hey what's up everyone morey croson here and we have another new breakdown for you today it's
going to be a comparison video of tyson gay and asafa powell two of the best sprinters in the
world and two of the most consistent sprinters in the world the sophomore pal is 37 and tyson gay
is 38 so they've been able to do this for a long period of time this video was taken a few years
ago back in 2007 really really interesting race shows a asafa powell come out with an excellent
start and then tyson gay catch him at the end and is able to actually win the race so without
further ado we'll go ahead and hop into the video as always if you like the information here
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leave that in the comments down below we'll get started now so really in spotlight here
tyson gay and uh asafa powell and that you know the big thing that that stood out again
was just the amazing and the software pals node for this and having an excellent start you know
and it really always stands out to me how good he does it really exploding through with those
hips and driving that spine up i know that's something i've been focusing on a lot as as
a sprinter to be able to get better at that he is six foot three and so being able to really get his
spine all the way up and through and his hips all the way through it is such a huge advantage and
i think that's something that is not talked about enough is the first movement within the start and
being able to really have a big adjustment in the spine positioning you know a lot of these other
guys stay really low with their spine and even tyson gay is somebody that that stays pretty low
with his spine um as he's as he's first starting then i mean it's not like asafa powell goes in and
really stands up he just gets that first initial movement has a lot of power there and then is
able to from from that position really move his feet very very quickly which it puts him in a
huge advantage as he starts i mean you can see right here he's definitely you know in the top
two in terms of guys that are ahead in the race uh even as he gets going a little bit more i think he
really solidifies himself as you know being out in front misconception would be is that when you're
taller you have a little bit harder time with your start and a better time with your top-end speed at
least that's how it is for like usain bolt where asafa paowell seems to be on the opposite end of
the spectrum where he's taller has a better start than tyson gay who tyson gay i want to say is 5
10 look that up real quick 511 is tyson gay um and so they have a four inch difference in terms
of height tyson gay doesn't have as good of a start as a sophomore but has a better finish so
it's kind of a misconception that ends up being a thing um and when we go into better seeing you see
how he ends up catching him at the end i will go in and show you how that ended up happening here
so once he gets going what happens is if we really slow this down you can see
tyson gay is just getting a lot faster overall turnover right so his legs look at that how asafa
powell's legs and and their speed in comparison to tyson gay and and the speed of ties again so
look at how fast his legs are turning over there which really makes it so he's able to separate
it almost looks like a stop of pal's running in slow motion in comparison to ties again how fast
his legs are cycling through on each one of these steps and i mean he does a great job
they really both do a great job being able to get good extension during the push-off driving
the knee up and through getting full extension out in front tyson gay just does a really good job of
getting faster turnover his legs are just moving a lot faster than you know the um really any of
the other guys that he's going up against i mean um you know that's something that to me from a
you know six foot and under perspective if you're watching this video and want to figure out how to
run you know sub 10 you got to be able to work on your turnover you got to be able to maximize how
well you can do that and then i also would say maximize your vertical force look at how when
he pushes off how much vertical force tyson gate gets and makes it so then he could he could cycle
back through and he lands with his legs basically straight um he's a little bit in a bent position
but immediately strains his legs out and is able to push off so he has a very very limited contact
time and a very very fast turnover time and that's what makes it so he's able to run so fast
is he just has is so efficient in the actual movement pattern which really ends up being a
huge benefit for him now let's look at the start in the sophomore and what he did really good
in the start again you can see the difference of the spine position tyson gate would probably
benefit from staying a little bit lower just because again at the difference at the height
he doesn't need to get that center of gravity as high as fast uh on the other hand a sophomop
does need to definitely get himself up so i'd say that'd be a big thing for somebody that is maybe
six two and taller here watching this video when you start you wanna be able to get that
center of mass risen up a little bit to make it so then you could really get that that really
quick turnover when you're starting out the race and that's what stands out to me with with his
you know first few steps is he's doing a great job staying very very forward he stays really high up
on the toes look at this first step really first two steps how high a sappa pal is on his toes
right he those heels aren't even like close to the ground so he's able to stay in a great chin
angle as he gets going he he ends up getting up a little bit and now his heels are getting closer to
the ground but he's still not wasting very much overall motion there in each one of those steps
and and really keeping himself downwards i mean it's not like because he started off with that
first step in getting his spine high that made him so he rose up and now he's in a position where you
know he's about at the same type of spine angles fine positioning as tyson gay and you know is able
to really work on that turnover i think that what set him up in really a great position to be able
to win this race you know he just wasn't able to finish it on the back end and we went over a
little bit more on how that happened and then you know there's a big misconception that i wanted to
address here um as well to kind of finish up the video is that i hear and see a lot of people that
talk about how you want to be relaxed when you're running at your top-end speed and i do think that
there's a degree of relaxation that that comes into it i think there's people that can have a lot
more success if they're more relaxed when they're sprinting but i don't want you to think that you
just have to be relaxed in order to run fast or you just have to be tense in order to run fast you
want to be able to find something that is unique to you when you watch tyson gay hear him running
you could definitely see he is straining a lot look at his neck look at how it doesn't even look
like he's really breathing at all you can see how how overall flex his forehead is his eyes are you
know he's definitely not in a position where he's just nice and and relaxed and and you know smooth
he's very very tense um during during the run-in and i find in my own individual running that it
helps me out to be a little bit more tense it doesn't help me to be smooth and relaxed i don't
have that that ability and i think usain bolt is somebody that does benefit from being more smooth
and relaxed but just because he is able to do that doesn't mean everybody is going to be able to do
that again tyson gaming he ran the second fastest time you know ever that that we recorded and you
know he's very very tense and there's a lot of guys justin gatlin another guy that is really
intense when he's running and you know so i don't want you to think that you just have to be relaxed
i think you know there are people that need to be able to relax more um and then i do think there's
more there's people that need to tense up a little bit more when they're running and get that better
overall um muscle tensegrity to make it so they're a little bit more springy and by
tensing the muscles up they can make themselves get a little bit more springy and get that faster
turnover so um you know that ends up being i would i would say that asafa powell was you know
more relaxed and that's why i ended up beating him but it looked like he was pretty tense the
whole time too so you know another guy that ran sub 10 and was pretty tense the entire time
with his face so the point being is that you don't have to be relaxed in order to run fast and you
don't have to be tense in order to run fast you just have to understand what works best for you
and that's what i would challenge you to do is to really understand what works and when you're
trying to run as fast as you can and just do that all right as always guys thanks for watching these
videos hope this helps if this was a super super entertaining race you can go and easily find it
online if you wanted to watch it all um you know 100 speed or whatever we always have trouble with
doing that just because youtube copyright stuff so i unfortunately can't always show it in full speed
here but you could definitely look it up online and find that video and if you have any questions
for us you could reach out to us down below by clicking one of the links we do have a free
speed mechanics webinar happening later on today so if you want to check that out you always can
and as always thanks for watching these videos and we look forward to hearing from you soon