Evolution of athleticism: reaching for the new impossible

This archived article was written by: Edmond J. Sanders Jr.
Running a sub four-minute mile at one-point in life was considered impossible to experts and scientists as it was deliberated as too much for the human body to reach. In 1954 Roger Bannister dismissed all disbelief running a 3:59.04 mile and since then to date over 20,000 world-class, collegiate and high school athletes achieved and continue to accomplish this once impossible feature.
Throwing 105 MPH pitch was deemed impossible. Running a sub 10-second, 100m dash was also viewed as impossible; however, it has been ran by many world-class sprinters; as the current 100m world-record time stands at 9.58 by Usain Bolt. Experts also predicted he would never be a successful 100m sprinter due to his stature, standing 6 feet 5 inches. However, he trained and managed to create the same angles from the blocks as ideal-size sprinters, producing tremendous amounts of ground reactive force and awe-worthy-stride length, frequency, fluidity and smoothness.
Experts are optimistic about the future of athleticism and what can be accomplished. Will a human ever run a sub nine-second 100m? How can we make athletes faster, stronger and more explosive than ever before? These are questions of optimism that experts, coaches, athletes and individuals have and answers they seek.
Bo Jackson, Herschel Walker, Usain Bolt, Florence Jones “Flo Jo”, Michael Jordan, Ozzie Smith, Russell Westbrook are some of the greatest we have heard of and witnessed; however, this list is vague, as there are many of phenomenal athletes not recognized on this list.
Evolution of athletes is in works; scientist are in constant study of biomechanics, human movement, physiology, psychology and physics understanding new ways to develop and construct the ideal athlete.
This is a study with a no end in sight because the limits of human ability is all spectacle and opinion because with genetics, improvement in human movement/biomechanics and development of strength with the new technology and training efficiency, human limits are illimitable.
Usain Bolt ran at 12.4m/s in his world-setting performance in Beijing in 2008. To accomplish this record setting performance, his stride length was 2.77m and step frequency of 4.449 Hz. Studies show for a human to run sub-9 seconds, maximum velocity needs to reach 13.2m/s, which would necessitate a stride length of 2.85m and stride frequency of 4.63Hz; however, resulting a greater amounts of force production (Approximately 4.5x BW).
These are the numbers that need to be reached to break a sub-9 second 100m, but it’s a much more in-depth process to attaining these numbers; from understanding human movement and exemplifying correct biomechanics, to developing muscle imbalances and strengthening the optimal muscles to fire greater and faster than the most explosive athlete we have seen.
To all athletes looking to become the best athlete they’ve ever seen, you must train explosive, develop body as one and teach it how to fire as a unit, vision what you wish to achieve, but most importantly understand and pay selective attention to function and your biomechanics. Learn how to sprint correctly and develop movement through its geometric proportion and watch your athleticism sky rocket.
Accounting an athlete’s genetics and limb length are essential. What can be achieved by a human being is a mystery of evolution as we know what needs to be done; however, understanding how to do it, is where amazing lies.