Weight Over the Bar Techniques

"Weight Over the Bar" is an athletic event contested in Scottish Highland Games competitions. In this event, participants grip a handle attached by a chain to a weight, which is usually made of lead or steel and shaped like a ball or cone. Competitors then hurl the weight over a bar; whoever clears the highest setting of the bar wins the event. Highland Games rules permit one or two techniques, depending on the location of the competition.

  1. Classic

    • In the Classic technique, an athlete stands a few feet in front of the bar with his back to it. The competitor grips the weight by the handle in one hand. He can swing it in and out between his legs as many times as he likes to generate momentum before swinging his arm upward toward the sky and releasing the weight to sail over the bar in a path that resembles a shepherd's hook. The current men's North American and World record for using this technique is 18 feet, 9 inches, set by Mike Zolkiewicz in 2009.

    Spinning

    • Some competitions permit contestants to hurl the weight like a shot put over the bar. In this technique, the athlete stands anywhere from 10 to 20 feet or more from the bar. She then grips the weight in one hand and spins her entire body to generate momentum. When she has achieved significant torque from spinning, she releases the weight at an angle so that it clears the bar. David Brown holds the current men's North American and World Record in this event, having cleared 20 feet, 1 inch in a 2006 competition.

    Competition

    • Professional male competitors use a 56-pound weight for this event, while professional women's competitions use a 28-pound weight. The bar starts at the lowest height that an entrant wants to attempt to clear with the weight. Athletes can elect to start at higher bar settings and skip the lower settings. Each athlete who elects to take a certain height receives three attempts at that height; if she misses all three, the competition counts the highest setting she cleared toward her score. Whichever athlete clears the highest setting by using either technique wins the event.

    Rules

    • Several governing bodies have created rules for Scottish Highland Games competitions. In North America, the North American Scottish Games Athletics commission permits both types of techniques in any sanctioned competition held in North America. This organization also keeps different records for both the classic and spinning techniques. In Scotland, the Scottish Highland Games Association keeps its own set of rules regarding the Weight Over the Bar event. The SHGA does not permit competitors to use the spinning technique and does not recognize records set using that method.