See Marion. See Marion dribble? 
i heard that she could dunk too :eek:
Notice dorsiflexion as well 
and she has three arms - trying guarding that! :eek:
totally differnt body.
She told us that she could dunk in high school. She’s only 5’10"!
Number Two - the fact she played other sports for so long would tend to go against some coaches ideas on specialisation of the young athlete … do you subscribe to this theory, do you think perhaps playing other sports contributed to he success as a T&F athlete… or are we talking about a just a truly special athlete regardless.
I’m not a big fan of early specialization as it is, but I do think she is a talented athlete that could have excelled in any sport that she chose. Apparently, she was a great softball player. I’m sure she could run rings around people in soccer. How about tennis?
Hard to say if other sports can contribute to T&F success. I’d say all the jumping in b-ball didn’t hurt. Although she had a tendency to bring the same arm forward in her long jump as her driving leg (as you would do in a lay-up) - so in fact she was hindered by basketball when it came to her arm action in LJ.
I would say that Track and Field will help you in almost every other sport.
The summer kids camps run at my university are interesting. Lots of kids doing the same sport all year round. Basketball kids only doing basketball. Soccer kids only doing soccer. Steve Nash - the NBA MVP - apparently played soccer, basketball and rugby through high school.
In the UK, all of the female olympic medal winners over the past decade (if i remember) have come through from a multi events background, with the exception of Kelly Holmes who came from the army (still a multievent!). So even within the area of athletics generalisation rather than specalisation (for women at least) seems to be a good idea at a younger age.
Thanks,
It’s not an area I have a great interest or understanding of, but its certainly an interesting domain especially when you study such an athletic talent as Marion.