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Development of Track & Field Throwing Events from the Scottish Highland Games

Modern track & field (t&f) has evolved from the early Caledonian games held throughout North America in the 19th century. T&f has allowed for extensive refinements and innovation in technique and equipment. For instance, the throwing surfaces of the events are a smooth concrete surface, and all of the competition implements are refined and calibrated. In contrast, Scottish heavy athletics are contested on a grass or dirt surface, and implements can be quite crude, and may vary from games to games.

The explanation for this difference comes from the fact that t&f places more emphasis on universality, whereas Scottish athletics emphasizes the retention of tradition. With the revival of the olympic games in 1896, t&f wanted to standardize the events to allow for fair performance comparisons throughout the world. Thus t&f eliminated elements that could be sources of variation, such as ground surfaces, sloped landing areas, and variations of stone size. These innovations have allowed t&f worldwide acceptance.

While the elements of competition are retained, many might observe that the t&f arena has become quite sterile, removed of any cultural context. In contrast, Scottish heavy athletes continue to wear the kilt, and the logistics of the meet remain essentially unchanged.

Also, in North America, the throwing events tend to be overshadowed by the running events. While elite professional sprinters and distance runners are able to make a decent living, there is very little money in the throwing events. In contrast, the heavy events are the feature events at Scottish games. I feel it is for these reasons that many current and former t&f throwers are attracted to the Scottish heavy events.

Stone/Shot:

The shot put, a t&f event, evolved from the stone throw. The modern shot is a perfect iron or steel sphere. T&f wanted to standardize the diameter and weight of the implement, and this was more readily accomplished with iron, than with granite. The men's shot is 16 pounds, with a diameter of 4 1/2" to 5"; the women's shot is 9 pounds, 13 ounces (4 kilograms), and is about 4" in diameter.

The stones used in competition today range in weight from 16 to 22 pounds for men and 8 to 12 pounds for women. The stone is thrown from behind a straight trig, within a rectangular grass space of 4'6" by 7'6", whereas the shot put has a curved toeboard and a 7'-diameter circular concrete ring.

Some games will have a larger "Braemar" stone (20-26 pounds, 13-18 pounds, women), where no approach is allowed; i.e. it must be thrown from a stand (no spinning, gliding, or shuffling). There is no Braemar shot in t&f.

Weights:

Second, some of the events were eliminated to make room for the addition of women's events in 1928. Third, before the revival of the olympics in 1896, the shot, hammer, and weight were the only three throwing events. But the olympics revived the ancient Greek javelin and discus throws, which gained in popularity.

The 56-pound weight throw was an Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship event until t&f left the AAU in 1980. It continues to be an official U.S. championship event (along with the women's 35-pound weight throw), but is now contested in a separate meet, apart from the U.S. t&f championships.

U.S. Track and Field also contests the men's 35-pound weight throw and the women's 20-pound weight throw as an indoor event. These are also NCAA events. The indoor weight throws keep the hammer throwers occupied during the indoor, winter season. The AAU also used to contest a 56-pound toss for height indoors; but this has been dropped long ago, around the turn of the century. There are no vertical (toss) events in modern t&f.

The length of all t&f weights are 16 inches from the inside of the handle to the bottom of the weight, and the handle is usually triangular in shape, with a maximum diameter of 1/2". In contrast, the Scottish weights are 18 inches overall length, and the handle is usually a metal ring or D-handle. The length of the 56 weight for the toss for height is shorter (about 14") to prevent hitting the ground on the swings.

Hammer:

The most significant player in hammer-throwing in the 19th century was Donald Dinnie, who invented the hammer turn. Beforehand, the overhead wind became the predominant method of throwing the hammer. Mr. Dinnie decided to, after some initial winds, turn a full 360 degrees with the hammer, before release. The turns allowed the athlete to achieve much greater distances.

Turns may have been one of the leading indicators of the split between the traditional scottish Caledonian games and the modern t&f athletics. Scottish athletics in general forbade most innovative techniques that resulted in significant performance improvements, or a drastic change from the traditional way of doing things. In contrast, t&f and field has been more liberal with innovation in both equipment and technique.

T&f has kept the turns, while Scottish athletics did not allow it. As a result, the current t&f hammer throw technique, with the athlete making 3 or 4 quick turns across the circle, hardly resembles that of the Scottish hammer, with winds and release.

The t&f hammer itself has changed: the replacement of the wooden shaft with somewhat flexible metal and a leather handle (like a golf club) occurred in the late 1800's. The D-handle was incorporated at the turn of the century. Then a wire replaced the solid shaft. The double-loop handle (two D-handles, one for each hand) was popular from the 1920's until about the 1960's. The modern t&f hammer is a light D-handle attached to a wire attached to a ball-bearing swivel on a lead-filled stainless steel sphere.

Sheaf and caber:

One of the most recent and radical innovations in all of athletics was the fling technique in the sheaf toss. The resulting improvement of the world record from under 20 feet to over 35 feet dwarfs even the pole vault, and resulted even in major restructuring of the vertical standard equipment!

One wonders why this basic natural shoveling movement was not present earlier. I think the major setback was that the sheaf stuck on the fork at the moment of release. It took a repositioning of the sheaf on the fork, combined with a block of the fork (no follow-through) in order to "pop" the sheaf off of the fork.

The caber is actually listed in the original AAU track and field rules. The standard length was 16 feet of pine, 8 inches diameter one end, tapering to 4 inches the other end. The caber has slipped away from the AAU program in the 1920s.

Pros, amateurs, masters, women, and juniors

Scottish athletics is more delineated pro vs. amateur; more like golf, tennis, or bowling (with much less money). Pros receive prize money, amateurs don't. Throwers who are in college compete in the amateur divisions to retain their eligibility.

There has been tremendous growth in the quantity and quality of amateur competitors in the past five years. I know personally that I keep improving steadily each year, yet I am not moving up very fast in the rankings from year to year. Right now, there is no requirements to turn pro. Anyone can turn pro no matter how far you are throwing. However, you really have to be competitive because most pro competitions are by invitation. If you are not competitive, you will not be invited anywhere.

T&f is currently experiencing tremendous growth in the masters division. Women's competition is significant and growing; although less-so in the throwing events. Women's participation is highest in the colleges, where "gender equity" is currently being pushed. Children's participation is still good; although weak in the throwing events.

Scottish athletics has significant and growing masters participation. There are also opportunities for children's athletics at many games, where they can try small cabers and light stones.

Women's participation in heavy athletics is also about to take off. There is a solid core of participation on the west coast, where separate women's flights are contested. Many athletic directors will allow individual women to compete with the novice men, and more and more games are adding women's divisions in the East when there are enough women entrants to field a separate field.

References on the history of heavy athletics:

David Webster "Scottish Highland Games"

Larry Menna & George Kirsch, eds. "Sports in North America: A Documentary History" Vols I-IV

History of the Hammer Throw by Charles Black, from SAAA archives

History of the Scottish Highland Games Part I | Part II by Charles Black, from SAAA archives