Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

On a personal note javelin is my favorite event to compete in and do. I’m a 70m jav thrower which now a days is a dime a dozen, but what if you took one of these Major league farm league players and gave them a javelin. The ability to move the javelin from it’s drawn back position to the strike is crucial. I mean Zelezny’s arm moved so fast it was insane. What’s even more insane is that you see this arm movement every day by quarterbacks and MLB players at the PRO level and sometimes in the farm leagues. Could you imagine what Beckett could have thrown in the javelin. Especially since the men’s javelin has been lacking ever since Petranoff retired. On the Women’s side Kim Kreiner is solid, but inconsistent. Imagine Jenny Finch or Kat Ostermen throwing a jav. However, though I don’t want to make this sound like I man knocking any of our athletes, we have some of the best in the world, but it’s always fun to speculate. I mean soon as Bolt ran the WR in the 100 and the 200 people were asking if he could make it in the NFL, and on a similiar note Michael Phelps was also be looked at as if he could do anything othr than swimming.

This is always a fun subject for me and fellow collegues and athletes to mull over.  “What is so-and-so was a track athlete?  Who would be the better decathlete?  Kobe Bryant or Asafa Powell?”

I don’t think many people will argue that track and field is one of if not the most robbed sport of athletes in the world.  I do think the debate that has been started is one that is actually over two different points. 

#1. If we took current athletes AS IS, Micheal Vick in this case, and converted them to track and field athletes whether sprints, jumps, hurdles, multi’s, AS IS, would they be better than the athletes we have now?  I say no due the starting topic, specialiazation.  Their full set of Biomotor qualities would not be developed, specific and funtional strength and power levels would not be to standard, and many other reasons along those lines.

#2. If we took current athletes when they were at the developmental age of training, i.e. junior high/middle school age or younger and we steered to specialize in an area of track and field, would they be better than our current crop of athletes?  I say yes.  Why?  Genetics.  You can’t coach or teach Kobe Bryant to be 6’8 and have the levers he does just the same as you can’t teach Usain Bolt to be 6’5 and have the levers he does.  Nor can you coach some one to create greater or smaller amount of fast twitch and slow twitch muscle fibers.  Every person/athlete is born with a genetic disposition and physical potential and it is up to the individual as to how adapt themselves to using their own disposition.  In this country you find that athletes with great physical speed/power attributes are attracted to more of the “main stream” sports, IE Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, etc.  Thus, take away from the “talent pool” (very delicate use of that term here, haha) of American Track and Field.

Agree?  Disagree? “Huh, what did he just say?” hahaha

Question:  Who makes the better decathlete in exactly 3 years from today with a strict multi-event training regiment?  Asafa Powell? or Kobe Bryant? 

Gsanders you’ve hit the nail on the head…That is what many of us were trying to say…that if these NFL/NBA athletes had chosen track would they be elite and better than some of the other pro’s. And i agree i think they would.

and for your question - hmmmm, difficult one. Asafa would score so many points in the 100m, 110 hurdles, 400m and long jump. So i would say Asafa!

A relevant article from today’s news.

Charles makes up for mistake

REGINA—The first and last touches for Hugh Charles were remarkably different in his CFL debut last Friday with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Charles, an import rookie running back, mishandled his first kickoff return in Friday’s 37-34 victory over the Calgary Stampeders. The ball bounced off his shoulder pads and Charles recovered the ball in the end zone. He was forced to concede a single, which provided the Stampeders with a 9-7 first-quarter lead.

“I came up on the ball too fast because I wanted to get those CFL jitters out,‘’ Charles said Wednesday after the Riders resumed resumed preparations for Monday’s rematch in Calgary. “I know that I didn’t go back in kickoff returns but I made up for it on offence.‘’

In the fourth quarter, Charles made up for the miscue on his only kickoff return with a veteran-like play. With the Riders protecting a 37-34 lead, Charles slid to the turf after a three-yard gain. Charles may have gained more yardage but understood that burning time off the clock was more important than another yard or two. Three plays later, after quarterback Michael Bishop dropped to a knee three times, the Riders had secured their first win since beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 34-31 on Sept. 7.

“That was a tremendous decision on (Charles’s) part,‘’ said Riders head coach Ken Miller.

Charles enjoyed a memorable debut with the Riders despite his bobbling the ball on his lone kickoff return.  He was the Riders’ leading rusher with 45 yards on seven carries despite not starting at tailback. Charles showed the speed and shiftiness that was touted when he joined the Riders’ practice roster on Sept. 21 after four seasons with University of Colorado Buffaloes.

