I admire your power of synthesis.
Back to the topic: The World Junior Record is 8.35 (2012). This year you have 4 juniors over 8.28.
Maykel Masso (8.33)
Yuhao Yi (8.31)
Miltiadis Tentoglou (8.30)
Juan Miguel EchevarrÃa (8.28)
And Luvo Manyonga is jumping consistently over 8.60. (8.65 SB) I dont know how many athletes jumped 4 times over 8.60 in a single season, apart from Carl Lewis and Mike Powell. And the season is not finished!!!
Runfastrunfar
Thank you for the well researched reply. I agree with pretty much everything you say except for your overall conclusion regarding impact of recruiting NFL/NBA talent to Olympic sprints and jumps.
At USATF champs, the three best jumps were all over 27 feet and the reigning champion didn't make a legit jump. For the long jump field to significantly improve, there would have to be 2 or 3 28 foot plus guys and one 29 foot guy lurking out there.
As far as I know, the US has never had more than two guys over 28 feet at one time and Powell and Lewis just happened to be the most talented and dedicated jumpers in the history of the world.
So asking why the US long jump has gone backwards is similar to asking why the UK can't put out 3 sub 3:50 milers like they did in the 1980s. Ovett, coe, and cram were simply exceptionally talented and driven athletes. Soccer was just as popular and rewarding as it is today and converting all the developmental teams in the UK to track clubs won't reproduce those three guys. Could the UK produce more 3:53 guys, sure, but that's not the question.
Same logic applies to the 100 meter dash. I would guess that there are somewhere between 10-20 legit 10.0 to 10.2 FAT guys in the NFL right now given a year of training.
However, from 2008 through 2016, it has generally taken somewhere between 9.69 and 9.85 to be the best sprinter in America and sub 9.95 to make a WC or Olympic squad. You might disagree, but I doubt the NFL has ANY sub 9.80 guys hiding out. See my Chris Johnson Walter Dix high school comparison from earlier post.
Again, I appreciate all your insight and knowledge but think the pointy end of the stick is about as sharp as it can get without unlimited pharmaceuticals.
Been around the world, a lot wrote:
Mtn Dew wrote:It's more than sprinters just not jumping. In college with trained with guys that were both around 28 feet and neither were particularly fast. I'm not sure what the reason is.
Ummm... to jump 28ft, one absolutely has 'speed'.
Basic physics completely supports my point.
10.4 and 10.5 in the 100m aren't particularly fast.
ukathleticscoach wrote:
Runfastrunfar wrote:Dear carlactually:
The answer is basketball/football - full scholarships; track, only if you are a bona fide stud.
Basketball is perhaps the single greatest track and field talent suck on the planet. I can post videos of AAU and EYBL players that could easily be trained to hit 8m/26.
Coach Tellez and Carl Lewis have both stated that basketball and football to a lesser extent (hits, higher muscle-mass, low-intensity training, injuries) also sucks up track and field talent that many times just sits on the bench or has to "share" playing time.
One athlete female athlete I know is the equivalent of an all-state talent in the heptathlon but sat the bench in club girl's basketball for 2 whole years. Can high jump 1.50m with NO practice, doesn't lift weights or even do plyos.
Another of my former athletes who won the city 100m, 200m, 400m (second biggest in the region) sat the bench in boys' club basketball for 3 years. He could have represented his nation in the decathlon at the U17, U19, and FISU Games.
I know of another junior-level athlete who represented his nation quit track for football.
Track and Field is a tough sell to kids and parents.
How tall is the average male basketball player?They are going to be too tall for the long jump
What's the height limit for entering the long jump I forget?
After seeing all this babbling about "28 feet" and "29 feet" and such, it's obvious why there's no interest. Nobody knows the 9 meter barrier is only 5cm away.
Calling Powell's jump "29 feet etc etc" was a biiiiiig mistake. Nobody thinks "30 feet" is possible anytime soon. If you'd told them 8.95, they'd be going after 9.00 like maniacs.
Metrophobes, it is all your fault. You have ruined the sport. Admit it.
Hermes link ice blue mink wrote:
How tall is the average male basketball player?They are going to be too tall for the long jump
What's the height limit for entering the long jump I forget?[/quote]
The taller you are above 6'2" generally the less coordinated you are, and physically less capable. Ideal height for long jump is around 6'0".
Basketball players may be good for slamming a ball through a hoop which should be pretty easy for someone that's 6'6", but they're not good for much else.
Dear Churchill Downs:
My previous post was a long-winded (detailed) way of saying that the basketball and football players you see in NBA/NFL never "really" trained for track (long jump). The few who were "track-trained" immediately jumped ship to the NFL (Marquis Goodwin). I actually do "consulting" for football and basketball players who are trying to go to the next level (College, Pro, new contract).
The guys who chose track (myself included) did so because we kept getting injuries (Brommell - knees).
If track paid even half ($237,500) as much as the NFL's league minimum ($475,000) you would have guys flocking into track programs.
Incidentally, that is how much Aston Eaton earned in 2015 the year he set the Decathlon World Record. Think about that, a man who can run a 10.2 sec. 100m, long jump over 8m, and run a 45 sec. 400m is paid LESS than a NFL practice squad player.
I blame the white man
Any American HSer with enough speed to be a LJer is already lifting weights to get strong for football/basketball.
Look at Powell. All legs, huge ROM, purpose built for the LJ WR. I see plyos and lots of them.
Star wrote:
I have only posted once in this thread.
I guess others were mocking your post.
But Carl Lewis' lifetime 100m PR of 9.86 occurred on Aug 25, 1991.
His LJ PR of 8.87 m (29' 2") happened 5 days later.
That's pretty simultaneous.
There is talk on LRC that the Tokyo 1991 track was illegally hard.
Virtually every field event has gone backwards since the late 1980s-mid 1990s period? Pretty obvious the reason, out of competition and the traceability of HGH has harmed these events. I think Ross Tucker had a chart outlining the declines in some of these events last year.