Narrow hips have less rotational forces, it is easier to prevent rotation of the hips when they are narrow. Narrow hip bone = the width is narrow (e.g width in cm). Simple. Every elite sprinter has narrow hips (this also is one of the reasons they look ggod, the quads sweep out, the adductors chaffe together, the lats look bigger.) Look at the black bodybuilders, they all have narrower hip bones than the white bodybuilders, the “Hour glass” physique. The only white sprinter I can think of with as narrow a hip bone as the black sprinters is Jammie Warriner. Oh yeah, I forgot, he’s not mainly cuacasion, their’s a lot of mix race in him, though nobody is 100 % one race.
I guess you meant this too Moose, but the narrow hips mean that as you contact the ground, you are either striking closer to your centre of gravity (laterally), or the angle at which the force is being applied to the track is narrower, i.e. less side to side movement. Not sure if that’s what Goose meant by rotational forces, but that was my take on it.
Operation? the only operations I know of for that sort of thing involves Cerebral Palsy kids and it’s barbaric! For an athlete, it would be classified as cheating yourself out of a career!
Donovan Bailey is technically sound and Gatlin not? Give me a break. Surin was 9.97 and technically sound before he met Pfaff.
While we’re on the subject of achilles tendons…
Aha - it’s achilles tendons now again? I thought the difference between fast and slow guys was higher % FT muscle fibre not so long ago 
what i meant by what would narrow hips be is like a rough measure, like 15 inches from one side of your body at hip height to the other. it would vary with height right? what would the most important feature be if all other things were equal? would a person with narrow hips beat a person with a long achilles?
A few sprinters without apparent long achiles have been mentioned like the Russian sprinter.
But I’ve yet to see the sprinter with wide or even medium hip width. Look at their physiques on the t.v or google search pictures. There is data as to the mathematical mode average hip width of elite sprinters, racial averages, and averages of sedentry types, but I’m to busy to find it right now - apolagies. If you can’t see that they have narrow hips, then maybe you have narrow hips yourself - a good thing. Also, it’s not untill you look at that part of the body that you’ll notice. Are eyes tend to be drawn to peripheral outlines such as hieght - shoulder broudness, and contours, aswell as details such as eyes, facial expression etc.
Width of hips in men is not really something that catches your attention, unless you are interested in skeletal structure in athletics - trained eye etc…
ok thanks. could you try and find it when your not so busy?
Sorry I didn’t clarify that. I meant Bailey was not technically sound, yet a lot of his other athletes were moreso than him.
Are you kidding me who has run sub 10 with a short achilles? Even the russian dude is a full tenth off from that and he is the only guy I can see with a truly short achilles (I may even tend to say an avg. length compared to the normal pop). All of the other guys are long-normal or just plain long.
Crawford:
and bob beamon too. i have a pic of him in mid air, front on and his calves are possibly even higher than crawfords.
PATRICK JOHNSON… big hips, like many people of Aboriginal origin.
John Regis was, of course, wide all over but as I remember, his hip width was quite large, both realtively and absolutely.
This photo is of poor quality but it still seems to confirm my memory. Compare him to Linford Christie (who had narrow hips and broad shoulders).
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=2116
Other photos from the same site show his calves not to be remarkably high.
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1786
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/athletics-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=2117
jesus christ just looking at that guy reminds me of a cheetah for some reason 
:eek:
look at the size of the upper leg compared to the lower leg. Incredible. Tiny hips, tiny calfs, huge achilles. great pic
arguing about the length of the achiles is kind of moot, i mean longer achiles more elastic force potential etc.
plus they have less of a calf to move around.
the hips thing though is kind of interesting. Do small hips actually directly help with sprint mechanics (let knee injuries out of the equation for now) or are they a byproduct of generaly good genetics?
hey he has flat feet like me.
hey he has flat feet like me.
damn, that means you run sub 10 also?
Wouldn’t that mean a Hypertrophy phase on the calf or calf growth through training would be detrimental to sprinting?? I thought sprinters/jumpers still went through hypertrophy on the calf?
The calf/achilles is very important though… apparently it accounts for 40% of vertical impulse in jumping. It’s also the slenderness of the achilles that makes it more elastic not just the length.
I’m interested in the limb length aspect though… It’s not something I know about. I know long legs are an advantage but long lower legs???
Carl Lewis seemed to have very long upper legs and short lower legs in comparison to his body.