Building on the excellent post of Dave's presentation on eccentric strength I decided to focus on the evolution of the taller athletes in regard to shuffling. The video above is a side view of Dayron of his run at Paris last year and it illustrates his specific joint angles with shuffling. Shuffling is a skill that is necessary for athletes that are taller and faster at the elite level, and it al [...]

What are the underlying kinetics and kinematics that make Dayron Robles better? The most obvious aspect is to look at his technique but the key concept is the relationship of his technique to the demands of the event. His seven step approach is one glaring difference so I will focus on his other 9 hurdles and what he does differently and the same with elite hurdlers. Here are some questions that I [...]

Murder at Golgotha: Revisiting the Most Famous Crime Scene in History , is a Sunday reading book, enjoyed after football ends. I read a lot of general science books and other nonfiction books to keep me balanced as track and field can cause insanity. One of the elements I like with general reading is coming back next year with as sense of well rounded thinking. Detective work and crime scene stori [...]

The Wall Street Journal recently published a list of the Top 10 Athletes in the world. I was surprisingly shocked to see that not only did 3 tracksters make the list but the WSJ said that the number one athlete in the world was Roman Sebrle. Joining him was Liu Xiang in 7th and Jeremy Wariner in 8th. I'm not sure I fully agree with their rankings but (I think Sebrle's claim to the number 1 spot [...]

Another nice article about Liu Xiang from Mary Nicole Nazzaro of the IAAF website:The combination of world-class fields, clear skies and pleasant temperatures, and a thrilling victory by the city’s most famous son, Liu Xiang, worked perfectly to make the second annual Shanghai Golden Grand Prix a great success at Shanghai Stadium on Saturday (23) evening.Liu overcomes slow start to capt [...]

A great story from Phil Minshull of the IAAF about one of my favorite athletes:Allen Johnson may have been a late replacement for the United States in the men’s 110 Hurdles at the IAAF World Cup in Athletics but, as substitutes go, it was an inspired choice. The 1996 Olympic champion and four-time IAAF World Championships gold medallist produced a sparkling run of 12.96 seconds for not [...]

If there was any doubt that this is the greatest men's sprint season ever the performances at the World Athletics Final might have put that to rest. Consider the following:Liu Xiang won the 110H with the third fastest time of his caree (12.93). The Olympic champion and World record holder has only run faster when setting his two world records, in Lausanne this summer (12.88) and when taking hi [...]

Breaking news about an awesome performance by Liu Xiang from the IAAF News Wire:Lausanne, Switzerland - China's Olympic champion Liu Xiang broke the men's 110m Hurdles World record with a time of 12.88 seconds* (wind +1.1 m/s) at tonight's 'Athletissima', a Super Grand Prix meeting, which is part of the IAAF World Athletics Tour. "I never thought I could break the Wor [...]