North Carolina State University Athletics
PEELER: Self-Taught Shot Putter Henry Competes at NCAAs
3/14/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track
BY TIM PEELER
RALEIGH, N.C. Lawanda Henry picked up the shot put for the first time in eighth grade with an ulterior motive. She wanted to pad her resume to win the “Most Athletic” superlative at her middle school.
She already played basketball and volleyball, but was looking to add a spring sport to her list of activities. Track and field seemed the way to go, and the shot was the prefect event for the strong young athlete. She became successful at it eventually winning three North Carolina High School Independent Athletic Association state championships but she always thought she would end up playing basketball or volleyball in college.
When those goals began to seem unlikely, she spent her final two years at Cape Fear Christian School in Dunn working to improve her shot put technique, eventually catching the eye of the NC State track coaches.
But she was essentially a self-taught thrower, who learned her arm-only technique by watching some training tapes that were in her high school coach’s office and digging up some YouTube videos.
“I would watch how other people did it and just mimic what they did,” Henry said.
But barely two months into her college career, the freshman has learned enough basic techniques to rewrite the NC State record book. She topped the existing school record on seven different occasions this winter, and has the longest throw of the indoor season of any ACC thrower, a toss of 53 feet, 2 inches at the Elite meet at Virginia Tech on Feb. 6.
That earned her a trip as NC State’s lone representative at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in College Station, Texas. Henry is the only freshman in the shot put competition, which begins at 4:15 EDT on Saturday.
Her goal for the weekend, her first trip to a national event, is to concentrate on technique. Throughout her high school career, she too often just picked the shot up and hurled it as far as she could. She didn’t learn the proper technique to use the strength in her legs and torso, rather than just her upper body until she began intense workouts with NC State assistant coach Terry Woods.
“I am working on throwing it correctly all the time,” Henry said. “When you start thinking about just throwing it hard, it messes you all up. That has been my biggest struggle since being at State, getting out of the mindset of just throwing it hard. I have to use all parts of my body to throw the shot.”
She worked all fall in the weight room her first real strength and conditioning workouts to improve her physical strength. What she has to work on now is her mental strength.
“The coaches are teaching me that my upper body doesn’t have to do all the work,” Henry said. “It starts in the legs. When I do that correctly, I have a great throw. But once I start slipping back where I want to throw harder and further and I will go back to all arm. Sometimes, I make it harder than it really is.”
But Henry is concerned that she is not heading into the NCAA Championships in top form. Several weeks ago, she was stricken with a throat infection that sent her to the hospital and put her on a week-long diet of apple sauce and yogurt. She lost 15 pounds during her illness and much of the upper-body strength that she relies on so much.
“When I first came back, it was just terrible,” Henry said. “I still am no where close to as strong as I used to be.”
And, for that reason, she’s not sure how she will match up with the nation’s best shot putters.
“I’m more nervous than I am excited right now,” she said. “I haven’t been throwing as well as I wanted to. I’m hoping that when I get there, it is all going to come together. It is a big accomplishment for me to get this far. I am trying to stay positive and keep my head up.”
You may contact Tim Peeler at tim_peeler@ncsu.edu.
