Mike,
Nice post and I appreciate the “open mind” approach. I agree that all the data isn’t in, and any absolute viewpoints are based more on personal bias rather than the data, which we don’t have yet. I would make two points. First, even with pressure plate data, you really need data not only from a broad spectrum of athletes running at various max speeds, but also a vertical spread, acquiring data on every individual at multiple points along their acceleration curve. I believe we need to know more than simply the absolute forces at top speed; we need to see how they evolve through a race to better determine what the rate limiting factor might be. Secondly, in partial defense of tread mills, I think while absolute values are off due to the differences in surfaces and mechanics, the overall trend in force changes during acceleration is probably valid. I think the primary reason many reject treadmill data is not that that they believe mechanics are so different that the evolution of the acceleration curve is totally different from over ground running, its that the trends in the data don’t support some of Mann’s ideas. But we will all have to wait until we have data from many athletes of all abilities across their entire acceleration curve to truly begin to understand what’s happening and what the limit factors of Max V truly are.
