Rice University Athletics
Photo by: Maria Lysaker | Rice Athletics
A New Path for McNaney
5/10/2021 2:47:00 PM | Men's Track & Field
It all started so innocently. Two years ago at a Saturday training session at Wendel D. Ley Track & Holloway Field, James McNaney and group of Owls' vaulters brushed shoulders with Rice alumna and world-class javelin thrower Ari Ince, who just so happened to be doing her own training that particular day.
While waiting for one last teammate to arrive before the vaulters' session could begin, McNaney jokingly asked the 2019 Pan American javelin bronze medal winner a simple question: "Do vaulters make decent javelin throwers?"
The question led to a wry smile from Ince and a proposition for McNaney and the Owls' vaulters. Do you all have some time?
What followed was an impromptu clinic in which Ince showed the group the basic techniques of the javelin and the correct methods to avoid injury. McNaney then began throwing the javelin and it felt good - real good.
"It turned out that I was pretty decent at listening to what her instructions were and transmitting them to something that ended up with the javelin flying straight and at the end of it she (Ari) kind of threatened me by saying she was going to tell Brek (Christensen)," McNaney recalls.
Ince held up her end of the bargain and informed Rice throws coach Brek Christensen about McNaney's session and with that started a new journey for the Longview, Texas native and graduate of Pine Tree High School.
"Ari has been one of the best women's javelin throwers in the United States for the past several years, so clearly I trusted that there was some merit to what she was saying," said Christensen. "I figured there was nothing to lose both in the sense of how James had been performing recently in the pole vault and on the mere fact that you can't be afraid to take chances and see what you have. Now that being said, you can't just take anyone and make them a javelin thrower. While it looks similar to the overhead throwing motion of throwing a football or baseball, it is much more of a total body movement that requires a big violent stretch reflex stemming from your right leg through your hip/torso and into your shoulder complex (for a right handed thrower)."
"I personally am big believer that with javelin there is a need to have a predisposition or innate ability to actually throw something. And after our first session or two it was very clear that James had what I refer to as "whip" or "arm talent" to throw. He wasn't afraid to create the big stretch reflex through his body required to throw far. Oddly enough that has a lot to do with his background in the pole vault and the upper body mobility it takes to execute a proper vault."
With the transition to becoming a javelin thrower fully underway, McNaney was not only dealing with the physical aspects of learning a new craft but also mentally letting go of something that had always defined him. Letting go of that dream and chasing a new one seemed daunting but McNaney leaned on Christensen and teammates that he was making the right decision.
"The whole transition was actually really hard for me because this was my junior year of college and I was the captain of the pole vaulters at the time and it had been something I had been doing for almost a decade at that point," McNaney said. "It was part of my identity. Everything I did and anyone who knew me was like James is a pole vaulter. I had been dealing with hamstring issues and other injuries that were keeping me from pole vaulting like I knew I could. It just kind of came to this moment and Brek and my teammate Dane Stolsig were just looking at me and saying you've got something special here. Javelin is something that could really give you this potential that you could do something with it."
With a clear mindset and a new outlook on his Rice career, McNaney was poised to officially begin his new journey with the start of the 2020 outdoor season. However, the outdoor campaign would be canceled due to COVID-19, leaving McNaney just one more season to compete in 2021. After the initial disappointment wore off, McNaney went to work even harder and he laser-focused on his technique.
"Whenever it did come out that COVID was real and Rice was going to be affected by it to the point that we weren't even going to be able to train, it took a lot of air out of me," said McNaney. "But that wasn't just because I might have missed my shot. For my training partner Dane (Stolsig) it was going to be his last season and my whole goal for that entire season was to be that little annoying fly in his ear saying I'm catching up to you. I never got that season with my captain so I felt really bad about that."
"But that summer really helped me fine-tune a few things. It gave me the opportunity to go take a javelin and adjust my release and how it needed to be to make sure it flies. A lot of people kind of see these big throws or these results at meets but no one really knows the back story. My back story over COVID was that summer I worked on a lot of tiny little minute technical training things that you don't see immediately impact a large throw. But whenever I go back and I watch videos of what I used to be like before last year and now, I see those little fine-tune things showing up in the throws to where honestly if COVID didn't happen I might not have had the time to focus on those small things."
