When Åsmund Martinsen began working with a young Andreas Thorkildsen in 2001, they set about making the “most athletic Javelin thrower in the world” in order to develop a special talent. They developed a program based on the balance of strength, speed, flexibility and gymnastics, to create a “superathlete” that happened to throw the Javelin, and remain healthy enough to contest for all major titles over a long career. On this week's podcast Martinsen breaks down the training of two-time Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen with guest interviewer Shaun Pickering.

For more information on this topic, read the complete show notes at: https://www.hmmrmedia.com/2022/03/hmmr-podcast-episode-268-training-athleticism-for-throwers-with-asmund-martinsen/

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More notes:

• This episode is brought to you by HMMR Plus. Become a member for full access to our videos, articles, and podcast archives. This month's site theme is throwing, so keep an eye out for more on the topic in the coming weeks and visit our throws page to see our top archived content on the topic.
• For more from Martinsen, check out these presentation slides.
• Interviewer Shaun Pickering was himself a guest on HMMR Podcast 255 where we broke down the 2020 Olympic action. He's got plenty more great interviews like this one up on Throws Talk.
• For more on specific strength training, check out the HMMR Classroom, including Lesson 9: Specific strength exercises for throwing and our brand new Lesson 31: Advanced specific strength concepts.
• We've had lots of javelin throwers and coaches on the podcast and the GAINcast. Check out javelin coach Mike Barber on GAINcast 175, European javelin champion Steve Backley on GAINcast 156, Olympic medalist Goldie Sayers on GAINcast 106, New Zealand javelin coach Debbie Strange on GAINcast 237, and American champion Dana Lyon on HMMR Podcast 193.
• Thorkildsen had a long and consistent career. We ran some numbers a few years ago to see when javelin throwers hit their peak, which shows some interesting developmental trends.