Have you seen their version of Tae Kwon Do?Originally Posted by JimtheConquerer
Same thing that is going on everywhere else. This is currently the standard approach to Strength and Conditioning.
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Snowboarding is pretty well monetized though.
TMPHBITEU
Have you seen their version of Tae Kwon Do?
Same thing that is going on everywhere else. This is currently the standard approach to Strength and Conditioning.
✓ Member
Wow, that's a whole lot of "warm up" to squat a Euro 315. That part where he was stepping from ball to ball looks like it'd be great practice for crossing a stream without getting your feet wet.
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Unless you can compete with this guy in whatever downhill discipline he races in, I don’t see any rational comparison of your strength to his. I can bench press more than Tom Brady, but that apparently doesn’t make him any less of a QB.
Sure, the warmup stuff was gimmicky and I’m convinced that a GHD machine could replace his coach, but he does recognize the importance of squatting and squats a decent amount for someone who spends as much time on skis as he presumably has to in order to be competitive.
TMPHBITEU
You know, I'd never thought of that. If the greatest QB in the NFL isn't very strong, why should anybody worry about it? It's not like he'd be any better if he were stronger, after all. He's already the best he can be, because he's the best in the NFL. Duh.
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The suggestion of the initial comment was, “Hey, how can this person possibly be a celebrated athlete because I am just as a strong as (or stronger than) that person.”
That is an absurd suggestion anyway you look at it: it suggests that there is no valid athletic skill, there is strength and only strength and that strength is only measurable by the standards of a individual who only strength trains.
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Maybe so, compared to curling. A quick Google search showed the 2017 total salary cap for the NFL alone being $1.2 billion. It also showed that Shaun White earned $9 million during one of the prior olympic years and that practically everyone else simply earned free gear. If Shaun White had to compete against dudes with NFL/NBA genetics I would guess that he might struggle. That said, I still appreciate the discipline and practice that I assume Shaun White puts in to get there.
TMPHBITEU
That was not the suggestion. The suggestion was that the man was not operating at his potential due to a lack of attention paid to his strength training, not because he isn't as strong as you, me, or the OP.
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I'm of the same opinion of the "X games" events that are judged. I don't mind the ones where they line up 4 people and say fastest to the line wins. It's not as clear as a running race, but on snow, it's not too bad. At least it's simply do this and you really can't muck with the result behind the scenes. But the skateboard park crap on snow that is judged, no. This from a Canadian whose country has seen a large number of medals from these "events" as well.
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What Rip said.
I am ridiculously bad at skis for being a Norwegian, and once I got out of school and could avoid the ski-trips I had with class I eliminated the activity from my life entirely. The only award I ever got from my skiing in school was the price for "best fall".
If I had been into skiing though, especially downhill which is the fastest of the olympic events I'd have reached the same conclusion: that you need a lot of leg strength. The stronger your legs are, the more velocity you can handle allowing you to make turns with higher speed. That's not just what I say, but also his own analysis in the video, and it's right!
His heavy squat-workout: 308lbs (140kgs) for sets of 10... For an athlete that weighs 220lbs and emphasize squats as priority #1 and squat 3 times a week - this isn't heavy. This is laughable. My post was simply pointing to the baffling fact that my lazy ass with mediocre genetics who never excelled in any sport can juggle in a couple of trainings a week here and there over the last few years and be right up there in leg-strength with the best in the world in a sport where leg-strength is absolutely essential, and it's a sport where the margin that got him the gold was 0.12 seconds.
You say in your post that he squats a decent amount. So how do you explain him calling 308lbs heavy? There is a video out of the team doing a so-called Hell Day, where they test their limits. He manages a 1RM of 418lbs. He also fails his bench attempt at 264lbs. Wherever the sweet-spot is where taking your strength further would cost more than it would yield in the field, this is just not it for someone like him.
To contrast, here's another Norwegian athlete that does understand how to use his potential.
This snowboarder was quickly working to be in the world elite (beating Mikkel Bang, champion in a bunch of snowboard-things), until a knee injury made that carimpossible.
Powerliting, including squats, seems easier for the knees to handle than strapping your feet into planks and boards and hurling yourself down mountains, so he picked up that instead.
He took his bodyweight up to 170kgs (374lbs), and put up a powerlifting total of 2711lbs which includes a 1080lbs squat. His bad knee eventually stopped him from that as well and I think he currently works in some field of engineering that don't require him to weigh 374lbs anymore.
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When interviewed about why the muscles didn't just turn into fat and how it's possible that he lost so much weight so fast (this was a year or so after he retired) he replied that it's simple to lose weight by eating less while continuing to train a bit, and that it was way harder to keep weight on.
If someone like that one day woke up having lost half his ability and genetic potential and found himself cursed with being on the downhill-ski team, do you think, having the experiences he had, that he'd not laugh his teammates out of the weight-room when he realized where they thought their strength was reaching it's limits for what was beneficial?
- Long Shot Louie
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