Usain Bolt Should Play Football

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
I have seen countless track guys who try to play football fail miserably. There are very few occasions in football where you run in a linear fashion. You are always cutting, juking, and adjusting speed, which is something you don’t deal with in track and field events. Sometimes you do have guys who make a successful transition, but its more the exception than the rule. [/quote]

The good track and field athletes usually do both in high school. Bolt is a genetic freak, if he grew up in America he would be in the NFL right now as a wide receiver. A physically gifted person can excel at most sports.

[quote]ukrainian wrote:
The question is really if he can take a hit.

Well, can he?[/quote]

Only one way to find out!

[quote]eic wrote:

The 100 meter is not an all-out event like the 40 yd. or 60 meter. Sprinters are trained to pace themselves and drop the hammer later into the race. [/quote]

the 100 isn’t an all-out event? what do they do, pace themselves for the first three seconds?

Seems to be doing ok at running…

The 100 is an all out event. The 200 basically is as well for elite athletes.

How often does a football player get in a track stance and run 100 m in a straight line? True “game speed” and “agility” is an athlete�??s ability to react to a visual stimulus in a split second, and make cuts and run around obstacles as he sees fit, as quickly as possible.

And can he take a hit? Receivers often are subject to punishing hits and tackles. To someone who has never played football seriously, the trauma build-up from hard tackles will either cause his catching ability/speed to deteriorate, or cause him to fumble excessively.

He could probably be an OK football player, but right now he is not far from becoming the best sprinter EVER and is a household name throughout the world.

Still not buying any of the arguments. It’s not like you can just pick up and decide to become an NFL player.

This thread is like speculating if Matthias Steiner would make a good lineman in the NFL. THERE ARE MORE SKILLS THAN STRENGTH AND SPEED!

[quote]hardgnr wrote:
The 100 is an all out event. The 200 basically is as well for elite athletes.
[/quote]

Well not according to the elite sprinters and coaches quoted in the article I read. And forgive me, but I’ll take their word over an internet genius like yourself.

[quote]MaximusB wrote:
I have seen countless track guys who try to play football fail miserably. There are very few occasions in football where you run in a linear fashion. You are always cutting, juking, and adjusting speed, which is something you don’t deal with in track and field events. Sometimes you do have guys who make a successful transition, but its more the exception than the rule. [/quote]

Why do you assume that his speed would fall apart if he had to run in a non-linear fashion? If anything, the fact that he is probably the fastest human on earth in a linear fashion should suggest that he is also quite fast in a non-linear fashion. Maybe not AS fast, but still damn fast.

I don’t think that Bolt would just walk on the football field and instantly be the greatest football player ever. But with some decent coaching, he might be able to become an above-average kick returner or wide out. That’s all I’m saying.

[quote]eic wrote:
This is kind of irrelevant. The 100 meter is not an all-out event like the 40 yd. or 60 meter. Sprinters are trained to pace themselves and drop the hammer later into the race. Indeed, Playboy just ran an article about this very fact in the (I think) August issue.

This is the same argument I made in response to the claim that the NFL combine times are not accurate because those athletes are putting down times that are as fast or faster than the 40 yd. splits of track athletes in major competitions.

The point is that you cannot make a direct comparison that way. I’m willing to bet that a good track athlete could run an incredible 40 yard dash. But it is true that Bolt is not that great at shorter distances; he has great endurance and top speed, but his acceleration is not that impressive (for elite sprinters). [/quote]

Wait, you read the articles in Playboy? I think you may have teh ghey.

Bolt’s 60 m split (6.32) was much faster than the 60 m world record (6.39) and you’re telling me he didn’t run all out? Bullshit.

I didn’t consider the manual start on first movement vs. a gun start. That puts Bolt closer to 4.2 sec. What’s amazing to me is that he’s still accelerating at that point.

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:

Wait, you read the articles in Playboy? I think you may have teh ghey.

[/quote]

I question whether you’ve seen a Playboy before. If you had, you’d know that there is only 2 minutes worth of T&A in there. My shits take 15 minutes at least. That is 13 minutes worth of reading, and we’re not even talking about subsequent shits.

Let me spin this back at you. Bolt’s 100 meter split (9.69 seconds) was faster than the prior world record (9.72) and we KNOW from the video that he wasn’t running all out. And what, BEEYOTCH?

[quote]eic wrote:
Steel Nation wrote:

Wait, you read the articles in Playboy? I think you may have teh ghey.

I question whether you’ve seen a Playboy before. If you had, you’d know that there is only 2 minutes worth of T&A in there. My shits take 15 minutes at least. That is 13 minutes worth of reading, and we’re not even talking about subsequent shits.

Bolt’s 60 m split (6.32) was much faster than the 60 m world record (6.39) and you’re telling me he didn’t run all out? Bullshit.

