Yes, decathlon has a different wind legalities as already pointed out. Not to mention the USATF site routinely has inaccuracies, but that is another matter altogether. Look up the results.
The funny thing to me is the fact that many training programs that we use today on Africans mostly have been developed in cold climate (e.g. Russia, Poland) regions.
Nevertheless, I have the belief that racial groups are quite different from each other (beyond skin color) and that all racial groups have there own natural proclivities.
What are you talking about? Mills has said most of his training comes from Bud Winters ala SJSU, which is nothing like Eastern European training.
i find it funny - listening to most of you guys.
Something along the lines of - White guys just aint getting the Proper training in… What bullocks
Only the blacks get the good coaching… so laughable.
Without doubt, a white as white guy will run sub 10sec. But this aint the point.
The point is, only blacks are running sub 10sec to date. Currently it isnt raciest at all, its fact.
If your pissed about it, Do something about it! Run faster
Trey Hardee actually went to my school, Vestavia Hills High School, and he graduated in 2002. He has many of our school records. However, I believe that nobody would have guessed that 7 years later he would be a World Champion Decathlete. I was flattered the other night when I was doing a hurdle workout at Vestavia and an elderly man approached me and asked if I was the Vestavia boy who had “won all those medals in Berlin”. Here were Hardee’s HS PR’s as posted by alabamarunners.com. I believe, due to Hardee’s recent level of success, that they go to show how sub-par training can hinder an athlete. While his performances were good in high school, I don’t think anybody would think in 2002 that they foreshadowed his level of success.
300 Meter Hurdles - 39.26
100 Meter Dash - 10.83
Pole Vault - 15-2
55 Meter Hurdles - 7.63
400 Meter Dash - 55.74
I believe that hard work is 10 times more important than talent or physiological structure.
As for the issue of body structure. Every perceived advantage is usually a disadvantage in another way. Ex: Long limbs may hinder acceleration yet help top speed. Vice versa for short powerful limbs. My advice is to play to your strengths, because that is what will come naturally. If you are built for power, you will likely find it easier to build more power than try to radically transform your body to a sleak slender body that may rely more on finesse.
I never had the luxury of an indoor season the past 2 years but I believe I would have had Trey Hardee’s HS time beaten in the 55 meter hurdles judging by the fact that my start is my best asset and based on how I fared in practice against a 7.71/14.32 hurdler. We will see later this week as I have decided to run a 55mH time trial on my own out of curiosity. My best friend from Vestavia, William Henley has Hardee’s HS pole vault best beaten because he jumped 15"6 as a junior. The point I am making in this paragraph is that the kind of natural talent that is required for world class performances and world records may not be as rare as it is made out to be. I believe that William and I, as white athletes, possess the potential to become world class in our events with the right work ethic, dedication, and training. I say that not to boast or brag, but to attempt to explain my belief that the potential for great things is in many of us. The greatest limitation that anyone has is not in their legs, muscle fiber distribution, height or weight. It is between their ears.
“Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people dont. They sit in front of the TV and treat life as if it goes on forever.”
I am allfor saying it is about what is in your head, but there are plenty of people who have trained great for a long time, work extremely hard, and have 0 chance of beating Bolt when he is healthy… Talent is huge and undeniable.
Hardee was considered incredibly raw coming out of HS and even after his freshman year (hence transfering to UT and improving dramatically).
While they have tried hard, have they tried as hard as they could have? If they had tried harder or trained a different way would they be faster than Bolt? We will never know. I believe that there are MANY people out there with the potential to beat Bolt out there, millions and millions. Not right now, but with work. Bolt is currently the best combination of hard work and natural ability.
Millions of people with the potential to run 9.58/19.19? Pipe dream.
I’m not saying apparent potential. I am not even saying these people with potential are even close. Not even within seconds. I am saying if these people with potential had devoted their lives to the sport and had the training Bolt had, their are many people that could have possibly accomplished what he had. millions is at least 2,000,000 out of 6,000,000,000 people in the world. That is 2/6,000. How many athletes has Glen Mills coached? Was he really so lucky as to find an athlete with talent so rare that it was scarcer than 2 in 6,000? I know I may get flamed for saying this, but I really don’t think so. He ran sub 20 as a 17 year old, and some may use this as evidence to support the theory that his level of natural propensity is so rare, but how many people had the training background that he had by the time he reached that age. I am pretty damn sure that statistically speaking, his level of training background by that age is much more rare than any immeasurable natural propensity
and what % of people that would have had a natural propensity for sprinting actually took up the sport to begin with? I doubt it is even in the double digits.