With a solid base and the right guidance, McNaney hit the ground running this spring and won the javelin with a throw of 65.98m at the Longhorn Invitational in his first-ever javelin competition. That performance set the stage for his home debut on March 9 at the Rice Invitational. On his third attempt, McNaney unleashed a throw for the record books by sailing the javelin 67.88m (222-8) for his second straight victory. The mark ranks No. 2 all-time in program history behind All-American Evan Karakolis, No. 3 this season in C-USA, and No. 16 on this year's NCAA West Qualifying List. In total, McNaney has posted six top-three finishes at seven meets.
For McNaney, the success has proven validation behind Christensen's and Stolsig's encouraging words. He also knows that nothing is guaranteed in the post-COVID world and is trying to soak up every minute of the final season of his Rice career.
"There's this feeling inside me that at any point in time COVID could start getting worse and this could all be taken away from us again," he said. "I have tried to treat every meet this season as if it was going to be my last because right now we don't know. We are not guaranteed anything. It's a privilege that we get to be out here and train. It's a privilege that we get to compete the way we do. It's a privilege that I have the coach that I do. I can be a bit of a head case at times with a really busy schedule and going for a Masters in electrical engineering. Brek is having to juggle all that, as well as COVID, and has been the most understanding coach that I could expect or even wish for. He has been out here to throw with me at 8 a.m., he's been out here to throw with me at 8 p.m. I've been the only person out here with the lights on and he's been here with me through it all and I know I wouldn't be where I am today without him.
McNaney's journey has been a long and winding road and he'll have the opportunity to add more chapters to conclude his story with opportunities at the Conference USA Championship and NCAA's. Regardless how it ends, he wouldn't change a thing.
"If I hadn't gone through the transition that I had to go through with pole vaulting and learning to let that go I wouldn't have grown as the athlete I am today," he said. "It's really challenged me to look at things in a big picture. Everybody is in some degree a sum total of all the parts that have happened to them in the past. I'm pretty happy with where I am right now so I can't necessarily turn back and say I wish I would have done this differently because I am in a place where I feel good."
Christensen echoes the same sentiments of McNaney and knows the small-town, East Texas kid has more than earned his stripes.
"To sum up what I think of James I will tell you this, the main thing that I try to get across to every single athlete that I get the privilege of coaching is that it is not the personal records or medals that really matter in the end," he said. "It is truly knowing that when your athletic career is over that you gave it all that you realistically could - that you left it all out there. In James' specific case, it is knowing that he left everything he had on the Javelin runway. I have zero doubts that James has done just that and will continue to do so over the last few meets of his Rice track career."
James McNaney is the one who's smiling now.
-RiceOwls.com-
While waiting for one last teammate to arrive before the vaulters' session could begin, McNaney jokingly asked the 2019 Pan American javelin bronze medal winner a simple question: "Do vaulters make decent javelin throwers?"
The question led to a wry smile from Ince and a proposition for McNaney and the Owls' vaulters. Do you all have some time?
What followed was an impromptu clinic in which Ince showed the group the basic techniques of the javelin and the correct methods to avoid injury. McNaney then began throwing the javelin and it felt good - real good.
"It turned out that I was pretty decent at listening to what her instructions were and transmitting them to something that ended up with the javelin flying straight and at the end of it she (Ari) kind of threatened me by saying she was going to tell Brek (Christensen)," McNaney recalls.
Ince held up her end of the bargain and informed Rice throws coach Brek Christensen about McNaney's session and with that started a new journey for the Longview, Texas native and graduate of Pine Tree High School.
"Ari has been one of the best women's javelin throwers in the United States for the past several years, so clearly I trusted that there was some merit to what she was saying," said Christensen. "I figured there was nothing to lose both in the sense of how James had been performing recently in the pole vault and on the mere fact that you can't be afraid to take chances and see what you have. Now that being said, you can't just take anyone and make them a javelin thrower. While it looks similar to the overhead throwing motion of throwing a football or baseball, it is much more of a total body movement that requires a big violent stretch reflex stemming from your right leg through your hip/torso and into your shoulder complex (for a right handed thrower)."
"I personally am big believer that with javelin there is a need to have a predisposition or innate ability to actually throw something. And after our first session or two it was very clear that James had what I refer to as "whip" or "arm talent" to throw. He wasn't afraid to create the big stretch reflex through his body required to throw far. Oddly enough that has a lot to do with his background in the pole vault and the upper body mobility it takes to execute a proper vault."
With the transition to becoming a javelin thrower fully underway, McNaney was not only dealing with the physical aspects of learning a new craft but also mentally letting go of something that had always defined him. Letting go of that dream and chasing a new one seemed daunting but McNaney leaned on Christensen and teammates that he was making the right decision.
