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Entries For: November 2013

2013-11-28

New rules in Queensland?

Wait & see ...

2013-11-20

Cargo Cult coaching?

Why do we do things the way we do?

http://scienceblogs.com/catdynamics/2013/08/15/cargo-cult-administration/

http://neurotheory.columbia.edu/~ken/cargo_cult.html

Interesting, it applies to a lot of fields (all of them?!) - People do things because they've seen them done, not necessarily becaise they understand the reasons why or how they work.

As a coach, it's important not just to "do" but also to understand why we do what we do.  It's ok to copy/learn from other programs, disciplines and coaches, but ONLY if we know why and how - or at least, have some understanding of the method.  Not everything in coaching is clear cut and often the "evidence base" is pretty flimsy, but we must strive towards greater understanding of what we do, why and how it works (or doesn't!).

Coaches are not scientists, we're engineers.  We apply the best available science, mix in some gut feeling and experience where the science is lacking, and run with it to build bridges.  We need to understand science much as an engineer does, we have to be able to speak the langauage and ask the right questions (see this : http://startingstrength.com/index.php/site/exercise_science_presentation_2013_part_i as an example of how to read and question ex phys papers).  We're not scientists, but we have to think like them sometimes, and call them if they're making mistakes.  It happens, a lot.  A lot more than we'd like!

(I'm a big Feynman fan, I have a few of his books, the guy was a once in a lifetime genius)

 

 

2013-11-19

How accurate is hand timing?

On the weekend at the Vic track cup, I did some hand timing

At the Vic Track cup, I did some hand timing, it's interesting to compare to the electronic system - my average error was 0.04s, the worst was 0.13s (I was distracted for that one by people in front of the start line).

Touted around is that hand timing is no better than 0.1s, I say "rubbish", if you're concentrating and not having your line of sight blocked, you can be around 0.05s or better pretty consisantly.  Here's the raw data, electronic timing rounded to hundredths.

 

 


   
Hand Electronic

  error
12.48 12.39 0.1
11.44 11.40 0.04
11.63 11.60 0.03
11.15 11.09 0.06
11.96 11.90 0.06


 
12.35 12.34 0.01
11.47 11.50 0.03
13.76 13.71 0.05
11.93 11.90 0.03
13.12 13.08 0.04
13.05 13.01 0.04


 


 
12.35 12.31 0.04
12.40 12.37 0.03
11.54 11.50 0.04
10.77 10.77 0
11.26 11.22 0.04


 
11.63 11.61 0.02
11.24 11.22 0.02
10.87 10.88 0.01
10.91 10.92 0.01
11.37 11.39 0.02
12.00 12.02 0.02
11.42 11.41 0.01
11.40 11.35 0.05
10.94 10.81 0.13

2013-11-11

A little number crunching

Filed Under:

Olympic flying 200's, vs Manchester world cup

Some data for your enjoyment :

 

2000 2004 2008 2012 2013 – manchester world cup
10.166 10.177 9.815 9.713 9.799
10.243 10.214 9.857 9.952 9.871
10.277 10.230 10.064 9.987 9.936
10.287 10.264 10.098 10.072 9.944
10.343 10.271 10.123 10.088 9.945
10.370 10.381 10.199 10.123 9.947
10.459 10.441 10.272 10.144 9.957
10.520 10.446 10.314 10.155 9.964
10.526 10.454 10.318 10.201 9.976
10.530 10.462 10.337 10.202 10.015
10.540 10.515 10.346 10.226 10.046
10.556 10.565 10.362 10.247 10.068
10.595 10.597 10.373 10.311 10.106
10.603 10.646 10.391 10.323 10.111
10.649 10.673 10.470 10.350 10.112
10.745 10.758 10.497 10.604 10.115
fastest



10.166 10.177 9.815 9.713 9.799
mean



10.463 10.443 10.240 10.169 9.995
SD



0.164 0.177 0.200 0.197 0.093
fastest vs mean        
0.297 0.266 0.425 0.456 0.196

 

So what is all this? this is the top 16 times from the Olympics in the era of indoor 250m "standard" velodromes for the flying 200 for men.  From Sydney to London (yes, Athens was "outdoors", but it had a roof!), and finally the data from the Manchester world cup last week.

