Coy Blair Logan 2012
Personal Bests
- Discus 147-8
- Shot Put 67-03.25
- Weight Throw 66-1.75
OHRunners: Coy, you finished 2nd in last years’ D1 Shot Put with a toss of 61-11.25. Recently, you threw a PR of 67-03.25 (20m). That throw was .25” off of the Ohio Indoor record set in 1987 by Charles Moye of Akron Ellet and is currently the 2nd best throw in the nation. Braheme Days, Jr. of Bridgeton HS in NJ has the nation’s leading throw of 68-11. We’ll talk about the Weight Throw later, but, if we look back at your shot throw progressions, you did not qualify to State as a Freshman in 09, you were 8th in 2010 with a throw of 50-11.25, 2nd last Spring with 61-11.25 and now indoors, the 67-03.25. That’s basically an 11’ improvement from your Sophomore year to your Junior and an approximate 6 feet so far this year. What would you attribute your success too, especially the dramatic increase from your Sophomore to Junior years and now your Senior year?
Coy: I attribute my success to the work ethic I learned a long time ago as a child. I was taught that if you want something bad enough you’ll do anything to get it. I made a lot of sacrifices as a kid and made a lot of hard decisions to be in the position that I am in today.
OHRunners: When did you first start to throw the shot?
Coy: I first started throwing when I was about 6 or 7. My oldest brother, Colt Thompson, was 2-time all Ohio in shot-put in 2001 and 2002. He was our school record holder until last Spring when his baby brother went further than him. I started pulling tapes at meets and messing with the implements trying to imitate him when I was around 6.
OHRunners: Did you throw in Middle School? What did you throw?
Coy: Yes, I threw in Middle School. I think my PR was around 47ft.
OHRunners: Do you do any other HS sports in the Fall?
Coy: I played football starting in second grade but decided this year not to play to focus on track.
OHRunners: The spin technique has proven over the years to have advantages over other techniques. Have you always used this technique? What difficulties did you encounter in learning this technique?
Coy: I started off with the glide. It is the basic technique to learn for starters. I liked it, but I didn’t like the feeling of going straight back and making myself a ball of explosion I like the finesse and the power you create in the spin. The biggest difficulties for me were just learning the balance you need and making my form consistent. In the spin, there is a tendency to become inconsistent. With the glide, it’s just a lot of muscle memory.
OHRunners: Where do you position the shot? How important is shot position?
Coy: Well, I have some very, very wide hands, so for me the shot position and fit can make or break a throw. I have a way back type of position with the shot in which I hold it on the back of my head. I place my thumb on the artery in my neck. I’ve had to adapt to this position cause I don’t really have a neck. lol
OHRunners: What is your starting stance in the ring?
Coy: I start wider than most in my stance. I have my left foot about 6 inches left of center and my right foot is wide, depending on the size of the ring, but I’m basically in my squat stance. It’s not a full squat though.
OHRunners: Movement, balance, and tempo are very important with the spin technique. Probably more so than just power and position. How do you control the rhythm of your spin?
Coy: I am very rhythmic. I like to listen to music. I’m all the time dancing and singing and I pick songs with fast tempos, such as techno. I get the beat or rhythm of the song in my head and then mentally go through my throws to the beat. I even walk through my throws to the beat of the music.
OHRunners: What type of drills do you use to establish moving balance in your movement?
Coy: Drills are something I’ve never really done a lot of. I believed the best way to learn the spin was just to get reps in. When you have the basics down then you do drills to perfect them. I start with standing block throws then add a reverse. When I’m loose, I go to half drills and then to South Africans. I then go to full’s. If I’m not doing something right, such as getting my left side down in the front of the ring, I will do some more half's and go back to full's. Problems in different positions in the throw can be solved and worked out by different, specific drills.
OHRunners: Do you do 180 and 360 degree drills to help develop balanced rotation positions.
Coy: I don’t do the 180's. I just do half’s in my warm up. I do 360’s sometimes if I feel I’m not loading my left out of the back. They help to get a good drive to center. I do a lot of line drills that consist of just doing your form on a line and staying on it.
OHRunners: Let’s talk some about your workouts throughout the season. What are your preseason workouts?
Coy: My preseason workouts are more power based to develop a huge number in the weight room. I like leaving Fall and going into Winter stronger than I have ever been. I like lifting heavy weights throwing up some big numbers.
OHRunners: What type of weight numbers are you working with?