“When he had the ball in his hands, there looked like there was tremendous potential,‘’ Miller said. “We have to clean up some things in his pass protection and things like that but as a ball carrier, he’s going to be pretty good.‘’

Charles packs a great deal into a small package. He’s listed at 5-foot-7 and a solid 195 pounds. He had rushing-yardage totals of 858 (2005), 779 (2006) and 1,058 (2007) and scored eight touchdowns in his senior season with the Buffaloes.

Charles attended the Cleveland Browns’ mini-camp in May. He was added to the Riders’ practice roster when Henri Childs, who also plays slotback, was sidelined with three bulging discs.

Charles was also brought in as insurance in case running back Wes Cates was injured. That scenario has materialized and Miller said that Charles is expected to get more touches in Monday’s game because it’s unlikely that Cates will play. Cates has a lingering injury to his lower left leg and has missed two consecutive games.

“Charles will get more reps than he did last week,‘’ Miller said. “Whether he’ll be named the starter, I don’t know.‘’

Charles appreciates the opportunity to fill any role in the CFL. He thought that his football career was over after attending the Browns’ mini-camp. Then he received a call from the Riders asking if he was interested in playing in Canada.

“I didn’t know what my chances where to get into the NFL,‘’ Charles said. “The CFL has given me one and maybe I’ll get another look from an NFL team. I love it up here and maybe they will keep me.‘’

Charles, who hails from Keller, Tex., is more than a football player. He earned his solo pilot’s license when he was 16 and can fly small planes without an instructor or passengers. He’s a practising Christian and Buddhist and attempted to qualify for the 2008 American Olympic team track and field trials in the long jump.

“I was probably a good foot away from qualifying,‘’ said Charles. “It was a matter of training. I didn’t get enough because I went straight to track from football. If I knew I had the training, I would have made it.

“It was another option. If I didn’t make in the NFL or here, I would have been training for the Olympics. I don’t think you ever get too old to try for the Olympics.‘’

Mike:

He’s a foot away from qualifying, because he’s about 7 or 8 kilos to heavy.  He’ll find out how hard it is when he gets older when trying take off that football mass.  His daily activity will have to be that of a semi hardcore recreational 5k runner in volume for about 2 years straight to take off the muscle mass, not exactly something a jumper wants to be doing.  If John Capel thought he would make more money in the CFL he would be in the CFL being he’s a former NFL player.

GSanders:

#2.  Is something I disagree with wholeheartedly.  How much do the people studying genetics and researching it everyday understand it?  Not as much as you think and you are paraphrasing what they are saying.  The physiological stresses at the cellular level dictate the protein transcription which end up expressing the genes (not 1, but many) in a single ability which can see or measure.  Many genes can and do stay repressed for the life of an organism as they are needed to adapt.  The second part I disagree with specialization.  SPECIALIZATION hurts long term performance, because in the current American sport systems the “late bloomer” gets left out.  People mature physically at different rates.  I say we cut off a good 20%, maybe a little more of the population because they stop physically maturing between the ages of 23-27 and most of them don’t start the “size and strength” maturation until around 15 and 16 years or later.  Which leaves them developmentally behind peers of the same age only in size and strength which soon disappears around the age of 22.

As for Asafa v Kobe, it’s a no brainer with Asafa dominating in big point events.

Mike Young - 08 October 2008 05:34 PM

dbandre - 08 October 2008 05:27 PM

I don’t think we are losing the best sprinters to football.  The sprinters seem to leave football, Carter, Capel, etc.

The only time you see this is when the person is a MuCH better track athlete than they are footballer. They could still be better at track than football but if the gap isn’t that wide and they are exceptional at football then they will go that route. Willie Gault, Renanldo Nehemiah, Randy Barnes, Michael Bates….all lured away from track to play football. All athletes who had accomplishments that far exceeded the 2 athletes you mentioned.

What you are saying existed under the old British amateur system.  It was either make a living doing endorsements and asking for grants or move on to a professional sport.  I don’t see it as much anymore.  There are only three positions were CB, WR, and return specialists were one could take the football route and be very good at track.  Demi was the last 100m finalist who was a RB in collegiate FB and he like Demps and Holliday are all considered too small to be NFL backs (something I don’t believe).  Hugh Charles was regarded as being to small at just below 200 pounds hence why he’s in the CFL. 

Bates was still smaller than Charles currently is and he was a return specialist extraordinaire and Bates was a bronze medalist.  Someone who was 3rd best over 200m ends up being the best kick return man in NFL history.  3rd best compared to Best.  Xavier Carter’s NCAA track performance exceeded everyone but Jesse Owens, Capel’s WC medals are as meaningful as Bates.  The football players pail in comparison to the guys who stay with track in terms of performances.

The only guy I think differently about this is Darrell Green.