So what you’re saying is that there are 2 types of sprinters:
2 He who relies on elasticity.
Strength you can improve on (squats …etc…)
Elasticity you cant (its genetic in your opinion).
Is that about right???
they both can be improved but elasticty to a lesser extent.
simply put if you break sprinting down into stride length and stride frequancy. Which is a gross oversimplification that takes genetics out of the picture but work with me. Stride length is corralated to strength and stride frequancy being related to elasticty, and stride length is more trainable, its just a fact of life. I know someone will bring up the fact that the number of strides stayed constent throughout Ben Johnson’s career which would indicate a massive imrovement of stride frequancy during his career one must look at it critically. As his career progressed his starting strides became shorter because he was much stronger and came out of the blocks much lower and had to compensate with shorter stronger strides(the first 30m shorter presumably quicker strides), the middle or top speed phase consested of long powerful strides(30-70m, longer strides presumably with some pick up of frequancy), the last 30m power strokes maintaining top speed unlike the previous free wheeling long strides at the end(70-100m shorter quicker strides). So from my shitty short summation of one of the greatest sprinters of alltime’s career you can see that both stride length and frequancy increased in different parts of the race leading to an overall improvement in the final product with the number of steps remaining constent.
Strength improves stride frequency and stride length. Don’t look at strength from weightroom numbers.
Thats ridiculous, cause what you’re saying is that Ben wouldnt have gaines speed from hitting the weight room :rolleyes:
agreed, i may have not said that directly and my apoligies, but it was implied in my post.
Supersprinter- what the hell are you talking about. THEONE is pointing out a valid point that strength in sprinting isn’t just a 1000lb squat or else Fred Hatfield would hold the 60 and 100m world records. He never said anything about getting stronger not helping speed. He was just pointing out that due to various factors such as attachment points and limb lengths certain people are mechanically disadvantaged in the weightroom but may whoop ass on the track. I know he’s an overused example but Kim Collins 9.97 sprinter who doesn’t lift, obviously his squat numbers are probably signfigantly lower than most quality juniors and collage sprinters let alone his pro counterparts. Yet the man has three world championship medals includeing a gold. Dude. You either tried to create a conflict with inflamatory rhetoric in a shameless attempt to get rep points and not even contribute to the disscussion or you just misread/didn’t understand the post preceding yours. I think it was the latter, I hope it was the latter.
Elasticity is absolutely a trainable quality, though improvements will be less marked in comparison to the degree to which limit strength may be developed.
Thank you for clearing that up for me.
Power is the key. Weights is only one way of developing power.
no problem again heres another sprinting for dummies simplfication and breakdown(i am not espically high up on the exponetal curve of intellegance, so i tend to simplify whatever can be simplified for my own intellectal digestion) P=FxV or power= force times veolcity and in short the force comes from the strength training and some from sprinting and the velocity comes mainly from the on the track running and a little from the strength training depending on the exercise selection and exectuion. Of course saying if you work on both F and V and you’ll be the next world champ is bullshit but without sufficent force or velocity the other (presumably more devloped) quality isn’t able to mainfest its self in the form of great times. They can be thought of synergistic qualities.
Why do you see the squat as an absolute indicator for speed just because Ben had a huge squat?
I remember when Ben and Carl competed side by side - we don’t see this kind of showdowns anymore – and how many weight room freaks started to really get interested in sprinting. They though; since “Turbo-Ben” (a widely called nickname) was “like them” (strong as a bull) they automatically though they could be sprinters. Well, the result was somewhat different; ripped tendons and pulled muscles at very low speeds.
Moreover, the effect of Ben’s appearance also threw many aspiring sprinters totally in the wrong direction. Having a huge squat (“since Ben did 300kg in swimming pants, barefooted and whatever…”) and being able to ‘jump’ out of the blocks became an obsession… Again, results where very slim to say the least, notwithstanding a longer line to the doctor’s clinic.
And to this day – almost twenty years later, when talking about Ben’s start, there’s still a misconception that his first step was “huge”… it was not, and no… he did not jump out of the blocks. It’s funny how perceptions can be altered by expectations.
Thanks James, Kelly and nasty for your input.
I still dont fully understand it all but thats OK I guess
That leads me to my next question, how do you train elasticity???
Solely with plyometrics or is there more???
Yes thats exactly why.
Very few 175 lbs guys have a 700 squat, I’ve personally never seen it except for one Cuban olympic weightlifter, he squatted in the high 600’s
Yes thats exactly why.
Very few 175 lbs guys have a 700 squat, I’ve personally never seen it except for one Cuban olympic weightlifter, he squatted in the high 600’s
That leads me to my next question, how do you train elasticity???
Solely with plyometrics or is there more???
The squat is a very good indicator of what an individual athlete can lift on a given day. Whether or not that translates into higher performance on the track is bound into all other training factors.
hmmm salbutamol is a wonderful thing… without it I doubt if an asthmatic athlete could even walk or contemplate sub 10.
Hey, the squat world record is 1074. The man is not the fastest runner in the world! Concentrate on speed and running.
Bob Beamon, the former long jump world record holder, never even did squats. All he did was light leg extensions!!!
Maurice Green used 220 pounds squats for training, going way down and then exploding up!
Cheetahs don’t squats!
That’s funny - I can recall Doc Kreis telling me he has seen Greene doing 400lb+ squats (full depth) for reps at his gym (UCLA weight room). Maybe those were the styrofoam Muscle and Fitness plates that Doc keeps in his weight room (NOT!).
Squats don’t make the sprinter, but it’s obvious from the sprinters that I’ve trained that the better sprinters certainly have the capacity to have a big squat (and many other lifts).
cheetas usually do leg extensions, supersetted with antelope hunting for 30 second…then they rest 2 days…HIT training baby!!!
yeah no tempo at all ever. it’s bad for them.
“cheetahs don’t squat”
I’ve never heard a funnier thing in my life to “justify” a type of training(persumebly he was combining a big name “mo green” with a method “explosive weight training” and then providing an example that wasn’t topical at all “cheetahs”.
yeah he doesn’t squat but he also has 4 legs and no calves just achillies tendon’s and he also might just might have 90% fast twitch fiber, just an observation but most of his body mass is muscle used to propel himself forward at increadably fast speeds so that he can hunt and survive. An adaptation we never needed we just learned how to kill saber tooth tigers with spears and clubs. Since we never needed to adapt to be freakishly fast we need to squat… Back to the saber tooth tiger, yea baby we got to the top of the food chain and red meat is a gift from above.
edit: the cheetah also has freaking hooves.
I agree with you 100%, att he end of the day you are(when running) fighting gravity.
the stronger you are the further you leap, the faster you can run.
(Speed = Stride Length x Stride Rate)
Its that simple!
I think the key is to be as strong as possible and keeping your body weight as low as possible (as the article suggests).
What still puzzles me though is that some very rare sprinters can run under 11 sec 100M and they cant lift or squat worth a damn. I’ve seen it for myself. Michael Owen (FC newcastle) is a good example, he has tiny skinny chicken legs but he is incredibly fast and he was never a big weight lifter. This is something I dont understand
DUH…he probably also weighs 350 lbs.
How do you expect a guy like that to run fast???