U.S. National Highland Athletic Championships

This is Celtic Classic’s third year of hosting the official U.S. National Highland Athletic Championships and our 20th year of witnessing many World Records being set on our Highland Fields!

Come and watch as this year’s competitors perform feats of strength, speed, agility and skill which were once commonplace during the various fairs, clan gatherings, and tainchels, or great hunts, of medieval Scotland. The games feature events that have changed little since medieval times; lifting of heavy stone, throwing the hammer, and tossing of the caber. Lucky for us, the game of ‘twisting the four legs off a cow for which a fat sheep is offered as a prize’, no longer occurs in the more civilized programs of modern games.

2008 Competitors to be named in August

Here are the 2007 U.S. National Highland Athletic Competitors!

Harrison Bailey III – Easton, PA
Dave Barron – New York, NY
Sean Betz – Omaha, NE
Larry Brock – Charlotte, NC
Kerry Overfelt – Loretto, KY
Craig Smith – Englewood, OH
Ryan Vierra – Stevinson, CA
Dave Brown – Garden Valley, CA
Will Barron – Syracuse, NY
Mike Zolkiewicz – Springfield, MA

Meanwhile please enjoy these articles on Highland Athletics from our 2005 program book:

Learn more about Highland Games!
The following articles, written by Katherine Moyer, were originally published in the 2005 Celtic Classic program book:

• The Origins of Today’s Highland Games
• Donald Dinnie, Scotland’s Greatest Athlete
• Jack Shanks Conquers the ‘Dinnie Steens’
• Interested in becoming a Highland Athlete? Learn how in, “So, You Want to Be a Heavy…”
• Equipment used in Highland Athletics

Of whom som leape, some wrestle for the day; Some throw the sledge and others spurne the barre; All act a part which makes them fit for warre.
-William Denny, “Annalia Dubrensia”

The Origins of Today’s Highland Games

The exact origins of today’s highland games are unknown. However, it is likely that they cam from the contests of strength, speed, agility and skill which were commonplace during the various fairs, clan gatherings, and tainchels, or great hunts, of medieval Scotland.

From the earliest times, the highland chieftains would gather their clans together to celebrate in times of peace. The clan’s warriors used these gatherings to test their physical fitness, as these events provided a great excuse to challenge each other in running, jumping, wrestling, and with early forms of weight putting with boulders. Such games also ensured that the Highlanders would keep fit for war.

The exact origins of the games are unknown because after the final battle of the long-running Jacobite Rebellion, life in the Highlands was disrupted and changed forever. The Jacobite Rebellion was dynastic struggle between two different royal houses: the house of Stuart and the house of Hanover, for the rule of Scotland. In 1745, Charles Edward Stuart, known as Bonnie Prince Charlie, made a final attempt to restore a Stuart king to the throne of Scotland. The Bonnie Prince was only able to rouse 5,000 Highlanders against the 9,000 troops of William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland and son of the Hanoverian king George II, in charge of ending the Stuart bid for the throne. Up until the Battle of Culloden on April 16, 1746, the Young Pretender (Bonnie Prince Charlie) and his Highlanders were undefeated. After Culloden, the English army was eager to enact retribution, and ‘Butcher’ Cumberland ordered that all wounded, as well as any one found near the battle, regardless of age or gender, be killed.

After the defeat of Prince Charles’ Jacobite Highlanders on Culloden Moor, the ruling government’s forces devastated the highlands with new laws designed to make future rebellions impossible. These new laws led to the largest uprooting of Highlanders in history, and a complete alteration of the highland way of life. Highlanders were made to swear an oath to obey the Disarming acts, and the wearing of the kilt and tartan, playing of the pipes and the carrying of arms were all banned. Highland chiefs were stripped of their powers and became mere landlords. With these new laws strictly enforced, the old highland way of life came to an end, and the highland games virtually disappeared.

Queen Victoria

It is not until after Queen Victoria visited Scotland in 1841, and returned home to England with a love of all things Scottish did we see the reemergence of the Highland Games. In the next half of century, after the Queen’s visit, everything Scottish became popular, as the Queen and her consort, Prince Albert, adopted a romanticized version of Highland life. In imitation of the royal family, shooting and fishing lodges, suitably decorated with everything “Scottish” were built throughout the Highlands. Once railways reached into the Highlands, facilitating travel, Scotland increasingly became a tourist attraction for visiting Englishmen, who believed that by wearing a kilt, fishing for salmon, and stalking deer, they could blend in with the locals. The Highland Games became one of the biggest tourist attractions. Accounts from the games of this period describe a program of events that are largely unchanged today, featuring ‘dancing, piping, lifting a heavy stone, throwing the hammer and running…’. Lucky for us, the game of, ‘twisting the four legs off a cow for which a fat sheep is offered as a prize,’ no longer occurs in the more civilized programs of modern games. TOP

This love of everything Scottish has lasted until today and there are hundreds of events featuring Highland games being held around the world.

