Shot-Put

Competitors take their throw from inside a circle 7 feet (2.135 meters) in diameter, with a toe board approximately 10 cm (4") high at the front of the circle. The distance thrown is measured from the inside of the circumference of the circle to where the shot lands at its nearest disturbance of the soil.

• The athlete must rest the shot close to the neck and keep it tight to the neck while throwing.
• At the end of the throw, the thrower must push the throwing arm straight from the neck, pushing the ball off the fingertips. (If the thrower does not push the ball out and throws it like a baseball, the thrower may incur a shoulder or neck injury.)

Foul throws are called when an athlete:

• Does not leave from the rear half of the circle.
• Steps out of the circle before the judge calls the mark.
• Allows some article of clothing to touch the top of the toeboard, the top of the iron ring or outside the circle.
• Throws a shot which falls outside the throwing sector to the left or the right.
• Throws a shot like a baseball instead of pushing off the fingertips

Each competitor receives a certain number of throws, usually 6 in elite competition, and the competitor with the farthest legal put is declared the winner. In high school it is 3 or 4 (depends on the league their school is in). In men's competition, the shot weighs 7.26 kilograms (16 pounds). The women's shot weighs 4 kg (8.8 pounds).

Shot put competitions have been held at the Summer Olympic Games since their inception, and is also included as an event in the indoor world championships. The shot put originates from Highland games 'stone put' where Scottish people put a rounded cube, stone, or metal form of considerable weight from behind a given line.

Two putting styles are in current general use by shot put competitors: the glide and the spin.

The glide was invented in the United States in 1876. With this technique, a right-hand thrower begins facing the rear of the circle and kicks to the front with the left leg while pushing off forcefully with the right. The key is to move quickly across the circle with as little air under the feet as possible, hence the name "glide". As the thrower crosses the circle, the hips twist toward the front, followed by the shoulders and strikes in a putting motion with their arm.

With all putting styles, the goal is to release the shot with maximum forward velocity at an angle of approximately forty degrees. Currently, most top male shot putters use the spin, but the glide remains popular, especially at the amateur level and among women, since the technique breeds higher consistency for the athlete as opposed to the rotational technique.

The decision to glide or rotate should largely be based on the thrower's size and power. A short, powerful and quick thrower would benefit more from the rotation than the glide. A tall thrower is likely to have more success than a short thrower using the glide, but the rotation reigns supreme for all sizes of throwers. The glide, however, is an excellent way of learning the shot put.