This sounds far more reliable an explanation for Bolt's greatness than the yam theory coming out of Jamaica.

Usain Bolt: Case Study In Science Of Sprinting

Tuesday, July 26, 2011 12:45 am

Written by: Jay Hart

[IMG]http://images.thepostgame.com/sites/default/files/82379546_blog_post.jpg[/IMG]

One year from now, the 2012 Olympic Games will begin in London, where all eyes will be on the incomparable Usain Bolt -- the Jamaican sprinter who is more than living up to his name.

Since 2008, Bolt has taken a jackhammer to the 100-meter world record, lopping off a whopping .14 seconds. That might not sound like a huge chunk of time until you consider it's twice as much as any other sprinter has shaved off the world record since the advent of electronic scoring.

Logically, one would think that Bolt did so by moving his legs faster than anyone else. Only he didn't.

Speed, as it turns out, may be completely misunderstood.

When Bolt established the current 100-meter world record in the 2009 world championships, running it in 9.58 seconds, he did so by moving his legs at virtually the same pace as his competitors. In fact, if you or I were to compete against Bolt, our legs would turn over at essentially the same rate as his.

This is a theory put forth by academics and track coaches alike who contend that running fast has more to do with the force one applies to the ground than how quickly one can move one's legs.

More than a decade ago, Peter Weyand, a science professor at Southern Methodist University, conducted a study on speed. Comparing athletes to non-athletes, Weyand clocked both test groups as they ran at their top speed. What he found shocked him.

"The amount of time to pick up a leg and put it down is very similar," he says. "It surprised us when we first figured it out."

So if leg turnover is the same, how does one person run faster than another?

[B]Weyand discovered that speed is dependent upon two variables: The force with which one presses against the ground and how long one applies that force.[/B]



Think of the legs as springs. The more force they can push against the ground, the further they can propel the body forward, thus maximizing the output of each individual step. In a full sprint, the average person applies about 500 to 600 pounds of force. An Olympic sprinter can apply more than 1,000 pounds.

But force isn't the only factor. How quickly that force is applied factors in as well.

For this, think of bouncing a beach ball versus a super ball. The beach ball is soft and mushy and when bounced on the ground sits for a while before slowly rebounding back into the air. Conversely, a super ball is hard and stiff and when bounced rebounds almost instantaneously -- and at a much faster speed than the beach ball.

The average person's foot is on the ground for about .12 seconds, while an Olympic sprinter's foot is on the ground for just .08 seconds -- a 33-percent difference.

"The amount of time [one's legs are] in the air is .12, regardless if you're fast or slow," Weyand explains. "An elite sprinter gets the aerial time they need with less time on the ground to generate that lift -- or to get back up in the air -- because they can hit harder."

So what makes Bolt faster than even the elite sprinters? And can he run the 100 meters even faster than 9.58 seconds?

Bolt's superiority is often explained by his unique combination of height, strength and acceleration.

At 6-foot-5, Bolt is two inches taller than fellow Jamaican Asafa Powell (pictured together below) and has six inches on American Tyson Gay -- two of his closest challengers. While it takes most elite sprinters 44 strides to complete 100 meters, Bolt does it in 41.

"Would you rather take 44 steps to your car or 41?" asks Dan Pfaff, who coached Canada's Donovan Bailey to the 100-meter gold during the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Pfaff, now working in London to help boost Great Britain's track-and-field hopes for 2012, says Bolt's height gives him a distinct leverage advantage.

"If you're digging a hole in the ground, you have to get a longer lever to pry [out a rock]," he explains. "If you can control those levers and make them work efficiently, it's a huge advantage."

It's Bolt's ability to control the levers that is so unusual for a sprinter his height.

While taller sprinters may be able to reach a higher top-end speed, getting up to that speed isn't as easy. This can be explained physiologically -- smaller people can exert more force in relation to how much they weigh -- but Weyand prefers a more simple visual to show this to be true.

