I think it’s a hell of a lot harder to run 100m around a curve than it is on the straight. I also think giving Bolt an outer lane will help lower his times. The reason I think this is he knows he will win, he’s so much faster than everyone anyway that he isn’t using people he can see to judge his pace, and this minimizes the effects of the curve.
In ‘The Lore of Running’ by Tim Noakes you’ll find various tables which have used different statistical methods(!) to predict the progression of performances over time and interestingly…ultimate performances for 100m to marathon. If my memory serves me well, the ultimate performance prediction for 400m was 39secs
Vabo, Mills is Usain’s coach from late 2004.
ops!
and why do press say mills was his coach after those bad years (many injuries)?
I’m sorry, but I just can’t see it. Not without a significant improvement in speed.
I don’t see all those as being negatives, you said it your self, Gay isn’t able to touch him, so I don’t see how he would make a difference, I don’t think training for the 100m and 200m has made that much of a difference and the track has turned out a plethora of PB’s, NR’s and SB’s across multiple events, regardless of what was thought of it pre-champs.
As has already been pointed out, the 150m in Manchester was on a 150m straight. Most estimates I have heard put the cost of the bend at roughly .3 over 100m. This would put Bolts curve at 9.88 based on the 100 - not that different to the 9.92 reported by the IAAF biomech team. His second 100 was 93.4% of his first; MJ’s was 90.9%, which would give Bolt with a 9.88 bend an 18.99. If Bolt were to match MJ’s speed maintenance, he would have to run a 9.77 (:.~9.47 for the 100m straight) on the bend (Asafa’s 100m WR only a couple of years ago), followed by an 8.88 (Fastest recorded relay split other than himself and Asafa, 3/10ths faster than MJ and a .44 second improvement on his own).
Regardless of the negative factors, I just don’t see him going near 18.6X.
BTW, I didn’t put 2 and 2 together before, but Jim Bradley owns the Jim Bradley speed-ball company, no wonder he’s keen on them for athletes!
I put the human limit in all sprints at .1 of a second - at least until the start rules change.
BTW, I didn’t put 2 and 2 together before, but Jim Bradley owns the Jim Bradley speed-ball company, no wonder he’s keen on them for athletes!
Exactly!
As for Bolt, not many people believed he could run 19.19 or 9.58. Even if you asked MJ he would have said (and he did say) that Bolt would not break the record again.
I respect your opinion but Bolt will prove soon enough that sub 19 is possible. We may speculate about what ifs etc. I reckon let’s just wait and see. I have been patiently waiting for 4 years to see first sub 19. Only .19 away, now!
Just to be clear, Jim Bradley does not own the JB Speedball Co. His name is just used as a figurehead.
I think he will go sub 19 eventually, I just think 18.65 is a little much to hope for - I simply can’t see a way for him to do it. If he runs under 9.45 I will say its not entirely improbable.
BTW can any one believe the numbers we are talking about here? I mean 9.5 seconds and 19.1 HOLY ISH.
From what I remember, he had another coach through 2004, suffered some injuries and imbalance…then met Mills, and he first solved the issues in 2005, then built the athlete…
The first thing Mills faced, was recovering him.
Dazed,
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=21252
If you did not have a chance to read it. It may be of interest.
I have promised to the mods that I have finished with JB subject because obviously …well the reasons are self evident. I am not continuing this nor I am looking for a ban but
Hicksy I live less then 2km from JB 
And if you check my IP address it comes from Keilor area where the JB business is…so…
Let’s not continue it on this forum. You have the (myspace) link and if you want you can do it there.
i know this part of biography but i remember different years
tx for infos
Rounds run out of positive assistance before number 8 I’d think but the value of a sheltered big stadium can’t be overestimated. That’s why i would doubt that a maximum legal wind would help unless you had the extroardinary fortune to have a quartering wind at just the perfect angle .
I think the rounds would mean there is a net negative effect, but that may be mitigated somewhat - particularly when you consider the sub maximal effort put in for most of those rounds with his next fastest 100 3/10ths slower than his max and the 200 semi nearly a second slower than the final.
I’m not saying it made no difference, but I think with his reserve and the potentiation effect of the rounds negative is not as great as one may initially conclude.
At any rate, one of the biggest problems will be finding a meet that can afford Bolt. If he was asking for 250K before what will he be asking now? I just hope he doesn’t price himself out of the market. It may be worth his while taking a leaf from pharma pricing - charge what each market can afford rather than a fixed price for all. You have more experience in these matters than I, what are your thoughts on Bolts fees? With the number of races he has competed in, I can’t see how he is maximising profits - revenue per race yes, but not across the entire season.
I’m thinking your point about price is to Bolt’s benefit. If there are less options, he may have a chance to recover- if he runs everywhere, it couldn’t happen.