Here's the women, I've used the top 12 to be consistent with the Olympic qualifiers since Sydney :

 

2000 2004 2008 2012 2013 – manchester world cup
11.262 11.291 10.963 10.724 10.874
11.439 11.364 11.106 10.805 10.900
11.494 11.364 11.140 11.020 11.019
11.512 11.380 11.167 11.027 11.065
11.526 11.400 11.222 11.080 11.103
11.545 11.430 11.365 11.109 11.161
11.548 11.456 11.372 11.203 11.183
11.649 11.597 11.400 11.234 11.211
11.650 11.622 11.462 11.241 11.261
11.792 11.646 11.533 11.319 11.266
11.803 11.655 11.544 11.322 11.309
12.194 12.457 12.134 11.347 11.345




 




 




 




 
fastest



11.262 11.291 10.963 10.724 10.874
mean



11.618 11.555 11.367 11.119 11.141
SD



0.234 0.311 0.302 0.201 0.153
fastest vs mean        
0.356 0.264 0.404 0.395 0.267

 

I'm going to draw some graphs later, this is just for you to have a quick look at. I've hilighted the standard deviation for 2013 Manchester world cup for both the men and the women, it's ... very interesting ... 

Also interesting is the SD for the Melbourne Worlds in 2012, which was even tighter in the top end than Manchester, but it was a world championship.

 

2013-11-10

On the mend and reflections on Manchester World Cup

This time last week I was lying on a bed at the Austin hospital doped to the eyeballs on morphine waiting for surgery to repair a hernia.  Today I'm home, with a new belly button that looks like something out of an Alien movie (it will get better!) after spending the weekend doing what little I could to help at Hilton's sprint camp that we held at DISC.  I'm pretty tired, but am well and trully on the mend.  Jayne has been awesome, but I feel terrible (and you should see the looks I get!) when she loads up with rollers, backpack, bags etc and I saunter along with her, carrying nothing ... It won't last, in a few weeks I'll be carrying stuff again.  Live it up, eh?  heh ...

It's been a very interesting week in sprint cycling.  At the track world cup in Manchester, the mens sprint qualification times were simply stunning. Manchester is not Moscow, it's not a track where times need to be asterisk'ed out, it's a "real" track.  It's not summer there, it's coming into winter, so the conditions would not have been amazing for speed.

Have a look at this :

 