"You can easily imagine a 4-foot-10 gymnast doing a triple back flip, but imagine Shaquille O'Neal or Yao Ming doing it," he says. "You know they can't do it."

Bolt, it seems, is the exception to this rule. Though he's not doing triple back flips, he does get up to speed nearly as quickly as his more diminutive competitors.

"He has a very unusual combination of being extremely tall and relatively massive and being able to accelerate well. Those things are at odds with each other," explains Dr. Mike Young, a strength and speed coach who trains professionals in track and field and other sports. "He accelerates better than all but one guy in the world -- behind Asafa Powell -- but because he's so massive, he takes fewer strides. If you're that large, once you're moving, you stay moving."

This would help explain why Bolt still managed to break the world record during the Beijing Games in 2008 despite throwing up his arms in celebration some 20 meters before the finish. As Young explains, if the "average athlete is a motorcycle, Usain Bolt is a dump truck," and it takes a lot more resistance to slow down a dump truck than a motorcycle. Thus, when he fatigues, he slows down more slowly.

"He has the holy triumvirate," Young contends. "He's one of the top accelerators, has the highest top-end speed and the highest endurance. It's something that's never been seen before. Carl Lewis had the highest top speed, the highest endurance, but he was not the best accelerator."

Bolt, just 24, has set his goal of running the 100 meters in the 9.4 range, explaining to Britain's BBC Radio: "Because that's where I think the record will probably never be beaten."

While Young doesn't think Bolt will break 9.5 in London, Weyand, through his research, says it's possible. Though if Bolt pulls it off, it won't be because he moves his legs any faster.

It's funny to read although I did already know this. Sprinters regurally squat 2.5-3 times their bodyweight. Which is a feat in itself.

But Usain Bolt is just a freak of nature

I agree. Bolt is a wonderful freak of nature.

Sport


Prof Morrison tells why Jamaicans run so fast

Yam and bananas!

Tuesday, July 26, 2011


TWO of Jamaica's staple crops — the yam and green banana — are said to be partially responsible for the island's world sprinting domination, according to Professor Errol Morrison, president of the University of Technology (UTech).

Professor Morrison, who addressed the Observer's Monday Exchange yesterday, said also that the "cock bottom", more associated with the black race, is an added advantage in the rush to the finish line.



Prof Morrison, who has done extensive studies on why Jamaicans run so fast, dismissed the speed gene thought as just a myth and suggested that there are other factors at play related to the passion, discipline, hard work and talent that are derived from substances in yam and green bananas.

Said Professor Morrison: "This is a hypothesis. This is not gospel and fixed in stone. It is a hypothesis based on a lot of biochemical research and anatomical research and I will put it down as succinctly as this: Genetics, dietetics and athletics."

According to Prof Morrison, yam produces a substance called Hypo Steroids which acts as a stimulus, while green banana produces phytate, which is four times the concentration in the yellow yams and replenishes the energy supply.

"You can't just get up and eat tuber crops like yam and go and run. What is happening is it is a staple diet, so our young people who are using these staple crops are being exposed to these 'anabolic steroids' from very early and Jamaica is the only country with organised programmes from infancy; so you are putting up a stress and demand on these muscle groups which is being further pushed by these 'anabolic steroids' they are going to have an advantage and they are going to grow with that and by the time they are hitting the late teens you should be seeing some responsive muscle mass," explained Prof Morrison.

He added: "People don't know what green bananas do. Phytates replenish the energy supply in muscle called creatine phosphate. The hypothesis is grounded on sound biochemical principles and what we are saying is that the cycle is being passed on from very early on. So you not only have got the 'anabolic steroid' from early, you are also getting the stimulus from these phosphate substances that will give you the energy."

Prof Morrison explained that during the running of races a number of athletes on the world level are probably similar in speed, but they fade at different levels and that's when the quicker replenishing caused by the green bananas gives Jamaican athletes the edge.

