during frankie fredericks fantastic season in 96(i think) he was banging out 9.8s every week and he was asked what he did differently…his reply was he decreased his stride lenght and focussed on frequency! thoughts!?
Yes, and thats exactly Christophe Lemaître’s coach advice.
He said that if Lemaître managed to increase his frequency in the last 20 meters and reduce his stride he would be much faster.
Of course it doesn’t mean he could automatically challenge Bolt, Powell, Gay, Blake…
That being said Bolt can run in 41 stride, and due to his power and technique he does not overstride to do it.
Running fast is theorically easy : fast frequency & long stride. But the issue is not how good the acceleration is, or which top speed one can reach, or how many or how long the stride, but what time one can run. Bolt is unique and I guess what works for him won’t necessarily works for other.
Each sprinter should run with his own attributes.
If Maurice Greene was to challenge Usain Bolt, I am sure he would still run his race in 45/47 strides because this form suits him the best.
Bolt is becoming such an icone everyone looks up to him and try to copy him, but for one 6’5 top level sprinter how many are around 6 feet?
stride lenght+stride frequency+ana.endurance=sprinting. i still dont think bolt is an icon. ben was alot shorter than bolt and honestly ben would have been just as or if not faster then bolt!
WHY? track surfaces have changed ie…mondo surfaces
design of spikes have increased significantly and r more stiffer plates
supplements have changed LOL
although coaching has not changed alot therapy etc has changed with the introduction of newer recovery aids…
It’s the sweet potatoes.
I agree with everything you said. Its sad that many people dont even realize how fast ben was for his time. Im sure ben would have put so much pressure on bolt that he would have nutted up. The only person i think would have matched ben’s start would be asafa. But I dont know what asafa would have done with been toward the end of the race.
just look at Soeul 88 and his acceleration at 30 and 60m is crazy. at 80 he had 2+ metres on lewis and then he looks around and shuts off WOW! honestly i think he’d blow bolt off the track even by looking at him. imagine 9.79 in 1988 while easing up! his diadora shoes werent exactly as up to spec as lewis’ shoe in 91 which was incredible by mizuno. mizuno even threaded his laces a certain way to reduce weight, they used colours for a specific reason and they were lite years ahead and still are!
im not a crazy BJ fan but what he and charlie did was incredible…INCREDIBLE! bolt would be a pussycat in the jungle compared to ben being a lion! meet promoters are happy with bolt due to crowds etc etc etc…as a moderator i must zip it sorry guys
Exactly! I’m tired of everybody riding bolts jock and using him as some kind of lab rat to study sprinting. Bolt is only 1 of MANY great sprinters that have walked the earth and it’s a disservice to other great sprinters to say he’s the holy grail just because he’s number 1 AT THE MOMENT.
While I’m at it, I get mad when I watch sprinting on TV because the commentary and focus is always on Bolt! Why?! There are 7 other lanes with people in them for god sake!!!
Rant over.
+1 I agree.
Yea, only sprinters and people who study sprinting really know what the deal is. I got into an argument last with with a dude who tried to discredit Ben and say Carl was the better 100m sprinter.
Coming away from that argument I realize that it’s all about IMAGE and how the media shapes people to think of others. People are so dumb, they never investigate things on their own to see for themselves if something is really true or not.
In regards to track surfaces and “what could have been done on today’s surfaces” let’s not forget about who may have been the fastest sprinter of all time: Bob Hayes
As to the question of sprint mechanics, there’s no question, in my view, that not only must the dynamics be individualized in order to suit each sprinter’s anthropometric proportions; but also their output potential at any given time (which obviously develops up to their peak)
I still think it’s fascinating that Nesta Carter essentially goes into complete knee extension prior to ground contact; hence, obviating “stepping down”. Something that Mo Greene also seemed to do which is really pronounced on the 6.39 in which he jumped but didn’t get called.
Yea the average american hates ben cause he was a cheat. I have made so many sprinters open there minds by making them read speed trap and watching bigger stronger faster.
lets not forget that mo ran it twice!
Very true. I have made friends with a fellow who ran 10.2 and trained with others who were in Charlie’s camp in the early 90’s as well as other high level coaches. He has shared some great stories with me.
In regards to track surfaces, bought the 2002 forum review last week and Charlie said that Ben ran something like 10.01 100m on grass. That said, is it safe to say synthetic tracks allow an elite sprinter to run around .20 faster?
As far as Bob Hayes, I’m afraid I’m not qualified to say much about him because it’s hard to me to compare sprinters when I dont have any splits and I’m not like PJ and others around here that are experts in analyzing flim. Split recordings started around 1988, no?
I don’t recall when FAT splits first became available.
As far as track surfaces go, I wouldn’t be surprised if the difference between two synthetic tracks spanning from the premier tracks of today to 20 years ago is in the 1.0-2.0 range; let alone the difference between today’s premier tracks and what Hayes was running 10.06 on nearly50 years ago
I have made friends with an American/Aussie who ran 10.3 and we had a bit of a private session, he asked if I had trained under Pfaff and he suggested I have taken what he was taught 20 years ago one stage further.
All these so called scientific studies are just a means of getting government funding, horseshit
Hence the beauty of what’s been and is currently investigated by the former and current communist/socialist regimes because, to the contrary, the state supplies so much of the backing in the interest of using athletics as a political weapon.
So the question is: who will be the first capitalist society to employ state sponsored athletics support proportional to the former USSR, GDR, and current China?
Who would you suggest, most of us know of undercover facilities but nothing like the former CB countries had.
What I know for sure is that my own country is likely at the bottom of the list of candidates. Considering our diverse gene pool it’s a travesty.
I don’t think it would go down well if our soon to be carbon tax was used to win a few medals. Maybe if a couple of our aircraft carriers were to park, huuumm!!. Nah me think we will continue to hire old CB coaches or those who have studied it. From what I have seen we should support more of the home grown stuff.
It wasn’t Pfaff it was Tom Tellez.
And the system that is being set up here has school teachers being the coaches, I was told the reasoning behind such a system is so everyone will be taught the same thing.