sports
Ken Flax 'towers' above his competition
Photo by Kirk Hirota
Ken Flax is Oregon's second best hammer thrower in school
history.
By John Healy
Of the Emerald
Mention the hammer throw,
and visions of 6-foot-7,
270-pound behemoths dance
through the mind. Guys big
enough to play defensive tackle
in professional football, right?
Not in the case of Oregon's
Ken Flax.
Flax is a guy who played
tailback and defensive back on
his high school football team.
He stands a mere 5-11, and
weighs in at a “feather-light”
214 pounds.
But in the last five months,
Flax has vaulted into a spot as
one of the nation's best col
legiate hammer throwers, good
enough to be picked to finish
seventh at the NCAA champion
ships in Eugene in late May.
Even more amazingly, he is
the top-ranked American-born
discus thrower on the collegiate
scene today.
All this from a guy who didn't
pick up a hammer ball-and
chain until he arrived at Oregon
last fall as a freshman.
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senior year in high school, Ray
Burton (former Oregon weight
coach) said I would probably be
more of a hammer thrower in
college," recalls Flax, who
limited himself to the shot put
and discus in high school.
"And Gary Wolf, who used to
be the Oregon record holder in
the discus, told me 'If you are
going to a major college, you'll
be competing against guys who
are 260 and 6-7 in the shot and
discus," says Flax.
So Flax turned to the hammer,
which requires a blend of
technique and speed rather
than sheer strength, according
to Flax.
"The main thing is speed in
the hammer," explains Flax.
"You can be too strong. For in
stance, this West German ham
mer thrower increased his back
squat by 100 pounds, but he on
ly increased his hammer throw
by a quarter inch.
"There are a lot of guys who
are big and strong, but they
can't feel what they are doing,"
he says.
Flax can identify with that pro
blem, becasue last year the em
phasis in his training was to "get
big and massive" through ex
tensive bodybuilding workouts.
But when Oregon hired a new
weight event coach last fall, Flax
was exposed to a totally dif
ferent coaching philosophy.
Although the new coach,
Stewart Togher, is a former Scot
tish weightlifting champion, he
stressed to Flax that versatility
was the key to success in the
world of hammer throwing.
So instead of having Flax just
throw the hammer in competi
tion and work out constantly on
the weights, Flax says Togher
had him throwing the hammer,
shot and discus in every dual
meet and working out constant
ly in practice to perfect his
throwing technique and his
speed.
The new regimen seems to
work, since Flax has improved
his best in the hammer from
210-7 at the end of last spring to
222-5 this spring. And he has
also improved markedly in botlr
the shot and discus.
Flax stayed away from the
hammer in the Pepsi Relays and
the Twilight Meet the last two
weekends, mainly because he
says he was "burned out" by
almost two months of weekly
competition.
But Flax says the heavy com
petitive load was planned that
way, with him peaking twice
during the season, once in the
dual meet seson and then again
during the Pac-10 and NCAA
competitions.
"You peak once early in the
duals to get yourself qualified
for whatever you're working
for," says Flax. "Then you get
back to the weights and get
stronger again, When you're not
peaking, you spend as much
time lifting as you do throwing.
But when yop work toward a
peak, your ratio is 3 to 1, throw
ing to lifting."
Flax's first test of that peak will
be at noon on Friday in Pullman,
Wash., when he faces Stanford's
Shaun Pickering (225-1) in a
showdown for the Pac-10 ham
mer title. Pickering edged Flax
last spring in the conference
final — third place to fourth
place, respectively — and is
picked one place ahead of Flax
at the NCAA meet by Track and
Field News.
After that, it is the NCAA
championships in Eugene,
where Flax feels only two
throwers — Fresno State's Matt
Mileham and San Jose State's
Kjell Bystedt — are out of his
range.
"But anything can happen,"
says Flax. "If you connect on
one and the other guy has a bad
day, you can win."
Has Oilers' time come?
EDMONTON, Alberta — The
Edmonton Oilers have the
potential to blow hockey teams
off the ice with their impressive
offensive arsenal. But they
didn't show it in last season's
Stanley Cup final series against
tne New York Islanders, when
they were eliminated in four
straight games, nor in the first
two games of this year's finals.
They finally broke loose in
Game 3 Tuesday night.
Now, after erupting for a 7-2
victory and a 2-1 lead in the best
of-seven National Hockey
league series, the Oilers feel
like they're on a roll. Game 4
will be played in the Northlands
Coliseum Thursday night.
"It was a case ot everyone
reaching their potential, playing
up to their potential," said Mark
Messier, who led the assault on
goalie Billy Smith with two
goals. "We knew we had to
score some goals, but it didn't
matter who did it. We knew we
had to play as well as we can,
which we weren't doing.
"We had that second and
third effort. We've got to have it.
The pressure was on us and we
showed we can handle it."
And they've shown they can
handle the Islanders, who are
seeking their fifth straight
Stanley Cup. If the Oilers win
the next two games — Game 5 is
here Saturday night — they will
shatter the Isles' dreams of tying
the NHL record of five con
secutive titles, set by the Mon
treal Canadiens from 1956-60.