An interesting article appeared into the Los Angeles Times.
"The key to an athlete's speed may be the body's center of gravity"
Why blacks may be faster runners, while whites are faster swimmers.
An interesting article appeared into the Los Angeles Times.
"The key to an athlete's speed may be the body's center of gravity"
Why blacks may be faster runners, while whites are faster swimmers.
Looks like gravity may be doing the work.
"Locomotion is essentially a continual process of falling forward," study co-author Adrian Bejan, in a news release. "Mass that falls from a higher altitude falls faster. In running, the altitude is set by the location of the center of gravity. For the fastest swimmers, longer torsos allow the body to fall forward farther, riding the larger and faster wave." Bejan is a professor of engineering at Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.
I cannot believe that Duke engineer would actually say "Mass that falls from a higher altitude falls faster."
First, it accelerates at the same rate as a mass falling from a lower "altitude."
Second, the mass is continuously put back up to its initial position with each stride, completely negating the effect of longer fall time leading to higher end velocity. Unless they are saying that longer legs and longer strides allows the body to fall farther thus attaining higher end velocity. But again, the mass gets put back up to its initial height, so a greater energy input must be made to do so.
I ain't buyin it yet.
Walter Dix and Jeff Demps might have something to say/show about this higher center of gravity thing.
The Stache wrote:
I cannot believe that Duke engineer would actually say "Mass that falls from a higher altitude falls faster."
First, it accelerates at the same rate as a mass falling from a lower "altitude."
It accelerates at the same rate as a mass falling from a lower altitude, but if identical objects are dropped from the differing altitudes, then the one at a higher altitude will achieve a greater speed, which is what he most definitely meant.
Fine, so the taller object will achieve greater terminal velocity if dropped and allowed to hit the ground. We already knew that: "the bigger they are, the harder they fall."
But - assuming for a millisecond that "gravity pulls you forward" isn't utter nonsense - surely that acceleration is only in effect until the next stride, right? So if gravity's doing the work, wouldn't lower stride rate, not height, be king?
This is basically that Chi Running and POSE method garbage.