**POLL**athletes: speed of strength?

[Nebor]

Look at it this way... Bane killed Batman. Strength > Batarangs... I mean speed.

 

[IEatChildren]

Originally posted by: Nebor
Look at it this way... Bane killed Batman. Strength > Batarangs... I mean speed.

[geek]Betman never died, Bane just broke his back. He was in a wheelchair for a while and had a replacement in the meantime, but he came back.[/geek]

 

[screw3d]

I think speed is more useful than just brute strength...

 

[dfi]

How fast or strong are we talking about?? Are we talking about near superhuman (or at least elite athlete) speed/strength? Or just pretty good speed/strength for an average hs/college athlete??

If we're talking superhuman capabilities, speed all the way. If we're talking average hs/college level, then I'd rather have the strength.

dfi

 

[spaceman]

hand-eye coordination.

 

[yoda291]

If I remember correctly, the two things are tied together. Buffed out shotputters will generally beat sprinters so long as the distance to run is really short, like 30m or so simply because they have so much muscle mass they can generate large amounts of energy really fast for really short amounts of time.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82

Originally posted by: conjur
Neither....I'd prefer to have incredible stamina/endurance. That's what makes an athlete.

so what about those 100 meter dash runners... or the 50 yard / meter freestyle swimmers...

Sure, they're talented...but, to me, endurance is the mark of a honed athlete. Look at the triathlon competitors. That's someone who can take a lot of punishment and keep going.

 

[Argo]

You can be both. I bench over 300lbs and I'm still the fastest guy on my football team.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Speed fits best into all sports so I'll go with speed.

 

[kevinthenerd]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: EMPshockwave82

Originally posted by: conjur
Neither....I'd prefer to have incredible stamina/endurance. That's what makes an athlete.

so what about those 100 meter dash runners... or the 50 yard / meter freestyle swimmers...

Sure, they're talented...but, to me, endurance is the mark of a honed athlete. Look at the triathlon competitors. That's someone who can take a lot of punishment and keep going.

I think the world's greatest challenges are the Iron Man and the Tour de France.

 

[Luagsch]

1/2 speed
1/4 strenght
1/4 stamina

that should make a nice mix

 

[Tetsuo]

I'm still trying to figure out what "speed of strength" is

 

[LAUST]

well most of the guys voting are pipe cleaners who are good at running from jocks so ofcourse they want speed to be better.. problem is you need to be strong and fast. I don't care how fast you are a 140lb pimple farmer isn't going to do a thing to hold back a strong 220lb linebacker

 

[Kyteland]

Originally posted by: Tetsuo
I'm still trying to figure out what "speed of strength" is

It's one of the newer scientific theories. First we had the speed of light. Then they deduced the speed of gravity. Now all of modern science is focused on the speed of strength.

I smell a Nobel.

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Argo
You can be both. I bench over 300lbs and I'm still the fastest guy on my football team.

Big arms you must have.

 

[SP33Demon]

Ever heard the saying "Speed Kills"?

You are only born with speed, but strength can be gained by lifting. Since you can't dramatically increase speed as much as strength in the weightroom, the nod goes to speed b/c you now have the potential to be fast AND strong.

In example, if you're like Arnold, you were born strong. Arnold, no matter what he does, will never be able to run a 55 second and under 400m dash. Arnold, however, can bench say, 550lbs.

Carl Lewis can run a 400m in say, 46 seconds. Theoretically, if he wanted to, he could probably build his bench max to 400, whereas let's say he can bench 225 now.

All in all, speed is something you're born with. You will never get dramatically "faster"(sprint wise) no matter how many wind sprints you run during your time on the track. On the other hand, you can dramatically increase your endurance and strength while still retaining your speed, though there is that break even point where too much muscle mass = drop in speed. Ideally, you want to max out muscle mass without sacrificing speed.

 

[nick1985]

strength = speed

at least in a cross country race anyway

 

[Argo]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

Originally posted by: Argo
You can be both. I bench over 300lbs and I'm still the fastest guy on my football team.

Big arms you must have.

My arms are only 16", not the biggest ones on our team. I was 160lbs back in highschool and the fastest guy on our track team. Since then, I put up almost 30lbs of muscle (well, more like 20 muscle, 10 fat) and somehow I maintained my speed.