Coming out of lurkdom to say I've been loving these daily Olympic posts!
I wasn't able to stream live at work but I was bummed to find out a good friend of DH & mine didn't make it to the finals today. He was in the 50m prone shooting competition today. We competed with him for many years before he decided to join the Army Marksmanship Unit and make this his career. He won the gold in the Pan American games for the same event and had an amazing score in the US team trials so we all had high hopes. There was a nine way tie for fourth place so they had a shoot off. He was 6th in the shoot off and the top 5 advanced to the finals. : (
So close!
What kind of longevity do competitors have in shooting? Would he be looking foward to Rio now?
Shooting is one of the few sports in the Olympics you can compete in for a long time. For example Kim Rhode was the first American to win individual medals in 5 consecutive Olympics. She was 17 when she got her first metal (gold) and now she's 33 with a gold in women's skeet this year...possibly another medal in trap which is her better sport. I'm sure he'll be thinking about Rio soon but it's very tough to qualify since even the tiniest error will knock out out of the running. He's only 30 and the medalists were 44, 31, and 49 so age is not a concern yet. He posted on FB that he was very happy with his score and only had one shot out of the 65 he shot today he would like to redo. The reading wind was a big issue in today's match and the perfect score the gold medalist had in qualifying was amazing! DH might have to jokingly offer to give him a wind lesson since he's one of the best wind readers in the country.
I did not watch USA's bludgeoning of Nigeria in basketball (yesterday?), but my boss was talking about it today and thought it was unsportsmanlike for us to have won by that much - something like 153 to 78? Thoughts on this?
He's saying they should have let up at some point?
Meh...I don't know. The Canadian women's hockey team took heat in '10 for beating the shit out of their opponents. The US women laid off of theirs once the scores started getting far apart.
On one hand, is it necessary to win by 75 points? No. It's not. But on the other hand, the badminton players just got DQ'd for playing down (different scenario, I understand), but wouldn't laying off an opponent to not run the score up be considered playing down?
And then where do you draw the line? Is winning a swim race by a body length too much? Is winning a gymnastics meet by 5 points too much?
It's tricky.
The US hockey women made the point in 10 that they want to play their best game to encourage the weaker countries to play up to their level - they didn't want to 'play down' to theirs to make it more fair. I can see that argument too.
I agree with this, in general I'm not a fan of "you should win this way, but not that way, even though it's not against the rules". There are clear rules in sports for a reason. I think it's really shitty that they let that badminton stuff go on for so many matches before bringing the hammer down.
The worst is when college football teams get slammed for running up the score... in a sport where you're subjectively ranked on such things as, wait for it, margin of victory.
"This prick is asking for someone here to bring him to task Somebody give me some dirt on this vacuous mass so we can at last unmask him I'll pull the trigger on it, someone load the gun and cock it While we were all watching, he got Washington in his pocket."
Ok. Who here can talk about track? I want to know why all our sprinters are so ripped. I get the lower body muscles, but I just watched Carmelita Jeter run her 100, and her upper body was jacked.
I would think a sprinter wouldn't want to be so muscled on top, but obviously I'm wrong because she's world champion.
Ok. Who here can talk about track? I want to know why all our sprinters are so ripped. I get the lower body muscles, but I just watched Carmelita Jeter run her 100, and her upper body was jacked.
I would think a sprinter wouldn't want to be so muscled on top, but obviously I'm wrong because she's world champion.
So why does that work for them?
Running, especially sprinting, is very much an all-body workout. Your arms drive your legs. They follow the movement of your arms (so for example when making a turn you will swing your arm across your body to help turn). Because of this, good use of your arms will save energy and make you a more efficient runner (aka, faster overall) so your legs don't have to do all the work... try running without using your arms at all! You can DO it but it is really hard. The very strong swinging arms are definitely important to performance! I was a distance runner, but arms are important there too and we all always lifted. Focusing MORE on upper body in fact, since usually we needed more effort to strengthen there.
The arms are also a good telltale sign of when someone is fading in a race. Usually they are one of the first things to fall apart. WHen you watch a lower level race (HS or college even) you will probably hear runners being told to use their arms by coaches, they really make a difference. Focusing on your arms is a good way to help push through fatigue.
But yeah, you see how the sprinters DRIVE with their arms? That takes major strength too. Abs, back too. It really is a full body workout.
also, being lighter weight in general is a good thing for distance running (less to carry around), though I did pretty well on strength personally. But for sprints, it really doesn't make as much of a difference - especially when you are talking muscle weight. It isn't that far to carry that extra 5 pounds, and when that 5 pounds is propelling you forward because it is muscle, all the better.
Post by basilosaurus on Aug 4, 2012 3:52:46 GMT -5
I am not a runner. As in during elementary school, I was slower than the fattest fat kid and got mercilessly teased for it. But, I've occasionally tried to jog with H (for a few blocks), and even I can feel that using my arms helps me a lot. Maybe it's just the best and the worst runners who notice that help? Everyone in the middle maybe can rely on their legs for the work they're doing.
sibil - the help your arms give is significant enough that it does make a difference for everyone! I was good at the level where I was (state level not national etc) but I ran with all levels in HS and college and really, arms matter a lot.
I also love watching the field events. Never did them myself but love em.