Sprint: This champion is a bit weird

Chapter 279 Front technology? Front side mechanics!

"I remember it was the fall of 1981, not long after my retirement, and I was at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, participating in a training program led by Harmon Brown, Bert Lyle and Jim Hines. led meetings.”

"Eastern Bloc countries had dominated athletics for some time at that time, and Dr. Brown's vision was to start a sports science program to rival those in East Germany and the former Soviet Union."

"So in 1982, I started a long study of the USATF (American Track and Field Federation) sports science project. In the blink of an eye, it has been 25 years."

Bradenton, IMG Sports Academy.

The foreign training team of the Chinese track and field men's 4×100-meter relay event is gathering in a small multimedia classroom for a unique class.

The lecturer of the course was an old white man who looked a little thin but energetic and wore black-rimmed glasses.

He recalled the past and sighed: "Today, 25 years later, I am the only [survivor] of this research."

Seeing someone raising their hand, the old white man smiled and said: "Haha, you Chinese are always so polite. Please tell me, what's your problem?"

Wen Hao put down his raised right hand and tapped the pen on the table with his left hand. He said with curiosity: "Dr. Ralph Mann, you have accumulated more than 20 years of research. Do you have a systematic book?"

After hearing this question, a hint of displeasure appeared on Ralph Mann's face, because he and Wen Hao had not known each other before, and he thought the world champion was asking questions with doubts.

“Summarizing these more than 20 years of research into a systematic treatise is indeed what I am currently working hard to achieve, but I think it has not yet come to fruition because there are still many athletes’ data and technical details. I failed to analyze, for example."

Ralph Mann raised his hand and raised his hand to Wen Hao: "For example, you - the 100-meter flying man in the new world, and Liu Xiang, another outstanding historical hurdler from China, and the students in this class All students, you are the ones I collect data from.”

Among the six members of the relay team, only Wen Hao and Hu Kai can speak English fluently. The two coaches, Li Yuan Guoqiang, are also weak in English, so Ralph Mann's words were re-explained by Zhang Guangrui, the team's translator. Occasionally, some professional terms that he was not familiar with were explained and supplemented by Li Qing.

During this training camp in the United States, the team members not only need to improve their physical fitness and technology during training, but also improve their sports intelligence through the study of sports science theories, based on the five basic elements of body, technology, combat, mind, and intelligence. Comprehensive development.

Biomechanics expert Dr. Ralph Mann has been invited by the Chinese Athletics Association to serve as a lecturer in theoretical courses during the winter training. He will spend two mornings every week to teach at the IMG Academy for the Chinese men's 4×100 meters. The relay team is theoretically armed.

After hearing Ralph Mann's last words, the team members looked happy and started talking.

"Isn't it right? At our level, can we also become data collection targets for doctors?"

"They are just saying polite things. We can't even run for 10 seconds. Even if we really collect data, it will probably be a negative example."

"Well, I think it's close to ten."

"."

Ralph Mann watched with a smile, and waited until the discussion gradually subsided before continuing to speak: "Although I don't understand what you are talking about, I know that you will doubt in your heart that I am perfunctory, but But in fact, it's not."

"Every country or region has different classifications for athletes. I don't know how China classifies them, but here - anyone who can stably run 10 seconds and 1x in good condition can do it. Called an elite -meter athlete.”

The young men all turned their attention to Hu Kai, and he himself sat up straight, pushed up his glasses, and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.

Doctor, if you can speak, please speak more. I love to hear it, buddy!
"I looked at your information carefully before coming here. Apart from Wen, it seems that only one of you has broken 10 seconds. However, past results cannot determine anything because you are all still at an age where there is a lot of room for improvement."

"This is a term for high emotional intelligence, and a term for low emotional intelligence is -" Ralph Mann glanced at the team members except Wen Hao, and curled his lips: "Your skills are too bad!"

Lies don't hurt, truth is the knife.

Although they are self-aware of strength, the team members were still heartbroken after hearing such comments.

Stop scolding, stop scolding, can't I admit that I'm a noob? QAQ!

