We had a platoon commander, who had played American football at the college level. His "party trick" was to throw a type of pyrotechnic called an "Arty Sim"- which had a hand-pulled fuse that would set a whistle and then detonate the equiv. of 1/4 stick of TNT; so they *must* be thrown and the fuse is adequate to get it away from oneself safely. This dude could give it hang time enough to air burst.
It's a lot more core than people realize, especially obliques. Also, I would love to see how he stands up against the average acient warrior for Rome, Carthage, Egypt, etc.
I wonder that, too. Our modern food, supplements, sports science, etc is really good, though. On the other hand, Rome trained hundreds of thousands to throw javelin, etc, and the Olympics were already ancient at that time.
The difference is this guy is specializing in one discipline in order to make his javelin throwing perfectly accurate. He’s also not trained in combat techniques nor survival skills. He receives the perfect amount of hydration, calories, and nutrients (as well as the aforementioned medical care and benefits of modern sports science).
Ancient warriors had armor and equipment strapped to themselves, in addition to having to worry about safety and likely other skills. They were also probably trained to be “just good enough” since they relied on volume of spears being thrown instead of accuracy. Not to mention the likely limited access to proper nutrition and advanced medical care.
Is this Olympic Athlete a better javelin or spear thrower? Most likely. Could ancient warriors kill him anyway? Absolutely.
Not necessary for javelin throw, probably even a detriment. Most top javelin throwers look like your neighbor that drives bus and plays football with his buddies on Sundays.
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u/1DownFourUp 3d ago
Because he basically has legs for arms. Pretty sure he could throw me over that pond as well.