Program about race and sprinting

[accesscrimea]

anyone seen the 'faster race' talked about here? -

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics2000/olympics_talk/913148.stm

 

[FootballDad]

Reading through the Q&A on the link above, Kurt Barling is mostly fair in his racial assessments. His primary piece apparently was centered on the Kolongen tribe in Kenya, that consistently generates excellent runners. But he ultimately states that it's an inherited gene thing, not a "color" thing: "The individual genetic inheritance, what they inherent from their parents is most important. And of course it doesn't matter if they are black or white, what matters is who their parents were."
Now, on the other hand, some of the questioners are fools. A few seem to be obsessed with the idea that blacks have a physiology advantage in regards to muscle fiber makeup, specifically fast-twitch muscles, which, as the moderator notes, is debatable and scientifically unconclusive.
From my experience, muscle fiber makeup for a specific individual isn't necessarily or completely a genetic thing. Targeted training, such as plyometrics, increase the effectiveness of those "black" muscles, enabling even us white folks to be able to jump

 

[Latspread]

Targeted training, such as plyometrics, increase the effectiveness of those "black" muscles, enabling even us white folks to be able to jump

Individuals are born withwidely varyingproportions of fast-twitch to slow-twitch muscle fibers. People also have a certain number of "intermediate" muscle fibers which can be trained to become either fast or slow twitch. If one does an excessive amount of edurance training, the intermediate fibers will become slow twitch and even the fast twitch can become slow twitch. In this regard, as Charlie Francis has stated, "athletes are often unmade rather than made."On the other hand, explosive training can convert intermediate to fast and maintain the gentically endowed proportion of fast. Thus, proper trainng allows an athlete to realize their explosive potential and improper training can imair it significantlybut it's undeniable that some inherit an extraordinarily greater percentage of fast-twitch fiber than others.

I take serious exception to your quote. Whites are just as likely if not more likely than blacks to inherit a great proportion of fast twitch muscle fibers. There is probably no more perfect measure of one's proportion of fast-twitch muscle fiber than Olympic weightlifting or Discuss and these events are dominated by white athletes.

The high jump is also dominated by whites. Theblackthat has the WR is known to have tested positivefor steroids and cocaine...it's curious that he hasn't been stripped of his record. Whites also do just as well if not better than blacks in the vertical jump.

Youmake it seemas if whitesare at some kind of disadvantage and need to employ proper trainingmore than others.

Suitably enough,"fast-twitch" musclefibers are literally white muscle fibers while slow-twitch are red. In more ways thanone, it's white muscle you want.

 

[Observer]

You make it seem as if whites are at some kind of disadvantage and need to employ proper training more than others. 

It is more critical that whites employ proper training, but not because they are disadvantaged -- but because they tend to be more adaptable to high-volume training than is a west African. The west African will generally not build endurance well, while the white can. The flip side of this is that if a white man is trained for endurance, he will indeed build endurance -- and he will simultaneously cease to be a sprinter.

 

[Latspread]

I think others on this board have made similar statements; something about the lactic/alactic energy systems competing with one another. I've yet to see any evidence of this and remain skeptical. Even if this were true, surely the "white adaptability to high-volume training" varies from ethnicity to ethnicity. Just as it would be foolish to analyze black marathoners by looking at west Africans, so too it would be foolish to lump all white ethnic groups together and make broad prescriptions about actualizing their explosive talent; surely the whites that dominate weightlifting, etc. would have different predispositions and training responses than the whites that do well in, say, distance running. Performance in these events clearly breaks off along ethnic lines within the same race.

 

[StarWars]

Talking about race and speed is rather quixotic. It's all about who your parentns are, not what the color of your skin is. Just because one color of skin is more likely to win (though rather suspiciously I may add), does not mean you can make broad gereralizations about speed. There is so much that goes into it. Whites were winning the 100 meter title long after affirmative action and cultural marxism were implemented. In summary, race may be a factor in sprinting but cultural/ economic factors, genes, and countless other factors are a far greater predictor of speed. I would like to add that straight line speed is the only advantage blacks have over whites (although the difference is small when not over 60 meters). In fact, it is really all that blacks can do well at in the international world of sports.

 

[yuri malenkov]

Many fail to realize the numbers game. Look at Kenya's national teams, they only send athletes to the 800m, 1500m,5000m,10000m, 3000sc and marathon.
the world of sports there, revolves around 6 out of 24 events or 25% of one sport.everyone is clustered in such a small,narrow window.
We have only 2 men right now in ukraine who are training for the 3000sc,kenya must have a couple thousand. its all in the numbers.

 

[Latspread]

Hey yuri, what are conditions like for sprinters in countries like Urkraine? Do they have access to warm weather training camps, proper coaching, running surfaces, etc.? Do the best athletes try their hand at sprinting or is it unpopular?

 

[yuri malenkov]

There is great talent in/ukraine/belarus/poland. East slavic peoples have many examples of superfast athletes as well as superior coaching.
For a northern climate region we produce world/olympic champion sprinters out of all proportions. Some examples are: marian woronin poland, irina swenzika poland,valeriy borzov northwestern ukraine, yuliya nesterenko belarus,zhanna pintusevich northcentral ukraine(not slavic,fastest jew in world),viktor bryzgin northwest ukraine.

Sprinting is not very popular though.
We have soccer,boxing,basketball,hockey,weightlifting,swimming,,all track and field events,figure skating/ice dancing,wrestling and many others to compete in.
Boys all want to be soccer stars so thats the main focus. A real good natural sprinter may try his hand if he realizes he wont be a pro soccer player.
Since soccer is not for girls in eastern europe, they tend to pursue
something like sprinting at an earlier age than boys.

Iam working on an 18 year old girl now, trying to convince her to train serious in the 100m hurdles. She is ultra muscular, naturally and has a really good stride length. Today kids dont want to train hard, unless they really love the sport.

South Ukraine is warm and lots of athletes train down in crimea or cyprus or ankara, turkey.

 

[Latspread]

Yeah, it's amazing how some people think that sprinting is the most egalitarian athletic contest because of it's simplicity..."everybody does it" they say andpurportedlythe results are an accurate representation of talent. They fail to realize that it takesan athlete years of proper trainingin ideal conditions before they're able to compete for a world record. Many white athletes don't even try sprinting and even the ones that do (and have the talent) often fall by the wayside before their talent is realized.

Ben Johnson, for example, trained forOVER A DECADE with, arguably, the greatest sprinting coach in the world with access toPEDs, EMS, recovery modalities, warmweather training camps for speed developmentetc. before he claimed a world record. IfI'm not mistaken, Johnson'sbest time in the 100 by age 18 was about a 10.36. He had been properly trainedsince he was 14. Brett Blanshan ranthat time as ajunior at some Washingtonhigh school (presumably lacking the aforementioned PEDs, warm weather, etc).Imagine what he could do if he trained for another 8 yearsunder properconditions.(lso note the PBs of 10.55 or thereabouts for Donovan Bailey and Carl Lewis and the, what, 10.67 for Tyson Gay that have been surpassed by so many white sprinters who didn't even go on to sprint in college, that I know of). There are many other examples.

Many people also fail to realize how big sprinting is in Jamaica, for example and how theconditions there are ideal for training. You can be sure that pretty much every Jamaican with even a modicum of talent pursues sprinting and is allowed to realize their potential. I'm sure there's a ton of talent in Eastern Europe...I figured that sprinting probably wasn't that popular there.