Javelin throw and School subjects
Neeraj Chopra created history yesterday (16 May 2025). He registered his first 90m throw, a mark he had desperately wanted to reach for the past few years. This he achieved at the Doha World Athletic meet.
What is his training schedule like? He has to spend a significant time in the gym doing strength training to ensure that his arms and elbows are in the best shape possible. Cable pull exercises are important as they strengthen the shoulders, elbows and muscles of the arm.
He also has to stand tall with his arms raised above his head, holding a weighted ball. Then he starts kneeling gradually and when he is inches from the ground, he will start bending backwards holding the heavy ball. The body arches back like a bow. Once his entire body weight is on his toes, he finally throws the ball like a catapult.
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Shouldn’t he be just throwing javelins and perfect in that skill. Do we ask why he is spending time on unrelated tasks such as strength training, cable-pull exercise or holding a weighted ball. We don’t – We don’t call them useless tasks, because we know that to get that prefect projectile of JAVELIN, he must do some tailer made exercises.
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School subjects are like that. Languages, Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Mathematics, Arts Education etc are all equally important ‘exercises’ for a well-rounded educational experience. None of them are ‘useless’ subjects and are in fact useful exercises in the long run of life that may resemble the trajectory of a Javelin.
Note : This post is for that social-media ‘influencer’ who is claiming that school subjects are useless and keeps repeating that "I have never used trigonometry in my life". You do not realise how these subjects are helping you ‘wire’ your brain and give you the cognitive abilities in a method that you cannot even imagine.
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School subjects are like that. Languages, Humanities, Social Sciences, Science, Mathematics, Arts Education etc are all equally important ‘exercises’ for a well-rounded educational experience. None of them are ‘useless’ subjects and are in fact useful exercises in the long run of life that may resemble the trajectory of a Javelin.
Note : This post is for that social-media ‘influencer’ who is claiming that school subjects are useless and keeps repeating that "I have never used trigonometry in my life". You do not realise how these subjects are helping you ‘wire’ your brain and give you the cognitive abilities in a method that you cannot even imagine.
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Ref : https://www.olympics.com/en/news/neeraj-chopra-training-exercise
Image sourced from the internet and generated via Meta AI.
Image sourced from the internet and generated via Meta AI.
This was a really interesting read! I never thought about how the javelin throw connects with different school subjects, but your explanation makes the sport feel so much more multidimensional. From physics to body mechanics to even history, there’s so much more involved than technique alone. As a student, I often struggle to connect academic concepts to real-life applications, and posts like this make learning feel more meaningful. I once tried to explore a similar angle for a sports-related paper and even searched “do my essay” for ideas because I wasn’t sure how to bridge academics with athletics. Your article shows exactly how engaging that connection can be. Thanks for sharing such a thoughtful perspective!
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