Donald Dinnie: “Scotland’s Greatest Athlete”

Born in Balnacraig, Scotland on July 8th, 1837, Donald Dinnie was a legend of the nineteenth century Highland Games. Regarded by many as Scotland’s greatest athlete, Dinnie is most famous for simultaneously carrying two huge boulders, totaling 785lbs, across the Potarch Bridge. Now known affectionately as the “Dinnie Steens,” the boulders remained where Dinnie left them in 1860, despite many attempts to carry them across the bridge, until 1972.

A trained stonemason, Dinnie dominated the Highland games in Scotland from 1856-1876, with the exception of one year when he was traveling North America. Dinnie was an all-around strength athlete who was at home on the Highland games fields as he was in wrestling or circus rings or on exhibit as a strongman. He was an all-rounder in the Highland games and competed in weight putting, tossing the caber, leaping, jumping, running and Highland dancing. Weighing in at fifteen stone (210 lbs), described as having not an ounce of extra flesh upon him, and standing at six-foot-one, Dinnie must have been a formidable athlete. The records he set in various events in the Highland games in which he competed stood for many years after his death.

Dinnie is also known for being the first competitor to travel and compete in other Highland Games overseas. Apart from the U.S., he also visited Australia and New Zealand as well as South Africa. The years did not seem to make much difference to Dinnie as an athletic performer; he won his last prize in the Highland games at the age of 76, before retiring in 1913. He is recorded to have earned twenty-six thousand pounds in prize money (today if would total to more than $2.5 million), and won over 10,000 awards and competitions during his career.

To learn more about Donald Dinnie please read “Donald Dinnie: The First Sporting Superstar.” By David Webster. TOP

Jack Shanks Conquers the “Dinnie Steens”

Interview: January 14, 2005 by Katherine Moyer

In May of 1972, an Ulster policeman named Jack Shanks became the first man since Donald Dinnie to carry the “Dinnie Steens” across the width of the Potarch Bridge without the aid of a harness or hand straps.

Many men had lifted the stones, either individually or together, since Dinnie. A few, with the help of harnesses or hand straps, even managed to carry them. One visiting Texas millionaire had even built a reinforced cart wheel, attached the stones and waddled across the bridge with the wheel and stones around his waist, but no one had managed to carry both stones, without aids, across the bridge since Donald Dinnie managed the feat in 1860. No one that is, until Jack Shanks.

Hand straps wrap around the lifters wrists and are tied onto the weight, so that the weights are virtually hanging off of the arms. The lifter then wraps their hands around the rings or bar and lifts from there. The higher up on the arms that the straps are tied to, and the higher the weight is from the ground, the easier it gets, as the lifter doesn’t have to bend down as far to lift the weight. Just think of the difference between lifting a gallon jug of water by its close handle and a bag or purse of about the same weight. Lifting the bag should be easier, even though both objects weigh the same, because it’s longer strap separates the lifter from the weight. That’s the difference between the previous attempts at moving the stones and the success of Jack Shanks.

By the time he was 37, Shanks, weighing 12 stone (168 lbs.) when most strong men weighed in excess of 20 stone (280 lbs.), had already set records for lifting barbell weights. When he read an article in the newspaper “Sunday Life,” about a man who lifted the stones across the bridge, Shanks first learned about Dinnie’s original feat. In the next day’s paper, the man was pictured lifting the stones using hand straps under the heading ‘Cheat Lift.’ Intrigued with the idea of carrying them just like Dinnie, with no hand straps and challenged by the newspaper’s call for someone to lift the stones without ‘cheating,’ Shanks started to train to lift the stones.

He made concrete models of the stones, one weighing approximately 340lbs, the other 445lbs, and practiced lifting them. He needed to know the general shape of the stones; how high off the ground they reached, how close the rings attached to the stones, and the shape and size of the rings themselves, and so he asked the local police to do the inspecting for him. “I needed to know,” said Shanks, now 70. “Because depending on how high up the rings were from the ground would make a difference. Since I was a policeman, I thought, who better to trust? So, I asked the police there to measure the stones for me and to get a shape and feel of the rings.”

