Rotational or glide ,which one is the best , which one is the best FOR YOU ?   That is a question that a number of people are asking themselves .

A large majority of throwers use now the rotational technique , but it is still not 100% sure if this technique is really better than the classic glide .

Yes , the men’s world record has moved from Ulf TIMMERMANN (Glider – 23.06m -1988 ) to Ryan CROUSER (Spinner – 23.64m 2023) but there are still 4 gliders among the all time world top 10 and in the women , the gliders still hold the world record (22.63m Natalya LISSOVKAIA 1987) and 9 of the all times top ten performers !!!

The gap between the performances is still not significant enough , especially when considering the improvements in the specific conditioning for this event for the modern throwers.

The answer may belong to the athletes themselves and their adaptation to one technique or the other depending their morphology and specific qualities.

In this perspective , it is interesting to follow the experience of our Australian 20 years old athlete Etienne ROUSSEAU.

In spite of having quite a good discus background and technique , Etienne did not feel comfortable when throwing the shot rotational….and made this year the decision to come back to the glide …with some success and a 7kg PB now at 16.28m …with more to come !

On the making

Available document : 1-Etienne ROUSSEAU 16.28m glide PB technical analysis and comments  PDF 7 pages – 2-Vid 1 Etienne ROUSSEAU 16.28m PB Original video -3-Vid 2 Etienne ROUSSEAU 16.23m original video