Upload a Photo Upload a Video Add a News article Write a Blog Add a Comment
Blog Feed News Feed Video Feed All Feeds

Folders

 

 

Exclusive Interview with Walter Henning

Published by
Martin Bingisser   Jan 26th 2010, 6:14pm
Comments

CollegeHammer.com had a chance to sit down with LSU's Walter Henning after he opened his season last Friday.  Henning is a three-time All-American, placing second at last year's NCAA Outdoor Championships and 5th at the USATF Outdoor Championships.  In high school, Henning set national records in the hammer throw and weight throw and then won the IAAF World Junior Championship as a freshman in 2008.  Henning discussed his goals for the season, what he has done to prepare for the new year, and the new blog he launched this month.

CollegeHammer.com: First off, you opened your season on Friday with an NCAA automatic qualifying mark (see video here).  How do you feel about your first meet of the year?

Walter HenningWalter Henning: The LSU throwers are still working very hard in the weight room, the ring and in supplementary exercises. We are in the weight room four days a week and throwing about 150 throws a week with a variety of different weight implements. With that said, I am extremely happy with the mark I threw at our season opener. It is a shorter distance than I threw last year at our first meet but I am happier with this start. Last year we were already into our ‘in-season’ workouts and at this time last year have thrown the weight more. This is our second week throwing the weight in practice this year and I think I will be able to have big improvements over the next few weeks. 

CollegeHammer.com: During the offseason, LSU had some good off-season reports of how the Tiger throws group was progressing including a picture of you doing impressive weight in the squat.  Was strength your focus during the off season?  What did you work on since last June that's helped you get in shape heading into this year?

WH: The off-season was primarily strength based for the LSU throws group. I had substantial personal bests in all my lifts this fall. I raised my Olympic lifts the most compared to last year and also made improvements in upper body strength and in the squats. We also are doing less box squats than we did last year and I believe that helped our strength increase in the Olympic lifts because we were not as fatigued. I also spent time working on my technique in the weight room and do more explosive Olympic lifts. I am now doing Olympic lifts like Primoz Kozmus does instead of stopping and resetting after each rep. I personally added about forty pounds to my power snatch from 200 to 243 and my power clean went from 285 to 335. We also spent a lot of time in the media room trying to improve our technical base. This year we also split our hammer group into two training groups to get more personal focus. This year we did not touch a weight until after Christmas break and are still throwing the hammer 3 times a week. We throw the weight 25-30 throws a week while the hammer is about 75-100 throws each week.

CollegeHammer.com: If you don't mind sharing, what are some of your goals for the season?

WH: My goal sheet is very specific of what I want to do but my number one goal is to win the NCAA Championships. We have a very good team at LSU, a lot better than the number nine ranking that we currently have and I want to score ten points at the NCAA meet to help our team win. That is my only real goal. All of my other goals are technical and strength based. 

CollegeHammer.com: You must be a head coaches dream then.  Have you always been of the mindset of putting the team first?  Is it difficult for you when the team falls short and you have done all you can do to help them?

WH: I have been fortunate to be a part of very successful athletic programs in both high school at St. Anthony’s and here at LSU. The team aspect is very important to me specifically because accomplishments as a group are harder than accomplishments as an individual. My high school team won the state catholic championships my freshman year indoors and my senior year outdoors so I have been part of teams that have come together to capture something great. This year at LSU I can see more camaraderie than last year. We set a team goal to win the NCAA championships and this meet showed a great step towards that goal. I think a great example of the last question is the SEC indoor championship in 2009. At that meet I set my PR and won the weight throw however we did not finish well as a team. Some teammates were just happy to be there and were not upset that we did not win. I had a hard time figuring out why I work so hard for them. After reflection and prayer I realized that no matter what they do, I must lead by example and hope they will catch on. The 2010 Tigers and Lady Tigers have that mentally throughout and are very focused on working hard for each other. The throwers in 2009 set the bar high for this year by scoring a ton of points indoors and outdoors where LSU doesn’t normally score a lot of points. We are excited to build on that in 2010. 

CollegeHammer.com: You are one of the few Americans among the college elite that threw the hammer in high school.  What got you started in the event so early?

WH: I started throwing the hammer in August of 2002. I competed in every field event and every running event up to a mile before I was introduced to the hammer throw. Every summer in New York a meet called the Empire State Games are contested. They have three categories, scholastic, open, and masters. From there teams are formed by the region that you live in New York. I competed for Long Island. The scholastic group is limited to juniors in high school and younger. After your senior year in high school you must compete in the open section. I competed in these games in the javelin when I was in seventh grade and saw the hammer throw being contested by Long Island teammate and former Princeton hammer thrower Matt McNamera. Matt was a junior in high school at the time and he eventually became my training partner before he left for Princeton. I spoke with the Long Island throws coach and was referred to Jimmy Heisman who was a 70m hammer thrower and 2004 Olympic Trials finalist. Jim was the throws coach at C.W. Post University on Long Island before they dropped their program and couldn’t coach me. However, he recommended that I call his personal coach Marty Engel. Marty is a former American record holder in the hammer throw and a 1952 Olympian for the USA. I spoke with Marty on the phone and asked him to coach me. Two days later I went to his house in Huntington, NY, which is about 20 minutes from my hometown. After speaking with him about why I wanted to try the hammer and him telling me that I would be a good hammer thrower because I have “skinny, explosive calves and knee caps” (I thought he was crazy….and I was right, haha) I was doing winds and entries on his driveway. 

