Main Rules of Shot Putting. Everything for You to Know

Shot putting is an athletic event, in which athletes compete in putting a shot with their hands for the longest possible distances. The discipline is a technical kind of heavy athletics. The most successful results here are achieved by those athletes who have explosive power and perfect coordination skills. It is an obligatory Olympic discipline among men since 1896, and among women since 1948. Usually, it is a part of track-and-field pentathlon. Below are the main peculiarities of the given kind of sport.

Sight and Equipment

First of all, sights for shot putting must meet all the safety requirements because some dangerous situations with a shot can result. Thus, a place from which putting is performed is represented by a circle with a diameter of 2.135 meters.

A shot is a special item that is with a smooth surface. To tell the truth, it should be smooth enough to meet Class 7 of surface undulation. It should be made of massive iron, composition metal or any other material that may not be lighter than composition metal. In any case, every shot should have a core that is made of composition metal.

The international rules stipulate that men should deal with shots of 7.257 kg and 110-130 mm in diameter. As for female athletes, the shots for them are 4 kg and 95-110 mm in diameter. Understandingly, the weight and the diameter should be smaller when it comes to competitions among midgets.

General Rules

Athletes perform their putting standing in a 35-degree sector. Its apex is in the center of the 2.135-meter circle. Athletes’ results are represented by distances between the inside circumference of the given circle and a point where the shot actually lands.

At official competitions, participants are usually given 6 attempts each. When there are 9 and more participants, the best 8 athletes are chosen after the first three attempts. After that, these 8 athletes will be given three more attempts each to determine a winner on the basis of summarizing results of all 6 attempts.

As soon as an athlete takes a place in the circle before putting a shot, the item should touch his/her neck or chin. In addition, the wrist should not go below this level while the athlete is putting a shot. Also, it is prohibited to place a shot behind the shoulder line.

Athletes are allowed to put shots with a bare hand; it is prohibited to wear gloves of any type. Similarly, athletes may not bandage wrists or fingers. If it happens that an athlete has a wound on his hand, he should show it to the referee, and it will be up to the latter whether to let the athlete put a shot with a bandaged hand.

A typical mistake is when an athlete leaves the circle or simply touches its outer border while putting a shot. This mistake is said to occur only when an athlete touches it before he finishes putting. Sometimes, athletes leave the circle intentionally to make their attempt unsuccessful. Usually, it is done when they understand they are going to perform poor putting.

Various Techniques

Over its long history, the sport of shot putting has witnessed three different techniques of performing. Two of them are currently in use, while the other one is old-fashioned now.

Classic Putting

Similar to many other track-and-field disciplines, shot putting appeared in England in the mid-19th century. In those times, there happened events in which athletes competed in putting shots of 7.257 kilos from a 2.134-meter circle. The first world record was fixed in 1866, and the distance was 10.62 meters. Athletes of those times used a primitive technique; to be more exact, they did not use the whole territory within the circle and put the shot by jumping on a single leg. It is interesting that they had organized competitions to find the best athlete in putting a shot with two hands and even putting a shot by taking off with two legs. This was applied to foster a balanced development of athletes.

The given technique had been in use by the 1950s when J. Fuchs fixed the last world record in putting a shot in a classic style. The distance was 17.95 meters. Nowadays, this technique has not vanished at all; it is used mainly for training purposes.

Glide

In the 1950s, an American athlete invented a gliding technique, according to which putters would face backwards, rotate 180 degrees across the circle, and then toss the shot. This technique proved its effectiveness because athletes used it to put shots for 18 and even 19 meters. At the same time, this technique was a basis for a modern technique.

Spin

In the 1970s, there was developed the technique of spin or the rotational technique. It was developed by a Russian athlete. This technique was used to overcome a distance of 22 meters. It stipulates that an athlete should start by turning backward. After that, he should perform one and a half spins to perform a toss. Thus, it is spin that is the most requested technique of putting a shot nowadays.