The right foot touchdown in the hammer throw is a critical point of force application to the implement. This can be clearly seen by those throwers at the top of the world rankings today. You will notice how much force they are putting into the ground with each successive turn. In order to better facilitate this force production, should athletes be taught to land with the right toe or heel during each double support phase?
From my observations, and through hearing international athletes speak, this is the only country where this is even a question in the hammer throw. Is that because we are pushing the limits of technique and exploring new possibilities on the cutting edge? I would say that our results over the past 50 years in international competitions would go against that hypothesis.
From a biomechanical standpoint, nearly every other event is coached to keep a dorsiflexed foot as much as possible. In the shot and discus we want to keep a dorsiflexed foot to facilitate keeping the weight back and throwing with the hips and creating a summation of forces. In the running events, a dorsiflexed foot is prompted to increase the stretch reflex with each ground contact. Why should the hammer throw be taught any differently?
Yuri Sedych and Tibor Gescek, arguably the most consistent throwers of all time over the 80 meter mark, both agree that the hammer thrower should land in double support on a flat foot. The prompt I’ve heard them both use is “foot like hammer” driving down into the ground. The young athlete can visualize this by smashing an aluminum soda can with their foot. However as soon as the whole foot makes contact with the ground, there must be an active turning of the right side. This includes the foot, knee, and hip. Think if you were to stomp out an errant spark from a campfire, you would step down onto it and then grind it into the ground by pushing the heel out.
Now some will argue that world class hammer throwers can be seen landing on their right toe in the later turns. This is a correct observation. World class hammer throwers generate tremendous ball speed, to the point where they do not have enough time to land on the whole foot before they have to drive the ball for the next turn. In hearing some of those top athletes speak at various clinics, it seems apparent to me that this is not an active choice to land on the toe. Their goal is to drive the heel down on each turn, the speed and forces involved, simply don’t allow them to do it, but it is NOT an active change in the way they are approaching the turn.
Landing on the heel provides a much more solid base for the athlete to work from. Think back to the Olympic Lifts. We would never coach our athletes to try to land on their toes on the platforms. Driving down with the right toe creates a lot of problems in the throw. First of all, pointing the toe down leads to an increased tendency to break at the waist which is often followed by locking out the left knee and “crashing” into the turns. Second, by reaching with the toe, the athlete is losing a tremendous amount of force that could be applied, because a lot of the muscle groups in the right leg have been eliminated from the system. Third, landing on the toe promotes turning “inside the ball.” So the athlete feels as though he is moving fast, but the ball is not. Landing on the heel provides more time in double support to accelerate the hammer-thrower system.
In conclusion, we should take our cues on this issue from the most successful hammer programs in the world. They have proven their success in their efficiency of consistently developing world-class hammer throwers achieving marks near 80 meters or more.