A Call for Innovation?

While looking for the results of the Bolt Powell Lemaitre race I stumbled upon this little article.  It's basically seven short paragraphs of this guy who knows nothing about track sucking Usain Bolt off.  I have some serious issues with it.

First, the picture of Bolt with the cheetah is unoriginal.  Here is a (better) cheetah picture of Frankie Fredericks (the fastest man you've never heard of) of Namibia, the world record holder in the 200m indoors (19.92).

Second, the whole purpose of the article is a call to action to find new ways to challenge Bolt because seeing him beat Gay and Powell meet after meet is getting old.  "Now it's time for a challenge," it says.  It also says his victory solidifies his title as the world's fastest man.  Hold on here.  Usain isn't even the leading Jamaican in the 100m dash this year let alone the world's fastest.  Ever heard of Steve Mullings?  World leader at 9.89.  Also, Bolt's last race before this one was a loss to Tyson Gay.  The man needs to earn the title again. 

Plus, Bolt barely beat Powell.  He had to run him down and it was a pretty exciting race.  He only won by .02.  Here's the race.  Hard to call this a blow out.

My point is, the 100m field this year is not in need of any drama to add to the excitement.  There are plenty of guys going 9.9 and is looking like it's going to be a fun season.

With that being said...  I do think that being innovative about showcasing track speed is always a good idea.  The suggestions about Bolt leaving track to play in the NFL or FIFA, although amusing, are not where they should be going with it.  Anyone racing a cheetah is not exciting because no one can mess with a cheetah.  But... Shawn Crawford, former Olympic gold medalist, did race a giraffe and a zebra once.  Sort of entertaining.

What's funny about this video is that Crawford was actually running sub 10 100m times so he could've messed with the zebra if he ran like he did at meets.  10.86?  That's a high school time.

I really think that the way these guys need to go to keep things interesting is to race athletes in different sports.  People are much more interested in their favorite sports teams than professional athletics and they're much more likely to show up to an event where Tyson Gay races Shaq than they are for Michael Rogers racing Travis Padgett.  It helps promote the sport as well as prove to fans that track speed is a gear of speed that even Chris Johnson can't reach.  The races don't have to be head to head either.  Handicaps or head starts are just fine, might as well try to be fair.

Here are two videos that sort of show what I'm getting at.  This one is Tyson Gay racing Shaq.  Gay runs the 60 and Shaq runs the 30.  I don't know what Tyson was thinking.  There is also some relay I don't get with Chris Johnson and Desean Jackson and Maurice Greene and Dwight Howard.  I don't know the distance or the handicap but the idea is there.  Race supposed fast guys of other sports against track stars.

This second video is this cool race called the super 60m at the Millrose Games in Madison Square Garden.  They take athletes from a bunch of major sports and race them.  All I'm asking for is you to let one track star in the heat to embarrass everyone and send them back to their sports crying.

Compare the times from that to the times of the actual 60m.

The dude that won the super 60 wouldve been absolutely worked by the sprinters.  Fast is relative.  Looked awful fast in his heat, would've looked like he was standing still in the real deal.

That's it for now, big race for me tomorrow.  Be back soon to ramble, I'm sure.

Football Players Will Talk

This past fall semester I was practicing on the track at UB during a football practice.  I'm confident we were doing some stupid looking work out, like jumping off of boxes and sprinting for 30 meters or something like that.  Suddenly, one of the football players (with his too-tight spandex shirt raised well over his belly button) screamed out, "Ain't none of ya'll faster than me."

These are the moments when you would do anything for that kid to put some spikes on and just do the damn thing.  I'm fairly certain that the kid that said that was also a linebacker... not generally the swiftest of positions.  I think that football players say those things because they think sprinters are scared that football players have some sort of untapped speed ready to be unleashed so they never want to race them.  I would have, and would still absolutely love to race any challengers on the football team, or any other athlete from any other sport at UB.  As a matter of fact, there was a kid on the football team who just got drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, who was on the track team for a while.  He was plenty football fast, that's why he got drafted.  We raced once in the 200 and I just dusted him.  He went like 22.1 or something.  All speed is not created equal!

I brought this up because I wanted to post this video that I love.  It's my favorite sprinter, Wallace Spearmon Jr. talking about how much Chris Johnson talks. Follow this link because it's not on youtube.

Just in case you've never heard of Wallace Spearmon Jr., here are some videos to give him some credibility on the subject...

Wallace beating Usain.

Wallace going 19.65.  I suggest turning the volume down for it.

Moral of the story is: If you're a football player talking about how fast you are, why don't you just race us?  We're not scared.

Welcome to Track-Speed

So this is a little blog that I've thrown together in hopes to relay one simple message: you are not fast.  Why do I say that?  Because I'm not fast and I would tear you up on a track.

You see, fast is relative.  Some people think they are fast because they used to play soccer, or football, or beat their friends in a race once.  Others think they are fast because they don't know anyone faster than them.  I'm here to tell you that if you think you are fast or (even more annoyingly) have friends that you think are fast there is an entire dimension of speed that you are unaware of.

Sprinters (and I mean real sprinters, not kids who try to sprint) are masters of speed.  These are guys who practice day in and out, train, lift, and spend an unreal amount of time perfecting their form.  These sprinters are constantly disrespected by people who think they are fast or who think that stars from their favorite sports teams are faster than them. 

I once saw a youtube video where someone said that Cristiano Ronaldo would beat Ato Boldon in the 100 meter dash.  Outlandish allegations.  Cristiano Ronaldo would be lucky to go 11.2.  I am a Buffalonian, my favorite Buffalo Bill is Roscoe Parrish.  Kid is stupid fast on the football field.  He even ran track at Miami U.  His best 200 time? 21.13. Mine? 21.09. And I am clearly not on the level of Olympic gold medalists.

So it is going to be my goal to give you a new respect for how fast track speed really is.  The best way to prove that someone is faster than someone else is real simple.  You race.  So what I am going to be doing, eventually, is I'll be posting up at Niawanda Park, playing some kan jam, and waiting to see if any "fast" people want to race.  Then we'll post videos of the races and laugh at them.  Obviously I can't do these races until after my NCAA career is over, so it'll have to wait until the summer. 

Update you then.