Watch: The Javelin Dashboard

Watch this seven minute discussion for a deeper explanation of the four parts of the Javelin Dashboard and how I use them to understand javelin performance.

Watch the 7-minute Javelin Dashboard discussion →

1. Nervous System: Fearful Peasant to Courageous Warrior

I intentionally made the two ends of this spectrum extreme because I wanted to create an easy image to remember. On one end is the Fearful Peasant, and on the other is the Courageous Warrior.

The labels are meant to be fun, but the concept behind them is important. Throwing a javelin far requires high speeds, high forces, and positions that can make the body feel vulnerable. To perform well, an athlete needs to remain poised, confident, relaxed, and aggressive while experiencing those forces.

When your nervous system trusts what you are doing, you are more willing to stay relaxed, maintain your positions, accept pressure, and continue attacking the throw. When your nervous system does not trust the movement, your body naturally tries to protect itself. You may become stiff, shorten positions, hesitate, or bail out of the throw.

This is not something that can simply be changed by deciding to be more aggressive. Confidence at high speed has to be earned through years of deliberate and intentional practice. High intensity practice gives your nervous system repeated evidence that you can handle these forces and positions. Over time, you learn that you can stay relaxed, maintain posture, hold a position a little longer, and continue to commit to the throw.

2. Physicality: What Kind of Engine Do You Have?

The second category is physicality. If we continue with the vehicle comparison, physicality represents the chassis and engine.

At one end of the spectrum, you might imagine a dump truck or an old Ford Escort. At the other end, you might picture a Ford F150 Raptor or a Ferrari. These vehicles have very different physical capabilities, just as athletes do.

For a javelin thrower, physicality includes strength, mobility, speed, explosiveness, elasticity, coordination, and reactivity. All of these qualities contribute to how much physical potential you bring to the runway.

One simple way I have used to assess this is an old Finnish equation based on three throws with a 4 kilogram shot. You throw the shot backward over your head, forward from between the legs, and forward overhead. You then add the distances of the three throws together and add 20 meters.

At my physical peak, those three throws totaled approximately 63.5 meters. Adding another 20 meters produces a predicted javelin distance of about 83.5 meters. My lifetime best in the javelin was 83.08 meters, so the equation was remarkably close for me.

I have seen it work well for many other athletes, although it certainly does not predict performance perfectly for everyone. The larger point is that we need some way of understanding the physical engine available to the thrower. Today, my estimated shot throw numbers would be considerably lower, which helps explain part of the change in my javelin performance.

3. Technique: Homemade Cart to Rolex

The third category is technique, and for this gauge I like to think about the difference between a homemade cart and a Rolex watch.

Imagine a kid building a cart in the garage using a milk crate, a few pieces of wood, and some old wagon wheels. The cart might roll and get the job done, but the wheels probably are not perfectly aligned and the pieces do not fit together with much precision. You could send it down a small hill, but you might not want to see what happens at high speed.

At the other end of the spectrum is a Rolex, where everything is built around precision, alignment, timing, and reliability.

That is what we are trying to improve with javelin technique. Good technique organizes the athlete’s physical abilities and allows them to transfer their speed and power through the body and into the javelin. Alignment, timing, sequence, rhythm, and precision all contribute to how efficiently that happens.

Interestingly, technique is probably the area of my dashboard that has improved as I have gotten older. Even though my physical abilities have declined, I continue to learn more about alignment, timing, sequence, and the details of the throw. Trying to move my technique a little closer to the Rolex side of the dashboard is one of the reasons I still enjoy throwing.

4. Operator: Analytical Robot to Natural Athlete

The final category is the operator. You can think of the operator as the person sitting between your ears who is responsible for driving everything else.

On one side of this spectrum is the Over Analytical Robot. This athlete might have too many technical cues and spend the entire competition thinking about individual positions. They are thinking about the right foot, left arm, posture, block, shoulder, and javelin position all at the same time. Eventually, too much analysis makes it difficult to perform naturally.

At the other end is the Instinctual Natural Athlete. This athlete reacts to the environment, feels the rhythm of the throw, and allows trained movements to happen without consciously trying to control every position. They are moving closer to the flow state that we often associate with our best performances.

This does not mean technical analysis is bad. Analysis is an important part of learning, especially during training. The challenge is understanding when it is time to analyze and when it is time to perform.

What Does My Dashboard Look Like Today?

When I look at these four categories, the answer to the original Instagram question becomes much easier to understand.

The interaction of these four categories helps explain the thrower I am today. It also shows why looking at performance through only one lens can be misleading.

Check Your Own Javelin Dashboard

The real purpose of the Javelin Dashboard is not to explain why I throw shorter than I used to. It is to give athletes and coaches a simple framework for understanding performance.

You may have tremendous physical abilities but inefficient technique. Your technique might look excellent from a short approach, but your nervous system may not yet trust those positions when you increase your runway speed. You might have the physical and technical qualities necessary to throw far, but your operator fills your mind with too many technical cues when competition begins.

This is why the solution is not always to get stronger, change your technique, or become more confident. Your performance is the result of how all four categories interact.

Look at your nervous system, physicality, technique, and operator and assess each one as clearly as possible. You do not need every gauge to be perfect. Instead, you need to understand where you are today, what may be limiting your performance, and which area offers the greatest opportunity for improvement.

Once you understand your dashboard, you have a much clearer idea of where to focus your training and how to become a better javelin thrower.