James, I agree with what you are saying. Your last post clarified things morso. I am taking this as an academic discussion, that’s why saying something like, “If you would have studied your blah blah…” is not so academic. You simply don’t know what someone has or hasn’t studied.
Now, on to the other points. Having a world record is an uncommon thing in my opinion. And hard, smart training alone won’t neccessarily get you to world class levels. I’ve trained hard and smart most of my career, yet most of that training has had the wrong focus. Ive bounce around between a lot of different competing sports. I believe focus is the main goal we should all be looking at.
I wanted to staart this thread because I was hoping someone could contribute through analysis. It seems like most on this board are more interested in the opinion, rather than the analysis.
Logically speaking, Asafa and Gat are doing something right. They have two entirely different techniques at every stage of the race, yet they share the commonality of being the fastest men in the world right now.
Since no one has answered the question, I will restate it.
i think if we break down sprinting to its most basic we will find that it is the person who creates the most force for the shortest period of time during ground contact that will have the greatest speed ie the greatest impulse. so form between two fast individuals can differ greatly as long as they satisfy this one issue. a person could run with their arm straight down at their side ore even over their head but if they still generate the same ground contact impulse with each stride they wil run comprable times to that of gatlin or powell. now ofcourse mechanics can greatly affect how that force is distributed and influnece if the given athlete is using his muscle to its greatest ability, this has to do with joint angles with a given joint angle being the greatest mechanical advatage possible for the given movement.
Bold, My bouncing around between many different sports has given me a better understanding of how to train for sprinting. I feel I have gained more through the diversity of my training program than if I would have stuck with the same program for years.
And like I said, training hard and smart will not guarantee that you will attain world class levels. How is the answer completed? My question was
“What can we learn from this?”, meaning:
What can we learn from what Gatlin and Asafa are accomplishing right now? Your answer makes no sense.
to be the best in the world, or say, break 10sec, requires yrs and yrs of the correct hard training, and, choosing the right event for your genitic ability at a young enough age.
There is no point in choosing the 100m dash if your white fibre type is low and nerve response is slow. Some of use just are not suited to world class times. Sacrifising hrs of each day to training, money for massage chrio, actpunct, spas, suppliments, extra food, not working or a very easy low hr day job, family support ect. They all add up to fast times for any event. Take any of these away, and times slow up. Everything has to be there. Many choose not to do all these things, and make there money working, earning cash to make a living, because if they dont, they will live like bums and there running will suffer more. Its a vicious circle. If you dont have $, and train, you suffer from lack of many things needed. So you work to afford those needed things, then, you got less and less time to train and do recovery based programs, but your better off than not working and having no $$.
The answer is, Gatlin and Asafa are Training hard, Smart, have recovery programs, dont work and have the $$ supporting them from a non work bases.
And the funny thing is, by the time your 65 and retire from work, you should have both time and money, but you’ll be too old to run world class Open times.
I can personallly afford to have Summer off the last 3yrs, and when i train, i improve more in that time that the rest of the yr combined. I have rest, time, food, recovery and warm temp to train. Its awsome. But its only 3mnths.
That the last word in sprinting and ultimate performance hasnt been said. The predictions for ultimate performances 100 are mind-boggling i.e 18 flat for 200m, 39 secs for 400m. 1.30 for 800m. Middle distance runners will have the speed of todays sprinters. Will they be mostly ‘fast twitch’ then? If thats the case will sprinters be ‘very fast twitch’!
Paul, I recently came back to training for sprinting full out. I have been training seriously and competing for about 6 years in a multitude of sports including: Sprints, Long /Triple Jump, Jui Jitsu, Breakdancing, Gymnastics, Football, Strongman, Oly Lifting, and Powerlifting.
Previously, a lot of my friends hopped on me saying I would never progress because my efforts weren’t focused enough, but now IM 26 and very fresh for training while a lot of them have burnt out. I also take the knowledge of all my other efforts into sprinting.
I have yet to go under 11 FAT, but I have hit right on 11.00 FAT last year after a football combine I went to.
My reason for bouncing around between a lot of different sports was to gain knowledge on how to train my clients (Im a personal trainer) to a better degree. Turned out, I really liked the learning curve and the challenge it presented each time I tried something new.
Bold, hit upon a big point in that, I can’t just go around trying to have fun alll the time. Eventually, finances do become an obstacle and becoming excellent at one thing will yield a more comfortable lifestyle.
My main goal right now is to get below 11 every time I race, once I acheive that, Ill set new goals. I was recently fortunate enough to pick up a very fast training partner who has gone below 10.30 FAT several times. I won’t mention names for confidentiality, but I know it will contribute to me getting better. In the past, I never had someone to push me, and that is perhaps the biggest element to improvement.