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Why So Fast?
By Conway Hill
| Monday, July 2 2007 10:00:28 PM |
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In contrast, Asafa Powell will turn 25 this year and this IS his job. And if other WR holders are any indication, he'll be doing this for another 5 years or more. Carl Lewis was 30 years old when he set his final WR, and competed until he was 36. Maurice Greene set his WR at 25, had a near WR run at 27, and took to the track this year at age 33 - continuing his chosen vocation. Michael Johnson, the 200 (19.32) and 400 (43.18) WR holder, set the 200 mark just before his 29th birthday, and the 400 mark just before his 32nd birthday. The man to whom he is often compared, Tommie Smith, the previous man to set WR's over 200 and 400 meters back in the 60's, did so at 23 (400) and 24 (200). Clearly the time one is able to spend doing something affects their ability to do it better! And being able to spend more time training each day/week, as well as being able to spend more time perfecting their craft (longevity) has contributed greatly to the drop in times over the years.
As athletes have been able to spend more time, the additional time has enabled them to improve on many of the things that they do while Training. Training is now much more than warming up, running some repeats and going home. Today's professional athletes employ nutritionists, massage therapists, strength and conditioning coaches along with their primary coach and an agent. This is NOT your grandfather's training program, or even your father's! Nutritionists monitor everything from one’s diet in order to reduce fat and increase general fitness, to the specialized supplements taken to balance out the body’s nutritional needs. Massage therapists work to keep muscles pliable, toned, and reduce potential injuries. Strength and conditioning coaches use high tech weight equipment to isolate specific muscles and muscle groups to increase muscle strength and maximize performance. Plyometrics is used to develop muscular power. All in all a far cry from running some laps and heaving up some free weights. We're talking professional physical development.
And along with improved bodies has come improvement in teaching and developing Technique. Coaches are now able to use timing devices that time to the thousandth of a second to isolate weak areas within a race. Hand held digital cameras and DVD's are used to study movements within minute segments of one's race. Intensive research has shown the optimal angles that need to be applied to the ground to produce optimal power and speed. And innovative techniques, such as the "Drive Phase" in sprinting, put individuals in better position to accelerate during the course of a race. Now a coach can monitor arm movement, center of gravity positions, foot strikes, and knee lift to the nth degree. An athlete can be remolded to find the optimal body positions to increase speed.
These changes in technique have been developed in conjunction with, and sometimes in support of, the new Technologies that have been developed in the sport. Back when Bob Hayes set his WR on the track in Tokyo he ran on a cinder/dirt track. And many of the WR's set in the 60's and 70's were done on tracks of this type - cinders or dirt packed very tightly within a track oval. Constant training and competition kept the surfaces very soft, ground up, and slippery. Athletes used very long spikes to just try and maintain some traction with the track.
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