Coy: I came out of this Fall benching 405, power cleaning 365, squatting 635 and deadlifting 635.
OHRunners: What are your early season workouts?
Coy: Ealry in my early season workouts we back off power and do some German volume or something to mix it up and shock the system. Normally, lower percent’s working with bands and chains to overload and underload different phases in my lift. I love to do power cleans and snatch, so we incorporate this in almost every lift in some way. For German volume, I drop way down to 40 and 50% of my max. In the snatch I usually don’t go over 185. For cleans I’ll go up to 315, just depending on how I feel.
OHRunners: What are your competitive season workouts? Take us through a typical week with a competition on Saturday.
Coy: In the competitive season, I lift 3 days a week, MWF. I mix it up a lot usually doing around 60-80% of my max. I usually do heavy lower body lifting on Monday’s, such as rack pulls or deadlift or squats. I do a lot of supplementary lifting also on Monday. I do heavy cleans on Tuesday with 185 and Thursday I throw. On Wednesday, I do upper body workouts, depending on the week or cycle i'm in. I may do close grip speed or heavy with chains or bands. It just depends on the cycle. If the meet is Saturday, Friday I'll do a tune up throw, just to keep a rhythm and then a 2 -position clean and jerk and a snatch workout. This is a clean and jerk and then a snatch from the floor. Snatches are 135. Then from a hanging position. I add chains or bands for the 2 position and I’ll use 185 for cleans and 135 for snatch.
OHRunners: Can you describe your strength conditioning workouts? Upper body? Legs? Back?
Coy: My workouts are designed for what we have found works best for me. I love rack pulls, so for a back day I do some kind of pulling lift and then glute, hams, good mornings and reverse hyper's, with some other supplementary’s thrown in. For legs, I do cleans and squats. The squats can vary from front or back or box. I do a lot of variations with the cleans, changing them up a lot and we have fun with it. I also throw in some lunges and box jumps and single e-leg squats to work on explosion. On my upper days, I'll primarily do bench and in some way fly’s and shoulders. I work shoulders a lot with reverse fly’s and rowsand I also do a lot of work with the bands.
OHRunners: What are your typical running, throwing and lifting drills?
Coy: I don’t really run much. It’s something we’ve never really incorporated in the past, but we are now going to starting some running when weather permits. I do some throwing drills that incorporate med ball throws. I do a lot of just walking through my throws, with light lifting drills. We like to just have fun with it.
OHRunners: Do you visualize your throws?
Coy: I like to visualize as much as possible. I get a number and a distance in my head and I feel the throw mentally, going through it physically over and over until it’s like a habit. For example, If I picture going 67ft today in my mind, I will go over and over the throw so that this is what I feel when I step into the ring. I feel that this helps me out a lot.
OHRunners: Let’s talk about the Weight Throw. You’ve tossed 62-5.5 in 2010 and were ranked 9th in the State. How comfortable are you with this event. Are you still in a learning curve? How much time per week do you spend on this event?
Coy: Well, I went 66-01 this year in my first meet. I don’t feel that I’m still in the learning curve with the event, as much as in the “I need to drill a lot more” mode. I don’t get the chance to practice this throw much due to sharing the facility with basketball. I haven’t touched it much since my 1st meet, but I'm drilling it a lot now and going to throw it a lot in the near future to get back in rhythm. I’ve had fouls close to 70ft, so I know it’s there and just a matter of finding my way and my rhythm, I’d say in total I spend 3 or 4hrs a week on the weight.
OHRunners: What are your goals for the Indoor and Outdoor seasons?
Coy: My goal for indoor is 70ft in the shot. I know it’s there. I’ve warmed up over 70 and it’s just a matter of hitting it. The Weight Throw State record is 70-07 and know I can get it. Once again, it’s just a matter of hitting it. I want to go 72 in the Weight Throw outdoors and I‘d like to throw 72 in the Shot. The State record outdoors is 71-07 and I know I can go over it. I actually think that I can hit 75 in the shot, but the timing of doing this play a big factor, along with lifting peaks. Another goal, and one we didn’t talk about is disc. I’ve always thrown disc, but last year I was kind of just told to throw it. I did and wasn’t as successful as I would have liked to be, but I’ve drilled it and have had some good practice throws so far and I’m only going to get better with it. I’m comfortable saying that 180 in the disc this year is very possible for me.
OHRunners: Thanks Coy. I'm confident that with your hard work and dedication you will reach your goals for this season. I'm loking forward to watching.
