Complete mastery of the javelin is contingent on a thrower’s ability to find the perfect balance between power and finesse.
For Ryan Brandel, a 6-foot-2-inch, 219-pound former quarterback, the biggest challenge he faces every time he steps up to the runway with a javelin in his hand is the mastery of his own emotions.
“Throwing the javelin is a lot more technical than throwing a football or baseball,” said Brandel, who has retained the stocky, robust physique of his football days despite his retirement from the gridiron. “You can’t go out and try to muscle it. It’s kind of like a ‘controlled violence.’ I guess that’s the best way to describe it.
“You want to be calm and confident, but you need to unleash too.”
Brandel started javelin throwing as a junior in high school, when he was looking for an off-season activity that would help hone his football skills.
As a backup quarterback on the Rex Putnam High School football team, Brandel picked the javelin because he thought it might help improve his arm strength. The javelin training helped his quarterbacking a little bit, but Brandel came to realize that it actually involved a very different throwing motion – instead of the bent-arm, accuracy focused throwing involved in football, throwing the javelin was a straight-arm motion that required an immense amount of attention to technical body detail.
Though javelin throwing initially took a back seat to football, Brandel made enough progress in the sport during his senior year that he attracted the attention of track and field scouts and was recruited to throw at Clackamas Community College.
That worked out for a while, but when he injured his back throwing the javelin during his sophomore season at Clackamas, Brandel decided to give football another try. He contacted the head coach at Sacramento State and headed south to see if he could compete for a spot on the team.
A turn of fate derailed those plans.
“I’d talked to the head coach and everything seemed good, but then I went down there to turn my paperwork in, and one of the coaches actually lost my physical papers. They just lost my paperwork, and I felt kind of disrespected” Brandel said.
The missing physical papers eventually turned up under a pile of documents on the coach’s desk. But the incident had thoroughly frustrated Brandel, and he resolved to go out for the track and field team instead.
Brandel threw well enough in 2005 to place 19th at the NCAA Regionals, and earn a transfer to Oregon.
In his first season as a Duck, Brandel came out slinging in the Pacific-10 Conference championships in Eugene last year and threw a personal-best 214-03.
This year, with more than half the season to go, Brandel has already managed to set a new personal record. Last week in Arizona, he turned in a 225-7 (68.77m) performance that vaulted him into sixth-place on Oregon’s all-time top-10 list for the javelin.
“He’s done a great job throwing 225-feet this early in the season,” Director of Track and Field Vin Lannana said. “The javelin is a funny event: It either goes really well or really badly. I think what I’ve watched happen with him is that he’s done a great job at being able to maintain his composure.”
And that’s Brandel’s Achilles heel: He is the kind of athlete who tends to get pumped up before his event; however, that’s not always the most conducive mindset for javelin throwing.
“It’s different for everybody – some people get more excited than others, some people stay really calm. The trick is finding what works best for you” javelin coach Lance Deal said. “Ryan likes to get fired up. He’s a very aggressive thrower.
“But he’s working very diligently on relaxing a little bit, letting the throw happen more.”
Brandel thinks his boxing background – he was on the boxing team in high school -has helped him develop the mental calmness that all javelin throwers need.
“With boxing it was the same. You can’t go out there and get all tensed up,” Brandel said. “If you get all tense and tight you tire faster. But if you stay relaxed you do better.”
Even though this state of relaxation is something that he has to constantly work on, Brandel says he was captivated by the mental side of javelin throwing, and its emphasis on personal responsibility.
“I like the challenge of it,” Brandel said. “You get six throws and you’re on the runway for like 35 seconds, so there’s a lot riding on that. It’s do-or-die. You have to be so mentally focused and concentrate so much on each one throw. I just like the competition and the individuality of it.
“I always kinda feel like my biggest competition is myself. I feel like I’m capable of throwing far. I just have to focus real hard.”
[email protected]