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Lol I'd argue the opposite.  Lebrons finals performance of leading both teams in every category and coming back from 3-1 might put him in the running for being one of the greatest sportsmen but he will never be close to the greatest athlete because he will never try not be tested as he is a basketball player... 

Lebron certainly is tall, strong, fast, and able to jump high.  From th eye test you can imagine he could make a great football player or track athlete - but as his potential will never be tapped it is pure speculation...

Of course you do! Haha. That's why the forum has been so much fun lately. I personally just can't put LeBron top 5 all-time as a sportsman (yet). That series was his magnum opus no doubt, but it's one series in his career. If GSW are as good as advertised and he beats them again then he's easily in there. But it's so crowded at the top. Jordan, Ali, any one of Pele/Maradona/Messi, Don Bradman (google him, statistically off the charts in a sport played by tens of millions that hasn't changed fundamentally for centuries), any one of Federer/Nadal/Djokovic and now Bolt...all from sports where the barriers to entry are low and are played at least throughout the developed world and some developing regions. Not even mentioning Gretzky or any NFL all-timers whose sport is restricted to certain populations.

Athletically though, sure, speculation between sports is so difficult because of the demands on time for each sport. It's still fun though. I agree that Ashton Eaton is the greatest tested athlete of all time essentially by definition. For me LeBron is a top 5 what-if athlete.

Quote from: acole14 on August 14, 2016, 09:59:44 pm

Lots of people on letsrun.com claiming the 400m Rio track is short. Might be tin hat but....given the state of preparation for these games....wouldn't be overly shocked if it came out that he only ran 398.7m or something.

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=7587664&page=31#ixzz4HMMdGePH

100m final was as expected. Below-average start for Bolt as usual but luckily peak Blake/Gatlin/Gay weren't in the race so he could do just enough! De Grasse favourite for 2020.

Let's say Bolt wins the 200m and the 4x100 relay (both highly likely at this stage). Which career Olympic achievement is greater: a possible Bolt triple-triple or Michael Phelps' 23 golds?

Lol track is short?  Only Kirani and Merrit ran no faster...  398.7 meters is 1.3 meters... Lol so at his speed he would have still been likely been under the world record... IMO that's a bit ridiculous...

I don't think it was a lack of peak gatlin or anyone else... I think it just shows that the 100m isn't a 60... It's not a speed test - it's a competition...  I bet if bolt runs 9.6 degrasse and gatlin run 9.7 or 9.8.  Gatlin waited for Bolt...  Hard not to but still very disappointing that he did that and didn't give us a better race...

It's sorta silly to compare Bolt to Phelps... But if your gonna do it... Bolt by a landslide...

Why:

1) Phelps is a swimmer.  Swimming is a sport available to a fraction of wealthy people in the world.  The pool for sprinting is basically every kid who ever played sports.  Talented sprinters are discovered, talented swimmers are developed. 

2) Recovery between swim events is much easier.

3) Swimming has strokes which are far less different than something like sprints and hurdles.  Especially butterfly and freestyle which are extremely similar as far as performance goes...

4) All swim events are essentially speed endurance events.  There is no true sprint.  Bolt dominates a speed endurance event and a top speed event. 

5) Phelps was basically dominant in two events.  100m and 200m butterfly where he owns the world record.  That's it.  And he didn't even win both of those in back to back to back olympics.  His other medals come primarily from relays and medleys which don't really exist in track...

6) Sure phelps made a difference in some relays.  But he is also American and Americans are a dominant force in swimming.  The American team could have picked up many of the relay golds with just about anybody in Phelps spot.  Jamaica in the 4x100m without Bolt would have never won.  Bolt was the team.  In fact Jamacia wasn't really even challenging in the 4x100 until Bolt came along wheras the Americans were the favorite in many relays before phelps and will be after phelps...

7) Bolt has no silvers.  He literally does all the events resonable for his skill and never loses. 

That's my biased answer to a silly question.  Both are great athletes and can't be compared.  Amazing to watch both of them... You could probably make a strong case for phelps too but I'll always be partial to bolt...