From their information, Shanks trained himself to lift the stones, and once he felt able, he traveled to where they rested. On the first day, in front of a few witnesses, he lifted the stones four times. From these lifts, he figured out that each time he lifted the stones they came down a short distance from their original places. Shanks thought that if he did the same thing, only exaggerated the motion, he would be able to lift and walk with the stones. “They’re awkward things, ye see,” said Shanks. While straddling the stones and using their weight to propel him forward, Shanks was able to lift and move the stones.  “It took me about 20 repetitions to get across the bridge,” said Shanks. “A distance of about 17 feet and 3 and one half inches, I believe.”

After lifting the Dinnie Steens, Shanks went on to record an official lift of 902 lbs, and, at one point, had 1000 lbs moving but was unable to fully straighten up.

Shanks still lifts weights in his home in Northern Ireland and he can’t quite believe that he still holds the record for carrying the stones, without the aid of a harness or hand straps, across the Potarch Bridge. TOP

So, You Want to Be a Heavy…

As close observers of the Celtic Classic for the past seventeen years, Celtic Cultural Alliance knows that some of you have watched the Highland games every year, and every year you have boasted that, “Hey, I could do that, no problem!”

Well, maybe you could.

Be warned, however, that the Highland games are not for the weekend warriors (you know who you are) who haven’t passed a physical since high school. To become a competent, competitive Highland heavy athlete takes training and a “just do it” kind of attitude.

For those who are in decent shape and who are not daunted by the thought of wearing a kilt, tossing cabers and practicing with boulders and handmade hammers and weights, the games might just really be the only place for you. “Just try it once, and say you did it,” says Jeremy McBain, an athlete from Michigan. “Even if you completely embarrass yourself, so what? As long as you’re having fun.”

To start you on your way to fame and glory as a Highland athlete, we have gathered advice and encouragement from the ‘Heavies’ themselves. Hey, who better to ask?

How to Get Started:

This is where the ‘just do it’ attitude falls into place. Thom VanVleck, an athlete from Missouri, had been a competitive power lifter for fifteen years before falling into the games. “I didn’t want to give up being a competitive athlete, but I was getting fed up with the proliferation of performance drugs. It wasn’t in my personality to take up lawn bowling, shuffle board or soft ball; I needed something with more bite. The fact that the games involve manly endeavors such as throwing tree trunks and tossing iron and lead only sealed the deal for me!” Other athletes have started out by volunteering on the fields during the games; helping to set up the field and lugging the weights and cabers out to the athletes. “I had been watching from the sidelines and later volunteered at the Mesa, Arizona, games in 2004,” writes Richard Wells, a novice athlete from Arizona. “All I could think was, these guys are nuts! Of course, I had to try it.”

Another way to get started in the games is to find someone in your area who is already training and competing in your area and just ask to be shown what it is all about. “Go to games in your area and talk to the athletes. They will always be willing to help. After your first practice, they will also give you the name and number of their chiropractor. I know I help keep mine in his nice new Lexus!” writes Wells. All of the athletes learn from each other, and many gather together like the clans of old to practice the different events and pass on advice and banter. “It is easy to get frustrated in the beginning, as you think “it looks easy” or “I should be throwing farther than that!” writes Alec McTaggart from California. “But, with patience and someone who has thrown before to give you pointers, you should advance through the beginner stage quickly.” TOP

What Kind of Training to Expect:

The athletes train with lots of heavy weight lifting in the winter off-season, and then practice the different events between the competitions during the season. “There is very little that will prepare you for these types of throws besides actually doing the throws. Why in the world would you want to throw 56 pounds above your head unless you were training for the games?” writes Bill Gordon, a novice athlete from Michigan.

Strength training today is done with a lot of modern equipment, but occasionally the Heavies will train using primitive equipment, such as logs, stones or other objects, a la Rocky Balboa. Primitive strength training exercises the whole body and improves coordination, something that is greatly needed to perform well in the various events. “Even with all of the weight lifting I’ve done, it became instantly apparent that these moves are more than just brute strength,” wrote Gordon. “Timing, form and coordination are needed, and it’s humbling the first time you pick up a piece of equipment and toss or throw it.” Occasionally, they will improvise with found items. “Some of the different stuff I do is rip phone books in half,” said Thom Van Vleck. “This improves my grip; I also do levers with sledge hammers (hold the sledge hammer out at arm’s length and bring it back and touch my nose). I then go throw hammer for an hour.”