"By 60 metres they start to fade and it is because we have the advantage of the replenishing of the phosphate that is allowing us to keep that momentum to the end of the race," said the UTech president.

But Jamaica's success is not all in the food, it has to do with the anatomy of the black race as against the white or Asiatic.

"What is that that makes the black Caribbean man and woman so good at sports and a lot of theories are abound," he pointed out.

"You ever looked at our black athletes compared to whites or the Asiatics, both lower and upper limbs, the relatively narrow hips, lean and thin and the power?" he asked.

"There is something called in our parlance, a cock bottom. The shape of the backbone and the hip is angled this way with the pelvis, and the front muscles afford high knee lift as opposed to when the back is more straight. That contributes to the kind of power when you drive that leg down, those are some of the genetics.

"The black compared to the whites and Asiatics have a narrower chest wall and they breathe a little faster and when they do that it is allowing for the quicker exchange of oxygen, which is also part of the quicker recovery that you see. That is one aspect," explained Prof Morrison, who has worked in tandem with the University of Glasgow, which is one of the leading researchers of genetics.

Morrison, who reminisced about the 1968 Olympic Games in high altitude Mexico City, pointed out how the black Americans surprisingly dominated the sprints and were tested because they were not supposed to be able to perform at that level.

"Almost all of those athletes have what you called AS disease, that is what you called sickle trait (not the full blown sickle cell disease) and they wondered what relevance that would have because they expected that at 10,000 feet in high altitude, they would start having blood problems, but they didn't.

"The point they were making is when you have AS compared to the normal AA, the haemoglobin takes up the oxygen less readily, but releases it even more readily. So while it may not be taken up a lot it releases it quickly," said Morrison.

He also threw out the notion of speed genes after years of extensive study in collaboration with a leading university on the issue.

"Then everybody has been saying this guy has a special gene that makes him run fast. To put it mildly, we have been working since 2006 with the University of Glascow, which has the leading group working on genetic assessment of world-class athletes comparing them with the general world population.

"They have studied about half a dozen different genes thought to have been associated with great performances in sports and we have found nothing in these athletes, including Herb McKenley (before he died), Usain Bolt and Asafa (Powell), and they have shown no difference from the background population, so this speed gene is a myth which they are still researching," he noted,

"But you can't knock research because you don't know what they might come up with at some point. My point is, the gene is really in the structure of those limbs. The major thing you want to concern yourself with is, a number of black people has that same thing, so why is it that they don't do well or as well.

"There is biochemistry, anatomy (genetics) and overall training in Jamaica which is second to none, so there is every reason why we should be doing well. It is not any buck up or drugs, as some people have said," Professor Morrison conclude

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport/Prof-Morrison-tells-why-Jamaicans-run-so-fast_9306187?fb_ref=storypage#ixzz1Ty8AnUwr

said Errol Morrison

Said Professor Morrison: "This is a hypothesis. This is not gospel and fixed in stone.

yes. then shut up, if you cannot prove it. a hypothesis that cannot be proved has another name...speculation.

The psychical differences between black people and white people has already been researched a whole lot.
So facts say that black people have 5 main advantages relating to sports:
1: They produce more adrenaline. Which helps boost the Central Nervous System during activity and helps with recovery.
2: They have better motor units. Simply put, they are able to use more of the power that they posses.
3: They have narrower waists. That explanation is given in the article.
4: They have longer achilles tendons. Which works like a strechband and is really helpfull with explosive power.
5: The last one I am not sure about, but I believe it was that the antagonist muscle is less of a burden with black people. The body has a natural inhibition system which prevents you to use all of your power. Untrained people only use 50% of their capability at that time.
So when a muscle is used during sports, let's say lifting weights, the antagonist is also recruited to prevent injury. But this ofcourse has a negative effect on the results. And I believe I read that with black people the antagonist is less of a burden which allows the main muscle being recruited to have more power.