I’m sure many of you have read The Ultimate No Bull Speed Development Manual by Kelly Baggett. In it, he states that during top speed the ground forces are mainly generated by the involuntary forces of the tendons and not the muscles. Does this mean that muscular strength gained in movements like deadlifts have really no carryover to top speed? I wonder why Maurice Greene had such great top speed. He didn’t have long legs or achilles tendons relative to anyone he raced, but he sure did have better top speed. Maybe you can work really hard on your short response plyometric abilty (flying 20 yard dashes), and it will overcome your obvious tendon disadvantages.
Thanks
Not entirely true, especially at lower levels.
Plyometrics activity (especially via top speed sprinting) would be more important–especially as you become even faster, but to say weights have no carry over isn’t really true.
So why did Maurice Greene have such great top speed despite not having long achilles tendons?
OK, Thanks. For anyone else who wants to know the answer to my question I’ve found it in Kelly Baggett’s No BullCrap Sports Training Newsletter at http://www.higher-faster-sports.com/No_BullCrap_Sports_Training-newsletter4.html.
His achilles tendon is a lot longer than the average man?
There is only 1 good sprinter with a short achilles and that is Yepishin and he isn’t even that great (for the pro level).
And even if he did have a short achilles, it is only part of the equation.
wait so you found you’re anwser from the same guy who made the statement that confounded you. :rolleyes:
Yep, do you feel different?
I’ve noticed that asafa’s Achilles aren’t particularity long compared to other sprinters… maybe we’re putting to much emphasis on the length of the Achilles. Perhaps the slenderness and the Achilles and/or length of the heal bone are more important, certainly Wariner seems to have quite an elongated heal bone and slender Achilles though not particularly long. Maybe it’s the physical make-up of one’s Achilles. I’ve also heard that most of the energy storage/transfer happens in a very small area at the bottom of the Achilles.