"Obviously, you young people all have very good talents, but as a national team, if you are placed in the NCAA league, the best you can do is reach the finals together. It is completely impossible to win the championship. 's, because"

"The NCAA's 10-meter championship level is always within 10 seconds and 9 seconds. Especially this year's NCAA league champion Walter Dix is ​​a super genius. Although he did not participate in the World Championships due to academic problems, his PB of 93 seconds 5 made him Ranked th in the world with the best result of the season.”

"." There was silence in the classroom.

Except for Hu Kai, a doctoral candidate, the only remaining member of the team is Su Bingtian, the youngest in the team, who is not yet old enough to go to college.

Five of the six of you are serious undergraduates. Why are you American college students so good at running?
"Super talent is just an example. After all, it cannot show the comprehensive level of a country or region, but as I just said - as a national team, you are only at the finals level in the NCAA league."

"The reason for such a big difference is not only the difference in race, but more importantly, the huge difference in the training system. After Yanjing's bid for the Olympics, I was invited to conduct research in China and found that many provincial team track and field coaches They are still using the outdated and outdated training system from the Soviet Union more than ten or twenty years ago.”

"So I came to a conclusion - the backwardness of the competition and training system is the main reason why China, a country with a population of more than one billion, is still far behind the United States in terms of overall track and field level."

Everyone in the classroom nodded unanimously and seemed to agree with Ralph Mann's conclusion.

In fact, if we look at the bigger picture, the fundamental reason for the backwardness of the competition and training system is actually economic problems.

However, this "economy" does not refer to how backward China's economic development level is. After all, after more than 2006 years of reform and development, China's GDP has surpassed the United Kingdom in , and is expected to have a high probability of surpassing Germany this year. .

It is good that the total GDP is growing rapidly, but for China, which is dominated by public ownership, even though it has received strong support from the country for hosting the Yanjing Olympics, the resources that can ultimately be allocated to the sports field are still too few.

Especially for the most basic track and field events, the old capitalist countries in Europe and the United States have developed for hundreds of years. The degree of commercial participation is indeed unmatched by China. This can be seen by comparing the development of marathon events. A low degree of commercialization means that the development level of the project is low, and a scientific enough competition and training system has not yet been formed.

This is why Caribbean island countries such as Jamaica, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, and St. Kitts and Nevis have been able to mass-produce elite men's 10-meter athletes within 20 seconds in the past decade, while China's The reason why the 10-meter record was still stuck at 17 seconds before Wen Hao was born.

Needless to say, the economic level of these Caribbean island countries is high. The main reason why they are able to produce a large number of elite sprint, cross, and jump athletes is that they themselves are important sources of American sports talents.

In order to develop sports in the past few decades, the United States has used resources such as universities and green cards as "baits" to attract a large number of talents from the Caribbean. Some of these people have taken root in the United States, while others have returned to their countries to develop after completing their studies.

Most of these talents returned home after studying and became coaches. In the Caribbean, where the economic level is low, track and field does not require as much financial investment as ball games and other sports. Many parents will encourage their children in order to help their families escape poverty. Go try track and field.

"Now, back to the point."

As he spoke, Ralph Mann opened the PPT, and an eye-catching title appeared in front of everyone - [How to run faster? 】

"I was invited by the Chinese Athletics Association to teach you. I have only one purpose, and that is to help you recognize and understand this problem, and to shorten the gap between you and those super geniuses through the help of theory."

“About sixteen years ago, in 1991, Michael Johnson, a great sprinter you all know, approached Peter Weyand, who was a PhD student at Harvard University at the time, hoping that Weyand could help him figure out how to The secret to running faster.”

"So Weyand established a small 'workshop' called [Southern Methodist University Sports Performance Laboratory] and began research and exploration of biomechanics. This laboratory has published many articles in succession over more than ten years. Thesis also gave birth to a new concept in the field of sprinting—The Front Side Mechanies!”

Hearing the word [front side mechanics], the team members all looked at Li Qing in unison.

During the training process, Li Qing instilled one thing in them from the beginning - front side technique.

Everyone’s understanding of [front-side technology] is relatively shallow. They simply believe that this technology is very different from past representatives of classical technology such as Carl Lewis, and their personal abilities have indeed improved through learning front-side technology. Quick, dramatic improvements.