To be clear, I don't seriously think the track is 398.7m. It was just a funny thought given how disastrous the lead-up was to Rio that they were so busy spraying mosquitos they might have forgot to run the measuring wheel around the track.

I know Bolt v Phelps it's not apples to apples, but you can bet the media is going to do it - and it's fun to argue about it! I also argue Bolt mostly for reason 1. The Australian coverage can't get enough of Phelps and he gets lots of exposure here being a strong swimming nation so it's really hard as a track guy to argue Bolt is better to the my workmates sitting around the TV in the break-out area. But he is.

Quote from: acole14 on August 14, 2016, 08:25:53 pm

Bolt was insanely impressive. He switched off at around 70m and glided through for........a 9.86. LOL! Should be a great final still but hard to see the field challenging him.

What's happened to Trayvon Bromell? Barely squeaked through to the final. Was expecting him to be right up there with Bolt and De Grasse.

ya i dno, he's (bromell) definitely a 9.8x guy on his BEST sprint. what did he get in that semi? i didn't see his time. glad he got into the final though.

bolt is a 9.8x guy @ ~70%.. 

He just snuck in with a 10.01. Obviously still pretty good. He usually gets a better start, maybe just missed it.

What do you mean by high impact? High body weight multiples? Hard to do a 'good' explosive exercise without some degree of impact on joints.

For your start, the main issue is your back leg not extending, making you a bit cramped coming out. Ideally I think it needs to be >120deg, with your front leg being about 90deg. You might not have your block spacing worked out. I do two steps from the start line to the front of your first block, then 1.5 steps from the front of the first block to the front of the back block. Then adjust the back block so it's more vertical than the front block (1-2 notches above the lowest setting).

Once that's sorted you need to get your butt up much more, feel the pressure of your back foot against the block. Try not to lean over the line: keep your shoulders in the same vertical plane as in the 'on-your-marks' position, and stick your butt up in the air. Once the gun goes, you only need a few cues/mantras for a good drive phase. Mine are: 'fast arm back' (like the guy in the video seifullah posted) to get your lead knee up and out, and 'head down, hold your breath' until ~20m. Keep it really simple at this stage.

These comments are all subject to personal preference, you really need to experiment with it, and of course, the proof will be in the times. Having said all that, don't overemphasise block work over sprinting work, especially if you only have a month to get in shape. You only need a few quality sessions with blocks to get them right IMO.

Got back a few days ago. Great trip overall. Thanks again to T0ddday and LBSS for training with me and showing me some cool stuff, made it much more memorable.

The remainder of the trip was more work than holiday but still interesting. Conference was fun but....four days of 9AM-11PM of lectures/posters/networking plus a huge final night banquet and shotgunning PBRs until 3AM.....ouch. The flight back wasn't too bad though.

The good thing from sitting in an auditorium half the day and in the dining hall eating for the other half of the day is that my knee calmed down a bit. Got back a few days ago and felt pretty good overall now the jetlag is mostly gone. I think I'll just monitor it as I resume proper training. If it gets bad again I'll get to the doctor and sort it out.

Had a break-in session the day after I got back, pretty weak after not having trained properly for awhile. Ran about 1km, tried squatting 100kg 5x5 as a benchmark but could only get out 2 sets! So weak, hamstrings and glutes just started cramping up.

Today I tried out a new gym! One thing that is gonna change after my trip seeing better facilities is that I'm going to not let my crappy gym hold me back from training efficiently. There's a gym that has reciprocal rights with mine and is a lot better:

http://tinyurl.com/zgh3e4b

Has a court and a group fitness room in the same space if the court isn't available. I also noted that it has a squat rack with band pins and bands. No decline bench but...better than what I have now. It's a bit of a pain as I would have to go there during the day straight from work but I've done that before. I didn't do much there (body is really sore after the last session, might have been training with jetlag) but there's consistent times I could get there when the court is free and gym is empty. Could be promising.

and who cares about dunks in games? i do! it's like that saying where something doesnt matter unless you're not getting any then it's everything. when you've never got your first dunk then getting a dunk is everything. that might be your first dunk ever in the case of acole or lbbs or my first game dunk ever .. it's the same thing practically cos you've never done it and you know what it means to finally bridge the chasm ..