Let me spin this back at you. Bolt’s 100 meter split (9.69 seconds) was faster than the prior world record (9.72) and we KNOW from the video that he wasn’t running all out. And what, BEEYOTCH?[/quote]

Completely fucking irrelevant, because you can see he slowed down at the END, not the first 60 m.

EDIT: And honestly, I haven’t looked at a Playboy in at least 5 years, and I never bought one in my life. It’s a shitrag.

[quote]eic wrote:
MaximusB wrote:
I have seen countless track guys who try to play football fail miserably. There are very few occasions in football where you run in a linear fashion. You are always cutting, juking, and adjusting speed, which is something you don’t deal with in track and field events. Sometimes you do have guys who make a successful transition, but its more the exception than the rule.

Why do you assume that his speed would fall apart if he had to run in a non-linear fashion? If anything, the fact that he is probably the fastest human on earth in a linear fashion should suggest that he is also quite fast in a non-linear fashion. Maybe not AS fast, but still damn fast.

I don’t think that Bolt would just walk on the football field and instantly be the greatest football player ever. But with some decent coaching, he might be able to become an above-average kick returner or wide out. That’s all I’m saying. [/quote]

His start is OBVIOUSLY slower than everybody elses, since that is the main part of cutting, and switching speeds what makes you think he will be half decent at doing that stuff?When you look at him run the 100 Meter his leg turnover isn’t better than everybody elses, he just has a stride length that is 2 feet longer than everybody elses that actually hurts you when cutting.

Then you have to look at how fast those NFL guys are, they are elite speed, I don’t even think Walter Dix was the fastest on his team at the time. Theres no telling what records would be broken if someone like Adrian Peterson specialized in the 100, and 200 all his life.

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:

Completely fucking irrelevant, because you can see he slowed down at the END, not the first 60 m.[/quote]

It’s not irrelevant and you know it. The whole gist of your post was that you could not believe he could break the 60 meter WR without going all out. But we know that he broke the 100 meter WR without going all out. Explain that, motherfucker or shut the fuck up.

Aw, now somebody is just a widdle upset. Don’t cry, baby.

[quote]Airtruth wrote:
eic wrote:
MaximusB wrote:
I have seen countless track guys who try to play football fail miserably. There are very few occasions in football where you run in a linear fashion. You are always cutting, juking, and adjusting speed, which is something you don’t deal with in track and field events. Sometimes you do have guys who make a successful transition, but its more the exception than the rule.

Why do you assume that his speed would fall apart if he had to run in a non-linear fashion? If anything, the fact that he is probably the fastest human on earth in a linear fashion should suggest that he is also quite fast in a non-linear fashion. Maybe not AS fast, but still damn fast.

I don’t think that Bolt would just walk on the football field and instantly be the greatest football player ever. But with some decent coaching, he might be able to become an above-average kick returner or wide out. That’s all I’m saying.

His start is OBVIOUSLY slower than everybody elses, since that is the main part of cutting, and switching speeds what makes you think he will be half decent at doing that stuff?When you look at him run the 100 Meter his leg turnover isn’t better than everybody elses, he just has a stride length that is 2 feet longer than everybody elses that actually hurts you when cutting.

Then you have to look at how fast those NFL guys are, they are elite speed, I don’t even think Walter Dix was the fastest on his team at the time. Theres no telling what records would be broken if someone like Adrian Peterson specialized in the 100, and 200 all his life.[/quote]

You make some good points. I’m just not sure that poor cutting would doom him as a receiver. His ability to separate down the sideline would be hard to contend with. Not to mention his height. All of this assumes, of course, that he is good at jumping.

Keep in mind that a lot of things you guys are criticizing Bolt for would seem to apply with equal force with Randy Moss, yet he is one of the best receivers in the game. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but he doesn’t seem to have great acceleration, but his separation speed, height, and jumping ability make him money on the deep ball.

This thread’s retarded.

[quote]tedro wrote:
This thread’s retarded.[/quote]

Thank God someone said it. Stupid speculation for something that has no definite answer. The end.

Let’s see:

When playing football he’d have to learn a new skill set while getting the crap kicked out of him on a daily basis while not making much of anything salary-wise OR

He could keep doing what he’s doing, which is keep breaking records in track while earning a nice chunk of change in endorsement deals, and not get the crap kicked out of him on a daily basis.

Hmmm, quite a conundrum there.

/sarcasm

[quote]SSC wrote:
tedro wrote:
This thread’s retarded.

Thank God someone said it. Stupid speculation for something that has no definite answer. The end.[/quote]

You do realize that you are saying this as someone who has posted over 800 times on an online bodybuilding forum about a thread in the “off topic” section, right?