Place Number


F200 speed 100 100-200
1 193 FÖRSTEMANN Robert GER 9.799 73.48 4.838 4.961
2 254 DAWKINS Edward NZL 9.871 72.94 4.905 4.966
3 293 PHILLIP Njisane TRI 9.936 72.46 4.924 5.012
4 106 GLAETZER Matthew AUS 9.944 72.41 4.911 5.033
5 222 PERKINS Shane JAY 9.945 72.40 4.919 5.026
6 169 D'ALMEIDA Michaël FRA 9.947 72.38 4.938 5.009
7 221 LEWIS Peter JAY 9.957 72.31 4.944 5.013
8 195 NIEDERLAG Max GER 9.964 72.26 4.905 5.059
9 276 DMITRIEV Denis RUS 9.976 72.17 4.944 5.032
10 179 CRAMPTON Matthew GBR 10.015 71.89 4.955 5.060
11 134 NAKAGAWA Seiichiro CCT 10.046 71.67 4.986 5.060
12 164 GASCON Juan ESP 10.068 71.51 4.987 5.081
13 306 CANELON Hersony VEN 10.106 71.24 5.003 5.103
14 288 SAVITSKIY Valentin RVL 10.111 71.21 5.027 5.084
15 153 PTACNIK Adam CZE 10.112 71.20 5.003 5.109
16 160 LEVY Maximilian ERD 10.115 71.18 5.034 5.081
17 315 AWANG Azizulhasni YSD 10.115 71.18 4.979 5.136
18 129 BARRETTE Hugo CAN 10.118 71.16 5.006 5.112
19 206 ARCHIBALD Matthew HPS 10.125 71.11 4.981 5.144
20 152 KELEMEN Pavel CZE 10.136 71.03 4.999 5.137
21 158 BALZER Erik ERD 10.137 71.03 4.994 5.143
22 258 WEBSTER Sam NZL 10.143 70.98 5.000 5.143
23 265 ZIELINSKI Damian POL 10.152 70.92 5.022 5.130
24 183 KENNY Jason GBR 10.154 70.91 5.029 5.125
25 104 BULLEN Mitchell AUS 10.160 70.87 5.012 5.148
26 281 SHURSHIN Nikita RUS 10.167 70.82 5.048 5.119
27 208 MULLEN Eoin IRL 10.199 70.60 5.068 5.131
28 207 VELTHOOVEN Simon HPS 10.210 70.52 5.086 5.124
29 248 HOOGLAND Jeffrey NED 10.234 70.35 5.060 5.174
30 142 XU Chao CHN 10.239 70.32 5.064 5.175
31 235 NG Josiah MAS 10.247 70.26 5.056 5.191
32 311 OLIVA Alexander WAL 10.270 70.11 5.072 5.198
33 133 KAWABATA Tomoyuki CCT 10.284 70.01 5.064 5.220
34 269 ESTERHUIZEN Bernard RSA 10.294 69.94 5.116 5.178
35 264 SARNECKI Rafal POL 10.300 69.90 5.088 5.212
36 204 BRETAS Sotirios GRE 10.390 69.30 5.163 5.227
37 163 MORENO Jose ESP 10.395 69.26 5.138 5.257
38 246 BUCHLI Matthijs NED 10.405 69.20 5.130 5.275
39 308 PULGAR Angel VEN 10.437 68.99 5.155 5.282
40 213 CECI Francesco ITA 10.548 68.26 5.200 5.348
41 173 SIREAU Kévin FRA 10.573 68.10 5.103 5.470

 

The top 27 riders rode faster than 10.2s flying 200's.  To qualify in the top 16, you had to ride 10.115 and even then Azizul missed out.  9.9 didn't guarantee top 8!  This is not the Olympics or the world champs, this is just a world cup.  Jason Kenny, the 2012 Olympic champion, rode 10.154 and did not quailfy.  Marty Nothstein, who won at Sydney in 2000, with a 10.166s (fastest qualification time) would not have qualified for this world cup.  He wouldn't have made the cut.

I discussed this somewhat with John Beasley on the w'end (Malaysian track coach).  He's got Azizul up to 10.115 and Josiah at 10.247 over the last few months.  What's the huge change?  It's big gears.  The guys are so much stronger than they've been before and the obsession with small gears and high cadences is over.  I've personally seen Josiah riding very low 10's flying 200's at DISC recently on training wheels with minimal tapering, and he's mid 30's, he's the strongest he's ever been and also the fastest he's ever been. 

No-one is riding 90's anymore, they're all up in the high 100's or bigger.  We know Forstemann rode 114" at Cottbus when he rode 9.7 there a few months ago (~148rpm average for the 200m, outdoors on concrete).  This is a far, far cry from the "old" days of 160+rpm.  Why is this?  Is it a recent discovery?  I suspect a lot of it is increased specialisation, modern sprinters aren't doing the road stuff they used to do, at least, not nearly as much.  They're getting stronger in the gym, stronger on the bike and riding lower cadences where there's less overall contractions, so greater endurance.  It's possible to hit 73km/h on smaller gears, it's certainly been done, but it's very very hard to hold the speed on small gears, you just run out of neural capacity, or "too much revs!".  Put on a bigger gear, and as long as you're strong enough to get it going, you can go further at the same speed.

Very interesting indeed.

Will anyone break the world record, which was set at Moscow (9.572) at a normal track?  They're getting pretty close now ... and not as a one-in-a-million freak, but dozens of riders look capable of it.

 

2013-11-07

Unexpected hurdle

Filed Under:

hernia!

On Monday morning I went in to the Austin hospital to have am umbilical hernia repaired - it was all very sudden and unexpected and I'm on very light duties for the next six weeks, no lifting, no DISC motorcycling (G-forces not good for it).  The good news is it was a routine thing, nothing drastic. Lots of opiates for me for a few weeks and gradual recovery.  Back into things in late December.


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