sure did.... wrote:
Steeple pro wrote:
Steeple much? Yes those are important but height is the most important. Think if a woman has all of those and she is 5'10". Now imagine another woman who has all of those but she is 4'6". Allie will never touch Emma in the steeple because she must exert more energy over every barrier.
yep, pro, i have run the steeple quite a bit ... fairly well too. So I know a thing or two. Height is hardly the most important element.
Couple comments for you... How do you know Allie is exerting more energy? How exactly do you measure that? Finally, 'never' is a long time.
Just FYI, generally speaking a shorter athlete does have to exert more energy than a taller athlete to clear a steeple barrier, either by hurdling or by jumping on- stepping off. And it can be measured ( if people want to)
The reason is because the height of the barrier is constant for all athletes, the shorter athlete has to raise their center of mass a greater distance upwards than the taller athlete does in order to clear the barrier. (It is also true that a steeplechaser with good hurdling technique will not have to lift their center of gravity as high over the barrier in order to clear it as a person who does not have good hurdling technique.)
To lift one’s center of mass, one has to apply force against the ground. To lift one’s center of mass higher, one must apply more force, and to apply more force, one must exert more energy. If you were to put a force plate (sophisticated bathroom scale) at the point of takeoff in front of a steeplechase barrier, you would find that the shorter athlete would be applying more force than the taller (again assuming similar hurdling technique)
This does not prove that Allie will never beat Emma, but unless she becomes a much better technical hurdler over the barriers than Emma is (and Emma is pretty decent) , at 5’ 0” Allie will have to exert more energy than Emma, who is 5’8” to clear each barrier. Of course, most of the Steeplechasers that Allie dominated in college had the same advantage over her that Emma has.