Or a history of heavy deadlifts that made you strong.
Actually, I wasn't trying to relate it to American o-lifting performance, but I can see how thats a good example to use. I realize now that maybe the answer doesn't have to do with "speed work" either, but rather that some people can work at higher percentages of their max. That is, if someone's 5RM is close to their 1RM, it will be grind, whereas for others (most women?) their 5RM will be lower and thus bar speed probably faster.
That said, this discussion got me interested and I found this:
"Kyle was the first teenager in history to go over 800 in the deadlift, doing 830 as a 19 year old. He was able to do 750lbs while concentrating on the OL lifts, and doing no steady deadlift training."
I gather now that something like this is not just due to lots of fast O-lifts, but rather because there's also a major component of strength work, even if it's not deadlifting (e.g. GMs, heavy shrugs, etc.)
Or a history of heavy deadlifts that made you strong.
I just read a Starr article on deadlifting, where he basically made the same point. He went so far as to advocate dropping deadlift training almost entirely, focusing instead on a handful of assistance exercises, trained intensively (high pulls, GMs, shrugs, and I forget the others).