"The whole transition was actually really hard for me because this was my junior year of college and I was the captain of the pole vaulters at the time and it had been something I had been doing for almost a decade at that point," McNaney said. "It was part of my identity. Everything I did and anyone who knew me was like James is a pole vaulter. I had been dealing with hamstring issues and other injuries that were keeping me from pole vaulting like I knew I could. It just kind of came to this moment and Brek and my teammate Dane Stolsig were just looking at me and saying you've got something special here. Javelin is something that could really give you this potential that you could do something with it."
With a clear mindset and a new outlook on his Rice career, McNaney was poised to officially begin his new journey with the start of the 2020 outdoor season. However, the outdoor campaign would be canceled due to COVID-19, leaving McNaney just one more season to compete in 2021. After the initial disappointment wore off, McNaney went to work even harder and he laser-focused on his technique.
"Whenever it did come out that COVID was real and Rice was going to be affected by it to the point that we weren't even going to be able to train, it took a lot of air out of me," said McNaney. "But that wasn't just because I might have missed my shot. For my training partner Dane (Stolsig) it was going to be his last season and my whole goal for that entire season was to be that little annoying fly in his ear saying I'm catching up to you. I never got that season with my captain so I felt really bad about that."
"But that summer really helped me fine-tune a few things. It gave me the opportunity to go take a javelin and adjust my release and how it needed to be to make sure it flies. A lot of people kind of see these big throws or these results at meets but no one really knows the back story. My back story over COVID was that summer I worked on a lot of tiny little minute technical training things that you don't see immediately impact a large throw. But whenever I go back and I watch videos of what I used to be like before last year and now, I see those little fine-tune things showing up in the throws to where honestly if COVID didn't happen I might not have had the time to focus on those small things."
With a solid base and the right guidance, McNaney hit the ground running this spring and won the javelin with a throw of 65.98m at the Longhorn Invitational in his first-ever javelin competition. That performance set the stage for his home debut on March 9 at the Rice Invitational. On his third attempt, McNaney unleashed a throw for the record books by sailing the javelin 67.88m (222-8) for his second straight victory. The mark ranks No. 2 all-time in program history behind All-American Evan Karakolis, No. 3 this season in C-USA, and No. 16 on this year's NCAA West Qualifying List. In total, McNaney has posted six top-three finishes at seven meets.
For McNaney, the success has proven validation behind Christensen's and Stolsig's encouraging words. He also knows that nothing is guaranteed in the post-COVID world and is trying to soak up every minute of the final season of his Rice career.
"There's this feeling inside me that at any point in time COVID could start getting worse and this could all be taken away from us again," he said. "I have tried to treat every meet this season as if it was going to be my last because right now we don't know. We are not guaranteed anything. It's a privilege that we get to be out here and train. It's a privilege that we get to compete the way we do. It's a privilege that I have the coach that I do. I can be a bit of a head case at times with a really busy schedule and going for a Masters in electrical engineering. Brek is having to juggle all that, as well as COVID, and has been the most understanding coach that I could expect or even wish for. He has been out here to throw with me at 8 a.m., he's been out here to throw with me at 8 p.m. I've been the only person out here with the lights on and he's been here with me through it all and I know I wouldn't be where I am today without him.
McNaney's journey has been a long and winding road and he'll have the opportunity to add more chapters to conclude his story with opportunities at the Conference USA Championship and NCAA's. Regardless how it ends, he wouldn't change a thing.
"If I hadn't gone through the transition that I had to go through with pole vaulting and learning to let that go I wouldn't have grown as the athlete I am today," he said. "It's really challenged me to look at things in a big picture. Everybody is in some degree a sum total of all the parts that have happened to them in the past. I'm pretty happy with where I am right now so I can't necessarily turn back and say I wish I would have done this differently because I am in a place where I feel good."
Christensen echoes the same sentiments of McNaney and knows the small-town, East Texas kid has more than earned his stripes.
"To sum up what I think of James I will tell you this, the main thing that I try to get across to every single athlete that I get the privilege of coaching is that it is not the personal records or medals that really matter in the end," he said. "It is truly knowing that when your athletic career is over that you gave it all that you realistically could - that you left it all out there. In James' specific case, it is knowing that he left everything he had on the Javelin runway. I have zero doubts that James has done just that and will continue to do so over the last few meets of his Rice track career."
James McNaney is the one who's smiling now.
-RiceOwls.com-
Players Mentioned
Pole Vault
/ Men's Track & Field
Javelin
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