Many athletes believe success comes as the result of hard work, determination and perseverance. One Wolfpack athlete, however, claims his success comes from music, weight management and a little bit of luck.

Thrower Jason Jones, a sophomore from Salisbury, attributed having his career best in the shot put last Saturday to his unusual technique.

“Last year, my thing was listening to heavy metal before I was about to throw,” Jones said. “Over the summer, I started lifting with a guy who told me I needed to listen to some R&B to kind of keep me calm. Since I’ve started listening to R&B, I’ve seen my throws improve a lot.”

On Saturday, listening to R&B music, Jones posted a distance of 57’02.25″ in the shot put, the ninth best throw in school history.

“When you listen to heavy metal before a meet you get that adrenaline too early and kind of overuse yourself, and you feel drained when it comes time to throw,” Jones said. “If you have too much adrenaline during the meet, you’ll rush your technique and mess up.”

According to Jones, listening to Reggae artist Bob Marley and R&B singer Jaheim isn’t his only key to a good throw. He has also developed another new strategy to help with his performance.

“Lately, before meets I’ve been going out and buying socks,” Jones said. “My thing this year is knee-highs. I’ll go out and buy a pair of different colored socks. Last Saturday I was wearing a pair of red and black socks, so until things change I’m going to be sticking with red and black.”

Aside from luck, Jones said he also believes in a strict diet that has helped him gain weight and much needed strength to improve his throwing capabilities in the past few months.

“Jason was really little during his freshman year,” volunteer coach and former teammate Mitchell Pope laughed. “I think he weighed around 230 or 240. Now he’s around 300, which helped him get a whole lot stronger.”

Before the start of the 2006-2007 track and field season, Jones had just finished up a 3-year diet bringing his weight down to 215 pounds. Now, weighing in around 300 pounds, Jones said he realizes just how much of a difference that extra weight can make.

“When you’re light it kind of sits differently on your body, and you don’t have the weight to push through the ball,” Jones said. “Now that I’m bigger, I can do a whole lot more in terms of momentum.”

Assistant Coach Tom Wood also recognized Jones’ improvement, remarking on what he has accomplished so early in his career.

“Even though he is young, he has improved vastly,” Wood said. “He’s become much stronger and he is getting better technically.”

When asked who had been the biggest influence while in college, Jones cited Pope, his friend and former teammate.

“It would be rough trying to throw without Mitch helping,” Jones said. “He has been in the same place as me and can translate a lot of stuff for me.”

Jones also pointed out that it isn’t just the athletic trainers that make N.C. State better than the light blue school down Tobacco road, but the students as well.

“Everybody seems a lot more friendly here,” Jones said. “If you go to Chapel Hill the people are nice. I have a lot of friends there. But as far as the people that you don’t know and the people that you meet, they just seem to be friendlier here.”