What you are saying is just so blatantly stupid it really isn’t worth discussing further.
I understand that you probably disagree with my views vehemently because I really haven’t met but a few people that do agree with me, but I really don’t appreciate you calling my ideas stupid. How can it be determined who has more “natural talent” unless the two athletes being compared were subjected to the exact same training and lived the exact same lifestyle? And how can someone assume to know what is natural talent and what came from hard work? Do you not think it is possible for someone of average “natural ability” to achieve great things through the sweat of their own brow?
maybe my view is skewed as I am familiar with a different event (the hurdles) in which “natural ability” may have a different level of importance
Tell me what can’t be accomplished. I don’t see why people treat speed so much differently than other physical qualities that are trained. People assign some sort of mystical quality to speed. It’s like people believe you’ve got it…or you don’t. I don’t buy it. Tell me why a slow fat kid can’t become fast. What if he leans down, gets stronger, works on his technique. Here’s my stats, tell me what i can’t accomplish.
Age-19, just turned 19 about 2 weeks ago
Height-6 feet
Weight-190…4 years ago i weighed 152
40 yard dash- 4.34…4 years ago 4.60
Vertical Jump-36…4 years ago 20 something
Standing Broad Jump- 10"6
Bench Press-345…4 years ago i benched 185
Deadlift-500…4 years ago about 300
Parallel Squat-430 3x6…4 years ago 200’s
110 Hurdles-14.598…4 years ago 16’s
Can I not improve to a 40 inch VJ? Can I not get my bench up to 400? Can I not break 14 this year? Am I really limited by my natural ability? Is that why I can’t run a 4.2 or bench press 400 pounds. I don’t think so. I think it is because I have not displayed the level of consistency in training that would allow me to do that.
I know that many dispute the bench presses relevance to track but I will use it as an example as I believe the concepts I am describing apply to all physical endeavors that are being trained.
I believe that an average man of average size could easily bench press 400 pounds within his lifetime. 400 is a lot of weight and is very strong. But I believe great things are in many of us. I believe the average man of average size could probably squat close to 600 pounds in his lifetime with enough dedication. I believe most people could attain the level of flexibility to do the splits in their lifetime. I believe with the prerequisite strength, high levels of explosiveness and speed would be easily attainable through sprint training and plyometrics. I believe this seemingly “average” man with his levels of speed, explosiveness, strength, flexibility could attain excellent sprint form and be a great athlete in many sports he may wish to pursue including track. If this “average” man could really attain such things, what is stopping him from the next level
I am agree more with bobsanchez4321
I dont really know anything about track,but yeah,if you already have the natural abiity and devote urself fully to the sport,of course someone will be able to break his record,there are so many people out there and poeple breaking records is like everyday stuff,you would be surprised.Dont tell me that there is no one isnt able to acommplish what he has.Like i said if someone have the potential and natrual ability and train hard/watch ur diet and devote their life to the sport,of course they can be better than bolt
I mean yeah,I agree with some of yall saying there is a limit,but if u train diffrent way,there is always a little that you can improve
If you don’t think that there are million of people that have it in them to beat Bolt, answer me this question. This is obviously impossible because of obvious reasons, so keep in mind that this example is for statistical reasons only. Do you think if Glen Mills was given 6,000 males to train between 10 and 20, he could come up with one sub 9.58, sub 19.19 sprinter within 10 years? If he could come up with just 1 athlete faster than Bolt, then that would be the statistical representation that would be equivalent to 2 million people in the world.
I just realized a flaw which I will correct. I forgot to take gender into consideration so let us cut the numbers in half. Everything is now based off of roughly 3 billion men in the world. So that means Glen Mills is now training 3,000 males between the age of 10 and 20. I find it hard to believe that if Glen Mills could effectively coach 3,000 male athletes over a 10 year period that you truly believe he couldn’t come up with one athlete to beat Bolt’s records.
PS-If anybody wants to understand this thread they might wanna read this page from the top
Bob, your perception about the average man is pretty flawed, sorry.