Novice heavy athletes might find that they have more success in some of the events if they had done some kinds of track and field events in high school or college, but quickly learn that they too have to work on gaining flexibility, core strength (abs and torso), and explosiveness and speed. “It doesn’t take much strength to throw the weights, as the heaviest is only 56 pounds,” writes Van Vleck. “But if you want to throw it far, you must be strong, fast and flexible or you will not throw far and even if you do, you will get hurt.” Whatever your opinion, it is definitely wrong to assume that the Highland athletes are big, slow, burly, awkward characters who can compete in the games without ever having  trained or practiced the events. The skill and grace involved will quickly become apparent as soon as you try spinning around 360 degrees holding onto a 56-pound weight while wearing a kilt in front of a large audience.

Benefits of Being a Scottish Heavy:

The greatest benefit to becoming a Scottish Heavy seems to be the friendships you develop along the way. “I used to tell people that this was the best sport in the world, because we get to travel on someone else’s dime, hang out with our buddies for the weekend and then get paid to do something most of us would do for free,” writes Steve Pulcinella, an athlete from Pennsylvania.  “But what we end up with at the end of our careers are the friends we make over the years.”

“Heavies act like a huge family,” writes Richard Wells. “ Normal post-game ritual is everyone heading someplace for a bite to eat, a couple of pints (ok, sometimes more than a couple…) and a ton of smack talk about the day’s throwing or lack thereof. Since most of the guys that participate in Highland athletics are fairly large, we can wear a “man skirt” (kilt) in public and know that no one will laugh, out of sheer fear of what might happen if they did.”

“What do I get out of being an athlete?” writes James Durnil, a chaplain and athlete from Wisconsin. “Hospitality, mentoring, coaching, friendship, good fun and the feeling of being run over by a Mack truck the following day.” TOP

Equipment used in Highland Athletics

Scottish Heavy athletics are traditional events and require traditional equipment. Sporting goods stores just don’t carry cabers, riverbed stones, sheaves, hayforks or the required kilts next to the baseball and soccer paraphernalia. The equipment currently used for the Highland games has evolved from the practical, everyday items that were available to the early Scotsmen. So, fifty-six- and twenty-eight-pound steelyard weights became the weights for height and distance. The blacksmith’s hammer, or “mell,” used for driving in fence posts, became the twenty-two-pound Scottish hammer. Riverbed stones, prized for their rounded shapes, became ideal for stone putting. The practical origin of the sheaf toss was the storage of hay for winter; hay, bundled into sheaves and then tossed from wagons into barn lofts. There are many myths about the origins of caber turning. Some say turning was a practical way for loggers to move tree trunks across rivers or down hills, others think that maybe the cabers were turned so that castle walls could be scaled during battle. Or, some believe, it was just fun to have a log and then see who could accurately flip it through the air.

Equipment is generally provided at such events like the Celtic Classic by the event director. In order to practice for the games, many of the Highland athletes make their own equipment, inherit used items, share with each other in practice groups or purchase the harder-to-construct items from entrepreneurial athletes who make top-quality equipment. Instructions on how to construct your own equipment can be found on the Internet, and many of the athletes share tips with each other about making or choosing the proper equipment. “After I first tried the games, I came home and made my own equipment,” wrote James Durnil, an athlete from Wisconsin. “Now my trunk is full of all sorts of things that I toss, and my family laughs when I become enamored with large stones I see along the road or as part of someone’s landscape.”

Some of the less visible equipment would be hammer spikes and the Tacky. Hammer spikes are the long, metal, well…spikes, you might see attached to a few of the athlete’s boots near the toes. They are for digging into the earth and grounding the athlete during the hammer throws, when the velocity they are generating has the potential to knock them off their feet. With the spikes the athlete can generate even more energy and force behind his throws without fear of falling over and having his kilt fly up. The Tacky is used to help the athletes keep a grip on the weight throws, caber and hammer as they are generating the massive amounts of force required to throw these implements. The Tacky, according to Larry Brock, maker and distributor of “Magic Tacky”, is a pretty basic substance consisting of rock rosin and, depending upon who is making it, either gasoline, scotch, paint thinner or turpentine. It is a pretty dangerous substance to make that requires a lot of patience, as the cooking Tacky, if heated up too quickly, has a tendency to catch fire.

All the things you need to make the equipment, while not being available in a sporting goods store, possibly can be found in your local hardware store or river bed. With a little ingenuity, dedication and appreciation for the practical origins of the equipment used for the Highland games, you too could be tossing cabers in your own backyard.  TOP

2008 Celtic Classic

September 26-28, 2008
Bethlehem, PA

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