But Ralph Mann's next words confused them:
"At present, Powell, Gay and Wen have not entered this laboratory, so their biomechanical analysis has yet to be explored. However, based on the existing analysis, the concept of [anterior mechanics] can be used very well in the field of sprinting. The best athlete is Carl Lewis."

Ralph Mann saw everyone's expressions in his eyes and explained with a smile: "I know you may be a little confused, because you must have heard of the term [front-side technology], but we have to learn now. [Frontside mechanics] is not the same concept.”

Then, Ralph Mann showed another picture.

"In the biomechanical analysis, Weyand's laboratory used a classic spring-mass model to simulate the vertical force performance of experimental subjects. They found that elite sprinters produced larger vertical force peaks than non-sprinters, and the contact force during running was The ground time is shorter, so the force curve is steeper."

"Then we conducted an inductive analysis of the curves of elite athletes at different speeds and found that the ground contact time of elite athletes during running is inversely proportional to their speed, and the greater the peak value of vertical force."

"So we can draw a conclusion: if an athlete can generate greater vertical force in a shorter time during running, the faster he or she will run."

“And when comparing the data of elite athletes and non-sprinters, the Weyand Laboratory found that the peak vertical force of elite athletes often appeared earlier, so they converted the ground contact time in the mass model into a percentage, and divided elite athletes and sub-elite athletes into , non-sprinters are compared together.”

"So the word [anterior mechanics] officially appeared!"

"Look at this picture carefully. I believe you can tell at a glance that the thick solid line represents the vertical force curve of elite athletes."

"Compared to the other two groups, their vertical impulse is greater in the first 50% of the time at touchdown, and you can see that - elite sprinters can maximize their vertical force in about the first 25% of the time at touchdown. value, and this peak is much larger than that of other athletes.”

"To be specific, for world-class elite athletes who have reached the level of the Olympic men's 5-meter final, their peak vertical force when touching the ground can reach five times their own body weight!"

5 times.
Wen Hao simply calculated the vertical force in his mind. During the 07 season, his weight basically remained at a constant state of 84kg. If he exerted 5 times the peak vertical force, it would be 420kg, which is undoubtedly a terrifying force.

And he is planning to continue to gain muscle during winter training this year, and is expected to increase his weight to the range of 86~88kg. This means that after gaining muscle, his peak vertical force during running will likely reach half a ton!

"Generally speaking, the peak force of elite athletes is released 0.03 seconds after touchdown, which is very critical. Because the vertical force at touchdown is insufficient, it means that athletes must increase the touchdown time to obtain enough momentum. Use this to bounce your body into the air, otherwise the airborne distance will not be sufficient.”

"So Weyand once described it this way - this is the 30 milliseconds leading to glory!"

"I believe you have understood by now that this golden 30 milliseconds leading to glory occurs on the front side of the elite sprinter's body. This is the basic concept of [front side mechanics]."

"[Frontside technology] is a scientific term. In training, it corresponds to the [frontside technology] that you are contacting and learning. For this reason, I made a picture myself:"

"As you can see, I used a line segment to divide the athlete's frontal plane into two parts. The one behind the line segment is the posterior technique, and the one in front of the line segment is the anterior technique."

"As mentioned in the concept of [Frontside Mechanics], if you want to become a faster elite sprinter, then your body movement range during running needs to be placed as far as possible on the front side of the body so that Produces better [front side mechanics].”

"If you are still confused about the concept of [front side mechanics] after talking about this, then take a look at this comparison chart——"

“相信这个直观的对比，过去的你们应该亲身感受过，回想一下从11秒、10秒7、10秒8，一步一步提升到现在10秒3、10秒2水平的变化，便能感同身受了。”

"So, in order to produce better [front side mechanics], you need to master better [front side technology] through training."

"This is the goal you need to strive for when you go to the ocean this time, and this goal will be with you for a long time. Until the day you quit the competition, you all need to work hard and fight for it!"

　The knowledge points in this chapter come from BV1p******Wr [Frontside Mechanics: The future of Chinese sprinting? The past and present of world-class training theory for 100-meter and 200-meter dash]

　　
　　
　
(End of this chapter)