Nick Garcia is like a horse whisperer, but for shotputters. He’s trained 18 Southern Section champions at Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High in the shotput and discus. When he speaks, athletes listen.
Lawrence Kensinger, a junior at Venice, started working out with Garcia once a week. He trusts him so much that he adopted his weight-training regimen and shotputting techniques. More challenging was accepting Garcia’s edict that he’d have to wait until the final two weeks of the track season to reach peak form.
That means when others might be throwing top marks, he will have to bite his tongue, be patient and wait for the City Section championships and state championships to do his best.
“It’s for sure something you think about,” Kensinger said of having to wait to see the validation of his workouts. “I’ve focused on enjoying the process and being patient. When the time comes, I will throw far.”
Garcia believes Kensinger has a 60-foot throw coming this season. His best had been 55 feet 5.5 inches going into this weekend. All the training revolves around reaching peak form when it counts.
“That’s the plan,” Garcia said. “And he will. He’s going to have a big throw soon. You can’t throw far every week. If you don’t plan for the end of the season, someone else will. You want to make sure you’re locked in for the end of the season.”
Kensinger comes from a family of achievers. His brother, Thomas, was a star football player at Venice, went to the Air Force Academy, gave up the sport, became a boxer and recently won the academy’s heavyweight title. Sister Daniella is a beach volleyball player at Arizona State after being the City Section player of the year at Venice.
Lawrence, 5 feet 11 and 210 pounds, played football his first two years at Venice before dropping the sport last season to focus on the shotput. “I started to love it,” he said.
What’s to love about heaving a 12-pound ball of iron?
It’s the journey to win meets.
“It’s a mix of everything — technique, explosiveness, patience,” Kensinger said. “If you try to do brute force, it’s going going to throw you off.”
Now that his big brother is boxing, will Lawrence test himself?
“I’ve been provoking him a little bit,” he said. “I’ve been telling him to teach me how to box.”
Lawrence still lifts weights with the football team, then heads to the track to train by himself. He’s an A student preparing to be the City Section shotput champion, then maybe surprise people at the state meet in Fresno.
He’s got his shotput Yoda instructing him, so who knows.
Venice has one of its strongest City Section track teams, with distance standout Paul Tranquilla and 400-meter runner Nathaniel Santa Cruz ready to score points in multiple events.
Remember, Kensinger is only a junior and sticking with Plan A.
“It’s all about those two weeks, the City championships and the state meet,” he said.
He’s a 17-year-old committed to the process of preparation and execution while waiting for the big day to happen.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
