He’s coached a hurdler to the Olympics. I think he knows what speed (and other qualities) it takes to become at least an elite hurdler.
There is a lot different speed potential needed to go 10.4 versus sub 10 versus even faster.
IMO there are many more top sprinters that ‘could’ have been good Olympic lifters than there are OLs who could have been good sprinters.
There are many guys at ~80kg who are doing ‘rough’ power cleans with 140ish off 2 or 3 sessions per week. Remove the competing stimulus of track work, improve technique, introduce specific assistance exercises, (e.g. full range front squats), increase the training frequency and there is no reason why they shouldn’t be able to full clean >175 fairly quickly. This would be enough to win gold at Commonwealth Games…
Most would never be able to develop the ability to do a full snatch though at that level (assuming they are starting it up late).
You don’t need elasticity (in the way it is involved in running) in weightlifting. Without elasticity, you’re going to be a guy that has a good 10-20m, maybe (probably not that far), if your ankles hold up.
The Chinese have over 500k female weightlifters in their program–kind of hard not to develop some elites, especially with their ‘methods’ and abuse (taking kids out of the home, not letting them see family or go to a normal school) from a young age.
Why doesn’t this argument hold for track and field athletes then? My guess: their methods are likely one of the main reasons why they haven’t been able to develop top sprinters. The more potential that an athlete has in the sprints, the easier it is to destroy them with too much work. The Chinese culture may be at odds with the development of elite sprinters.
Interesting theory
I think it’s more like they aren’t built for it. Please don’t bother with the Liu argument (not you, but others) as he is one guy and is good because of incredible technique rather than necessarily having great speed (TT, DR).
If you use their “methods”, it’s a lot easier to do well in weightlifting, a sport that doesn’t have as much competition and isn’t as popular around the world. That is probably why their heavy men aren’t as good as their lightweights or their females.
If you think it’s the methods that’s holding them back, why are there programs that do very well with talent when their training may be considered questionable or even outright dangerous to most? If they had a 9.7 talent in waiting, they’d at least be able to get a 10.0 guy or have a respectable 4x1.
What I find suprising about the Chinese is their lack of field event athletes. No throwers(at least no males) no jumpers(we’re a few years -20 or so-from Jhu Xiahua(sp?)(I have certainly butchered the spelling of his name:) ) and a couple of very good though not top hurdlers outside of Liu. I would think they would do well to concentrate on field eventers where, to a degree, they could create those guys a bit more. Maybe we’ll see that in the future.
This gets back to my comment about the effect of culture on sports performance. I don’t think there is a “track culture” in China. The Chinese have not historically thought of track as important and have not had the societal rewards (tangible and not) to support track. On the other hand, something like table tennis has been engrained in the culture. Or perhaps they just have ping pong genes 
I think this may be changing.
I think their methods or at least the pressure upon Gu & Sun of using their methods is the reason Liu is crippled right now.
If that’s true, how do you explain how he stayed on top for four years?
Things are all roses until a problem occurs. Maybe Liu was one of the few survivors in their athletics regime but it appears he could only survive for so long.
You can’t tell me there’s any excuse for China letting him get hurt will their vast resources and recent obsession with sport domination plus the fact that he is their only competitive track athlete. His old coach spoke out about the itensive training so close to the games when Liu reinjured things. This sounds like Nigerian style athlete managemnt minus the backlash aftermath from the federation.
Table tennis ingrained in their culture?
Or just no other country caring and putting millions of dollars into it? The same goes with synchro-diving and other things.
Arguing their lifters being an indicator of sprint potential seems rather tenuous. The Russians, Bulgarians, and Greeks have had great lifters and still lack (save few exceptions) the ability to hang with the top male sprinters and except for maybe Borzov aren’t among the greatest of all time.
If powerlifting had been developped in Western Africa and Caribbean islands, would the Russians, Bulgarians and Greeks still rank among the all-time bests?
Why Trinidad and Jamaica (population 4 000 000) have produced 10 sub10 sprinters, while Cuba, Haiti, Saint-Kitts & Nevis, Puerto-Rico, Bahamas, Martinique, Guadeloupe (total 25 000 000) only 3 plus 1 altitude?
This made me think of Mark Lewis Francis. 10.10 at 18 whilst training 3x per week but then struggles to run under 10.2 at 26 whilst training 6x per week…
days of week spent training is too vague anyways, its what you’re doing that affects you in the long run. And different things for different people, how about that other thread with richard thompson doing mad high volumes ? For most people…you gotta set a general volume for speed throughout the season and use the rest of the time to balance out the strength work and conditioning/fitness/recovery work, depending on the time of the season.
This may be too late in the game to discuss this, as it relates to the development of Bolt, but here goes my 2 cents anyway. I was talking with Pioneer at the track today about one of my “topics” right now and how this thread made me think of the big picture.
Some of you may be familiar with the Expert/Novice Research & Theory, which is rather interesting when it comes to figuring out how coaches can influence athlete success & development over a long period.
Basically, as novices we only see the more salient/ superficial variables with which we try and prescribe training protocols to accommodate these simple factors.
As we become more expert in our knowledge, we can see the deeper construct of whatever subject we master (therefore expertise is task dependent) and we can then prescribe more detailed workouts.
It is important for the coach to recognize the athlete’s level of readiness for work based on their level of expert knowledge (albeit we may define it something different) as it relates to the ability to master technique and be aware of kinestethics. Many like to overwhelm an athlete with material that they cannot “internally hardwire the brain” to perform.
In my opinion, I find this topic fascinating as it not only deals with the introduction of physiologic protocols, but it considers neuroscience as well as sport psychology as it relates to the coaching style.
No doubt Bolt has freakish genetics but one doesn’t do what he did without precise training. Watching him he seemed to have exceptional stiffness even compared to the other sprinters. It seems to me he definately had stiffer springs, a great stride length and the stride frequency to go along with it. Taller is not better most likely a shorter athlete will break his world record, and then where does one go. Athletes are individuals and are predisposed to personal strengths and weaknesses. Bolt’s strengths are predisposed to be a good sprinter, precise training has made him a great sprinter.
Having looked through this and other threads we can see some of the general philosophy behind Mills’ training of Bolt. Do we now know any more or have any specifics available re: his program?