Throwing Symposium in Ohio is now over. The schedule of three days symposium was packed and I felt very fulfilling to attend the symposium.

Many athletes and coaches attended the symposium. First, many presentations and panel discussions were held during the symposium. I did my presentation on the night of the 10th as well as the morning of the 11th. In my first talk, because most of the audience was either athletes or coaches, I introduced myself, and presented my annual progressions, values of my physical strength from weight training, as well as my current focus.

On the second day I presented training methods I have been recommending like training using air (following the concept of jazz), hammerobics and training using wires. Later, panel discussion on the topics of hammer throw was held. My impression was that depending on the countries different type of questions were asked by the audience. It seems that many people are overly concerned with form and movement at each moment in time instead of seeing the hammer throw as a sequence of motion.

On the third day, I was invited to the induction ceremony to the Hall of Fame. This year, Michael Carter, Brian Oldfield, John Powell, Maren Seidler and Jay Sylvester were inducted to the Hall of Fame. I feel it is important to talk to the past great and enjoy such an experience.

During this symposium, in front of large audience, I presented Mac Wilkins, the1976 Olympic Discus champion, with my autographed T-shirt. On that occasion I told the audience that when I was in the elementary school I received an autographed T-shirt with the words “To Koji” from Mac Wilkins. To this day, nearly 25 years I have valued the T-shirt. Then I showed the T-shirt I have brought from Japan to the audience. Here at this Symposium, as an Olympic Champion, I presented my autographed T-shirt to him.

What I wanted to say was that the autographed T-shirt gave me a hope to dream on when I was young. It was very good to confirm the importance of giving dreams to children and young athletes.

On the final day, after the symposium finished in the morning, as a part of friendly exchange, I practiced together with the local athletes. They had pure and upright personality and I felt lots of enthusiasm from them.

PAKA! (meaning “Later!” in Russian)