Re: Training Athletes - Anecdote

[Guest guest]

Anecdotal Aside:

I do think I have a bias, but I also feel I acknowledge that many

forms of resistance training systems/methods have both good and bad,

depending on the desired training effect. The concepts

of " functional " and " specificity " always seem to be at the forefront

of the argument for or against a particular method. With, that, I

thought I would just throw out this story for the group - more for

comedic relief (if you can fully imagine the situation), than for an

argument for or against any one form of training.

In April of 2006 I was nearing the end of my tenure as a graduate

student (research and teaching assistant). I worked in the

biomechanics pod of the exercise physiology department, and had a few

lab mates - one of which was a competitive weightlifter - now

training at the OTC. Let's call him " Zach " . At the college there

was a biomechanics lab in the mechanical engineering department, a

couple of us took some engineering classes and became friends with

some of the engineering grad students.

" Zach " was a rather large man. 6'4 " , or 6'5 " , and about 250-260

lbs. One of the engineering students (lets call him " " ) had been

a sprinter in high school. " , was now, a lean and muscular 5'8 " ,

and still at the time claimed to be very fast. One night, doing what

college students do, a bet was made between a few of the lab

assitants, and to win the bet, 5 of us were going to run a 100m

dash. Loser had to buy lunch. But, doubled up, if anyone lost to

gargantuan " Zach " , well that would just be plain pathetic.

Please, accept my apologies, I am no journalsit. Long story

short. " Zach " , ran an 11.8 second 100m dash, coming in front of us

all. Is that impressive - not for a trained sprinter. But we are

talking about a kid that never ran sprints or trained as a sprinter.

Plus, he was a whole lot of man to move. I don't know, but he looked

pretty damned fast. And I have to say, something about his style of

training helped. I've read about correlations between explosive

lifting along with sprinting and jumping performance. Here was my

chance to witness it firsthand in someone who never trained for nay

form of running...ever.

Maybe someone who trains for speed/power outside of a weightroom can

avoid using these types of lifting tehniques. In this case

however...well I guess you can make your own judgments. I am sure my

details lack a bit of the " big picture " . I just wanted to add some

light heartedness to this debate...maybe laugh a bit. Hell, I laugh

evertime I think about this day. Maybe you just had to be there!

Sam Brethauer, LAT, CSCS,

Overland Park, KS, USA

> It is not necessarily the tool, but it is said the use of

a tool. According

> to many here a barbell/dumbbell is a far superior tool than a

machine. The

> fixed plain argument is always a favorite here, but try bench

pressing at an

> angle 10 degrees either way from the norm and see what happens.

Seems many in

> this group carry a certain bias against machines. If I took a few

of your

> personal machines away from you, you would find life a little

difficult - say for

> example your computer and your cell phone and replace them with an

antique

> crank phone and a typewriter. Many machine designs are

questionable, but the

> far most important factor is their USE as well as with " free

weights. "

> The suggested use of Olympic Lifting (Sport) for the supplementary

> training of athletes is just plain silly. Teaching the skill of

hurling a

> barbell upward for football players is akin to teaching your

swimmers blocking

> and tackling. If the swim coach was ever seen " coaching " his or her

swimmers to

> do so, you could be sure the coach would be carted away by the men

in white

> coats.

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