I don’t believe people are exaggerating. We are simply stating that if their training program was directed to lifting heavier, we believe that they could lift heavier. This doesn’t mean that we are advocating it.
I don’t believe anyone in their right mind - if they happened to acquire Bolt and Powell as their athletes - would advocate that they squat heavy. Mo Greene easily full squatted over 400lbs, as did many others in his group who also ran under 10 seconds. Does this mean everyone should do it? No. It may reflect a preference by the coach, and it is not a question of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.
For younger athletes, working on your squat could very well improve their start and acceleration - particularly if their strength levels are not great. Does this mean everyone should do it? Certainly not. It is a case-by-case assessment.
The art of coaching is making appropriate decisions given the circumstance placed before you (athlete type, personality, climate, facilities, group size, etc). I do get frustrated when people argue about black-and-white issues when there is so much gray area in training. Good coaching is about making good decisions, not following a plan or philosophy blindly.
As Flash cited, Ben did heavy squats and ran fast (not because of squatting heavy). It does go back to what Charlie outlines in his lecture DVD’s - you have different options and different means of eliciting training effects. Squatting is a tool and, in some cases, may even be an indicator. As we found out in another thread, deadlifting is a tool. Is one better than the other - who really knows from an absolute point of view? If you don’t have a squat rack, I’d say perhaps deadlifting is an option. Same if you are Quasimodo.
Others may throw a med-ball or rely on jumps. I remember when Charlie and I were back in North Carolina doing a seminar (that’s where we met Flash and Pioneer), we had dinner with what was then one of the top female sprinters in the world and her coach. We found out that she didn’t lift heavy, but did hundreds upon hundreds of reps of jumps and plyos. She looked pretty freakin’ strong and scary to me. She did kind of scare us.
If people are out there advocating deep heavy squats for mature athletes to get faster, well that’s unfortunate. But I do believe that people on this forum are much more intelligent than to purport that squatting leads to a fast 100m.