All of this is interesting, but not exactly what I was trying to get at:
Bolt–more emphasis on weights in the offseason, short-long in main season. Close enough to the field at 30m to blow them away later.
Asafa–as much accel development work as Ben in addition to more overdistance than John Smith (until this year).
Linford–there’s that picture with him doing squats off a bench with 700 pounds on his shoulder.
My feeling (which also applies to drob and me with almost identical weight programs) is that if you are well over 6 feet, you need to personalize training more than shorter runners and train a bit differently . “We” get MaxV almost for free once we get our legs extended, but we have to work more on the power side, because it doesn’t come as easy to taller individuals.
See Obikwelu: Terrific top end, but almost always coming from behind, because he doesn’t get out of the blocks with the field.
Thoughts?
I think everyone needs individualized training at the higher levels regardless of height and proportion rather than height will determine acceleration to a great degree.