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| Understanding Ancient Athletics Events from Dan Gashaw | |||
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| Dan Gashaw participates in the Weight Toss for Height at the 12th Annual Highland Games, Springfield, Illinois, May 20, 2006. The weight Dan is throwing is 56 pounds. |
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| We're one of the few organizations that do all nine events. Most games that you'll go to in our area only do about five to seven events. But there's two stones, there's the Braemar [pronounced Bray-mar] stone and the open stone. The Braemar stone is anywhere from 22 to 26 pounds and it's a standing throw. You can't build up any momentum . There are some differences depending on location. I mean, the Portland stone is a 100-pound stone and you throw it as far as you can. The open stone is the most like shot-put. And then you have the weights for distance. You have the heavy weight, which is the 56 [pound] and you try to throw it as far as you can. And [you have] the lightweight which is 28 for us. For girls and masters it's totally different. Masters will throw a 42 instead of a 56. And the girls' heavyweight is a 28 and their light is 14. So it depends on what kind of division you are in. And the lightweights — the guys under 190 pounds — throw the 42 instead of the 56. Then, of course, there is the caber. [On specifications] It depends on what division you are in. You know, being an A, in a Super-A, we're going to throw some of the biggest cabers. But the girls' and the C division guys' cabers aren't going to be as big. Cabers are never the same. The biggest one I've thrown lengthwise has been 20 feet. But it only weighed 100 pounds so it was kind of easy to turn. I threw one caber at Fort Wayne last year that was seventeen feet long and 145 pounds. It was big! So cabers are different wherever you go. You may go to some game where you have a long caber but it's light, so it's easier to throw. So you get a lot of turns and it's a race to see who'll get the most perfect turns. Or you go to some places where you get a really big caber and not everybody's going to turn it. Like today — the only one who turned it was Kevin and he's a pro. The goal with the caber is to get it to turn, directly, straight in front of you. It's called the 12 o'clock. If you get it to turn but lands off to the side, it's counted differently. You can have one o'clock, 12 o'clock and so on. They designate different times for it. If you can't get it to turn, then you try to get it at the highest angle. The best is probably 89 degrees. I had one last year that went up, then went almost perpendicular, did a spin — I was on a slant — and it fell sideways. It didn't turn so they gave me an 89 degrees. Because if a caber goes 90, it'll pretty much has to fall over. And there's the sheaf toss, which is probably the oddest event, I'd have to say. People go, "Sheep?" No! Sheaf — S-H-E-A-F, sheaf toss. Not a sheep toss! Sheaf! But it's just weird. You put a weighted bag on a pitchfork and try to get it high over a bar. And that's another event that's not about strength. It's all about technique. And speed and timing. And then weight over bars is probably the easiest event for everyone to understand. You take — if you're an A or anything else — a 56-pound weight and try to throw it as high as you can over a bar. Masters will throw 42 and women throw a 28. And the hammers. With the hammers, a lot of people get confused because they think of the college hammer where you have to spin and it's on a wire. And it's not the same. It's just a lead ball on a stick. You can't really move your feet. That's why a lot of guys wear the blades on their shoe. It's to dig into the ground so they stay stable. And they just give it a couple of turns and throw it as far as they can. May 23, 2006 |
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