CollegeHammer.com: Some may not realize that you were also a successful shot putter in high school and weven won the National Scholastic Indoor Championship in the shot put.  Any plans to throw that in the future, or just pick it up for competitions and team points?

WH: My senior year was a shot-put year, must to the dismay of Marty, because I really accomplished everything I wanted at the time in the hammer and weight throw. I made a goal for myself to win the national championships in both the shot and weight at the Armory because they spent so much money to revamp their throwing facility by extending the landing area to allow me to throw at the Armory my senior year. (You’re welcome Conor, haha). I thought it would be a good way to honor them by competing solely in their meet my senior year. I will not throw the shot this year for two reasons. The main reason being that it aggravates my left quad too much and the second reason because I am not good enough to score for the team. However, depending on the strength of the SEC shot leading up to the SEC championships my coach, Derek Yush, and I may reconsider throwing the shot at that meet. 

CollegeHammer.com: You recently launched a blog at http://walterhenning.blogspot.com/.  You've already covered topics from meet preparation to LSU's enning.blogspot.com/2010/01/compeition-gear.html">uniform choices for the year.  What was your motivation behind creating the blog and what are you hoping to build it into?

WH: The real motivation behind creating the blog was my family and younger throwers. I have a very, very large family on my mother’s side and it is hard to update them frequently. I thought this was an easy fix to inform everyone how I was doing at once so I wouldn’t have to answer an insane amount of e-mails and facebook messages from them. My grandmother was sort of our media relations person in the family until she died in April of 2008. My mom tried to take over but it is hard between her new job, looking after my younger sister, Karen, and maintaining a social life. I also want the blog to attract younger throwers to the joys of throwing and hopefully teach them what it means to be a successful and dedicated thrower. 

CollegeHammer.com: The meet preparation routine you described seems very meticulous. What happens when something doesn't go according to plan?

WH: My meet preparation is not as meticulous as I made it out to be on the blog. The entry on the blog was very specific to this last meet and will vary some from meet to meet. If I get in the ice tub and get good mental preparation I will be able to compete well. 

CollegeHammer.com: Your first year in school you competed for North Carolina.  After having a good freshman campaign in the weight throw, you decided to transfer to LSU.  What was the impetus behind your decision?  What led brought your attention to LSU and ultimate made you decide to transfer there?

WH: Out of high school I committed to Brian Blutreich and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. To be honest, I wanted to throw under Coach Blu and be a part of the very successful throws program that he firmly established at Carolina. He called me about three weeks before I was set to move down to Chapel Hill and told me that he was leaving to accept a coaching job at the University of Oklahoma. I was then promised by head coach Dennis Craddock that if I could either have a release then or come down to Carolina and test it out. Being such a short time to go through the entire recruiting process again I went down to Carolina. I did not click as well with the new coach and looked at my options. I knew a few throwers at LSU before I moved to Baton Rouge and they told me that they had a new coach that year also. Coach Yush was at the University of Rhode Island before LSU and they did not recruit me for monetary issues and to be perfectly honest, I would not have gone there. After speaking with them about how much they liked him I did some research and realized he was married to Kristal Yush. I knew of Kristal while I was in high school and saw her throw at meets during that time. I figured if this guy could get Kristal to throw almost 70m then he must be good. I contacted Coach Craddock and told him that I wanted to look around at other schools and contacted LSU.

After speaking with Coach Yush I felt that our goals and training methods were very similar and decided to take a visit. After visiting LSU I fell in love with Baton Rouge and didn’t want to leave. We have a great support system both athletically and academically at LSU and I wanted to be a part of that. I found myself saying “that’s better than Carolina, this is better than Carolina” many times during my visit. I went back to Carolina and told them that I would be going to LSU after the spring semester to train with Coach Yush in preparation for the World Junior championships and attend school. I moved down to Baton Rouge in June and started taking summer classes and competed at the USATF Junior National championships for the first time in an LSU uniform. However, I am extremely happy that I did go to Carolina because I would not have come to LSU with the former coach here…actually, I didn’t even have an option because I was not recruited by LSU. God works in many mysterious ways and I truly believe that He wanted me to go insane for one year so I could get eventually get where I needed to be. I love being a part of the tradition and excitement of LSU and LSU athletics and never want to leave. GEAUX TIGERS!


CollegeHammer.com is a published by the non-profit Evergreen Athletic Fund and edited by Martin Bingisser. Please consider donating to help support the site.

Donate to the Evergreen Athletic Fund

History for DyeStatCOLLEGE.com
YearVideosNewsPhotosBlogs
2024 4 4 1147  
2023 11 11778 3385  
2022 9 18630 1191  
Show 28 more
 
+PLUS highlights
+PLUS coverage
Live Events
Get +PLUS!