Thank you for thinking of the shorter guys! I for one appreciate it.

also, acole, those one-step jumps are looking better. but you still don't seem to be adding that much speed with the first step. you're mostly just bouncing off that foot and then planting. i try to think about using each step to accelerate my center of gravity forward and down. getting low is probably my most important cue at this point.

the proof is in the performance, obviously: if you're jumping higher with subsequent steps, you're adding power. just food for thought.

Yeah definitely agree there. I tried adding a bit more speed for some but it just led to a bad plant and less height. Good tips.

Quote from: Mutumbo000 on July 12, 2016, 07:27:56 am

You know you listen to 2 much hip hop when somebody mentions Brooklyn and your first thought is Jay Z.

The training facilities in the US look great. How's the food over there? Is it true that all the portion sizes are huge? Which city are you heading to next?

You know you don't listen to enough hip hop when someone mentions Brooklyn and your first is anyone other than Biggie.  Lol.

Portion sizes being huge... Lol.  Kinda a myth. Maybe slightly larger at some places but nothing crazy for the most part.  Especially in the cities you visit - LA, NYC, DC - you are not going to be shocked at the portions if someone takes you out to. Decent restaurant...

However there is one exception... We have a certain class of chain restaurants with names like  claimjumpers, Fridays, etc.   These restaurants have shockingly huge portions.   It's nuts.  I went to one of these in a CA suburb where they listed calories and I tried to imagine the worst meal possible it was a appetizer, meal, desert combo where you could go cheese sticks, Alfredo pasta, massive brownie sundae...  No lie, this would net you 2000, 3500, and 2000 for a total of almost 8000 cals (I'm sure you could ask for some ranch sauce to hit 8000).   And that's without drinks!  Throw in some sugary lemonade and you can get a 10k cal meal at these places!

Thing is if u visit urban centers in cities these places are really rare and almost extinct.... However the occupy space in every large strip mall all across America...  So basically American restaurants sometimes have massive portions but visitors are disappointed because no where worth going is going to have anything like the suburbs...

Haven't seen any famous rappers yet, fairly disappointed about that. I'm staying in a fairly hipster part of Brooklyn, lots of musos around (including some hacks directly below our Airbnb who enjoy playing the drum kit at 4AM). Agree on the portion size thing for sure, a couple of places in LA gave us massive portions we doggie bagged, but since then it's pretty much been similar to home.

_____________________

Had a run at the public track in a park in Brooklyn. It was a bit awkward as it was swarming with the general community using it to walk dogs etc. and there was no sand pit but I got a good session in:

400m-stretch-400m-ADEs-sprinting drills-banded walking strides

3x5 DL bounds

3x5 LRLR

4x120m @90%

300m sprint (ugh!)

Then later I went to the Greenpoint YMCA in the PM:

5min cardio warmup-stretch-ADEs

Light front squats@40kgs

RDL: 3x8@60kgs (hammies really feeling this)

Pullups: 3x10//20 leg raises in-between

Stuffed! Then today I got roped into doing the Statue of Liberty and Empire State in same day....so fucking dead.

All good mate! Never mind a hijack.

Trained with LBSS at his gym in DC as he mentioned in his journal. Really good session. Insanely jealous of his facilities as I was of T0ddday's at USC (see discussion above). I just practiced my 1-step DLRVJs in between throwing lobs. So bummed I couldn't get one for him! Next time. Real-life LBSS is also a champ, got me into a nice gym I never would have known about and shouted me a beer later that night after the Independence Day fireworks. Cheers mate! Will return the favour one day I hope 

- paused speed squat 100kg x 5,5

- DB OHP 40kgs 3x8

- pull up x 10,10,9.5,3

- MB OH toss x 5