammer in an attempt; touching the ground outside the circle with any portion of the body while the hammer is in hand; or touching the ground forward of the front half of the circle with any portion of the body before the throw is measured.
The pictures on the opposite page are reproductions of instantaneous photographs, taken especially for Harper's Round Table, of Mr. W. O. Hickok, the Yale and Inter-collegiate champion. Mr. Hickok learned to throw the hammer when he was at St. Paul's School, Concord, and held the championship there while he was in school. He used to practise twice a day, half an hour each time, until he became a thorough master of the instrument. His experience taught him that it was necessary to assume the easiest possible position when at work with the hammer, so as to give the muscles the fullest play. When the hammer is thrown around the head it should be kept as far as possible from the body; the arms should not be bent nor the muscles tightened, and the shoulders should be allowed to move as easily as possible. Perhaps it will be easier to explain the method by following the illustrations in their numerical order.
First, the athlete steps into the ring holding the hammer, the head resting on the ground outside the circle. He secures a firm grasp on the handle, leaning over so as to keep the head as far away from his body as possible. The second picture shows the hammer just as it is being lifted from the ground to be whirled around the head. It is plain to see that the arms are holding the instrument as far from the body as possible. As the heavy ball gains in velocity, it stretches out so that the arms and the handle form a straight horizontal line from the shoulders. The fourth and fifth pictures demonstrate the attitude of the performer at various stages of the first two whirls of the hammer. The motion at the start is slow, and becomes gradually faster and faster, so that the top speed shall be reached just about as the athlete is ready to turn.
It is the usual custom to throw the hammer three times around the head before turning. The sixth picture shows this turn. When this act is performed the hammer should be kept well behind, and the thrower should try to move his feet around as fast as he can, and never under any consideration should he allow the hammer to get ahead of the motion of his body; he must keep it following on behind, or else the hammer will throw him, instead of his throwing the hammer. The reason given for jumping around on the last turn is that a man, when proficient in this trick, can gain about twenty-five feet on his throw. It is the Irish method of throwing a hammer, and has been in use over there for several hundred years. The Scottish way of throwing, still in use in Scotland, is to stand still. This used to be the method in vogue in this country, but within the last ten years the A. A. U. adopted the Irish method, and two years ago the Inter-collegiate Association followed suit. A man who has become accustomed to throw from a standstill has some trouble in getting accustomed to the turn, but as soon as he has caught the knack of the twist he will greatly prefer it over the old method.
The seventh picture shows the moment just previous to the final heave when the hammer is to be let go. This should not be done with a jerk, but the stick should be allowed to slip from the hands at the proper moment, otherwise any jerking will destroy the momentum obtained. The last picture shows the attitude of the thrower after the hammer has left his hands, the weight of his body being thrown backward so as to prevent him from stepping out of the circle.