Do top guys basically plan out a yearly schedule, and then use the fee offers/negotiations to figure out exactly which meets to go to?
Or will they run at a particular time or against particular people just because the fees are high enough, even if it’s not part of an annual plan?
I imagine the second way would be more lucrative, but less helpful in the long term.
Certainly they want it planned out far in advance before the WCs but after has more flexibility, and meet promoters want that too because they need to know who the stars of the WCs are and how many they should try to get within their budget.
Bolt’s so fast he has us feeling dizzy
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Dan Silkstone Berlin
August 22, 2009
Other related coverage
* Bolt blitzes 200m field for stunning world record
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IN PUBS and offices and lounge rooms across Australia and around the world, let the argument begin. Is Usain Bolt the greatest sprinter the world has seen? Is he the greatest runner full stop?
He wants to be, and who could blame him? Normal-sized challenges are fast evaporating for the man who has already claimed two gold medals and two world records at the world championships in Berlin after claiming three of each at the Beijing Olympics.
‘‘I keep telling you guys, my main aim is to become a legend, that’s what I’m working on,’’ he said after setting a world record of 19.19 seconds on Thursday. ‘‘It’s a great feat for me to have broken my world record. I didn’t know I was going to break it.’’
On the minus side, the great Jamaican has been the dominant force in the sport for only the past two years.
How do you compare that with an athlete such as Carl Lewis, who showed greater versatility over a longer period and combined sprinting and long jump, two very different disciplines? Or Haile Gebrselassie, who has achieved domination and longevity - the two most difficult feats for any sportsman.
On the plus side, everything else.
Bolt is, unquestionably, more dominant than Lewis, who, from time to time, was known to lose. He blows world records away with a regularity and audacity that the great American never consistently managed.
In events previously decided by fractions of fractions of seconds, he wins by more than five metres. He produces his fastest runs on the biggest stages. Bolt’s feats here have taken the Jamaican to a level previously unseen in his sport. He does things deemed, until recently, impossible.
It was once thought that Michael Johnson’s 19.32 seconds for the 200 metres was a time built to last.
Twice now Bolt has exploded past it. It was thought that humans could not run 100 metres in 9.5 seconds. They can.
On Thursday he said there was no reason why 200 metres could not be run in under 19 seconds.
Previously, he was judged a slow starter; he has worked hard on that weakness. In the 100 metres he got away from the blocks quickly; in the 200 metres he was first out. Achilles minus his Achilles heel is a fearsome proposition.
Today he stands on the cusp of history as the 4 x 100 metres final offers up another gold medal and another record. Unfortunately for him, he needs the assistance of lesser men to get there. ‘‘I am ready for another world record with our relay, but I do not know whether my teammates are,’’ he said.
Memo to Michael Frater, Asafa Powell and co, drop the baton at your peril.
As a sprinter Bolt is beyond parallel, but as a man he is fast achieving similar status. In sport, we have known popular nice guys and swaggering showmen; not often have these traits co-existed in one man.
Before winning the 200 metres he entered the stadium wearing a T-shirt that read: Ich bin ein Berliner (I am a Berliner). How well do you reckon that went down with a German crowd already swept up in adoration?
Journalists love him because he talks well, smiles big and delivers classic quotes. Crowds love him because he dances, delights and makes all who pay to see him run leave the stadium feeling privileged to have witnessed it. He does not lack for charisma.
American Wallace Spearmon, who captured bronze in the 200 metres, admitted he had entered the race hoping for second place. That is what Bolt does to you. It seems bizarre to already be pondering how history will judge a man who we are still just getting to know. Perhaps most astonishingly of all, he is only 23.
He joked on Thursday that he would like a knighthood. If Nick Faldo can get one, then Queen Elizabeth should just hand it over without further delay. The street outside Berlin’s Olympic Stadium is named after Jesse Owens, who won gold in Bolt’s three events - as well as the long jump - in 1936. They might as well start building a new one now.
He is not one to rest on the laurels hung repeatedly around his neck these past 12 months or so. He wants to do this, at Olympics and world championships, over and over again.
We can probably say that his is the greatest short stretch of domination ever seen in the sport, that his is the greatest start to a career in living memory.
Then there’s that other bar-room argument. Roger Federer isn’t what he used to be. Tiger Woods is holding steady and Cristiano Ronaldo is an unlikeable tosser. In that argument, only Bolt is on the rise. As ever, he is moving fast.
The argument should be is he the greatest athlete of all time. I can’t think of anyone else at that level that has toyed with the opposition.
I saw a news article saying that it was even more amazing that Bolt is doing what he’s doing, because he hasn’t been training hard. I wonder how much that’s helping him, rather than hindering … 