Technique Is Everything For Penn’s Sam Mattis

Sam Mattis knows if it’s going to be a strong throw even before it leaves his grasp.

Mattis, a senior at Penn, has been flinging the discus for long enough that he can just feel it and mentally crosses off a checklist from wind-up to release.

Is his left side, especially his left arm, steady?

Do his feet hit the center of the circle as he spins backwards, not to the side?

Are his legs and hips — strengthened from a new-found dedication in the weight room (specifically Olympic lifts) — ready to uncoil and provide power?

Last, but not least, the discus must remain firm in his right hand and sail true.

All of those pieces created a historical puzzle last month at the Philadelphia Collegiate Classic when Mattis unleashed a titanic throw on his first attempt. Mattis’ heave cut through a cold, wet and windless afternoon and soared 67.45 meters (221 feet, 3 inches), which left him second on the all-time collegiate chart — a mere eight inches behind Hannes Hopley’s 12-year-old record of 67.66 meters (222-11).

"It’s probably only the second time I’ve ever PR’d on my first throw — the other being at NCAA prelims in Jacksonville my sophomore year (62.13m/203-10). It freaked me out," Mattis said. "The weather was awful and it was slick, so it shouldn’t have happened — but it did. It’s crazy."

That 221-foot missile was just the start of an incredible series for Mattis, who turned 22 that day. His fifth and sixth attempts sailed 67.21 meters (220-6) and 66.51 meters (218-3), respectively; the first of which you can see in the incorrectly-titled video below.

Mattis became the first man in collegiate history to surpass the 67-meter barrier twice in the same regulation meet. Not only that, but Mattis’ name now appears three times on the all-time chart when it comes to farthest throws (second, third and sixth).

Good technique trumps all, even the elements. That’s something Mattis’ specialty coach, Tony Tenisci, has been driving into the senior’s mind for as long as he’s been a Quaker.

"There are practices when I come out and won’t even touch a discus," said Mattis, who admitted to liking discus more than shot put or the hammer throw because it hurts less. "We’ll have two to three practices per week where we devote an hour to drills.

"If you told me last year or the year before that all we’d be doing is drills, I would probably be a little bit miffed and throw anyway. Now I know what it takes and the little things add up."

Last year the equation amassed to an NCAA title in Eugene, Oregon in early June. Yet if it was to end how Mattis wanted it to, there would have been a podium finish two weeks later at the same venue (Hayward Field) at the USATF Outdoor Championships.

Mattis, however, admittedly lacked the key coefficient that pushes an athlete from great to elite: mental toughness. The lesson he learned by finishing eighth propelled him forward.

"It’s really easy to lose focus," Mattis said. "You have to keep your goal at the forefront of your mind, because it’s likely that someone else has that same goal and every day you don’t work as hard as you can to achieve it, someone else is. You can’t take time off. If you do, someone else is going to kick your butt."

More zeroed in than before, Mattis is more dominant than ever. Outside of a minor slip-up at the Texas Relays where he didn’t make the finals, Mattis won the discus throw at every meet in which he competed and owns seven of the top-10 throws this season (1-7).

Mattis will contest next at the Penn Relays in two weekends where he hopes to achieve a short-term goal of shattering Rodney Brown’s meet record (64.26m/210-10). His long-term goal is to become the first male track & field athlete from Penn to represent the United States at the Olympics since Fred Samara did so in 1976.

"I’ve been thinking about Rio since I started throwing (eighth grade)," Mattis said. "I have a picture of a Rio beach as the wallpaper on my phone. I wrote the ‘A’ standard on my wall. It’s never leaving my sight. I want it bad. I’m going to do everything in my power to get there."