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McGahee's "speed burst"


Tolstoy

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Keith Byars had 2 100 yard rushing games in his entire career...something like 12 years. Willis McGahee has 5 this season and I think we all agree he needs another couple months to be 100%. I agree with the pass catching aspect of Keith byars but not the blocking part. McGahee has already shown himself to be a much more dynamic player than Keith Byars and is pretty far from being relegated to fullback duties.

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Let me ask you a question. Find me a GREAT 100M sprinter that is skinny.  You won't. Any great sprinter has great legs, and is strong.

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Until you put them on a football field and a linebacker hits them, then they look pretty small. (cough, cough, Renaldo Nehemiah, cough, cough).

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Keith Byars had 2 100 yard rushing games in his entire career...something like 12 years.  Willis McGahee has 5 this season and I think we all agree he needs another couple months to be 100%.  I agree with the pass catching aspect of Keith byars but not the blocking part.  McGahee has already shown himself to be a much more dynamic player than Keith Byars and is pretty far from being relegated to fullback duties.

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Good points. I think, when called upon, Byers blocked well. That was seldom. As I watch WNG, his rather stand-up style, I don't see a trench fighter.

 

My comparison to Byers was meant as high praise. I just think that while WMG may be an effective running back, he has the potential of being a player with the "intangibles" that Byers brought to the game. Perhaps a Larry Centers type.

 

Even before TH's injury, the Bills need an inside runner, IMHO.

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Let me ask you a question. Find me a GREAT 100M sprinter that is skinny.  You won't. Any great sprinter has great legs, and is strong.

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I'm not saying he doesn't have speed, merely addressing this point.

 

First, 'speed' is thrown about here in multiple ways. 100M sprint is what most people mean by speed. But for running backs, we are usually looking for that extra acceleration/burst over 10M, perhaps better referred to as quickness.

 

Speed is not a function of muscle mass, but rather muscle composition. There are 'fast twitch' muscles and 'slow twitch' muscles, refering to how fast they contract. When you move a muscle a bunch of strands twitch. As you continue to pump, individual strands drop out to rest and new ones take their place. FT's contract faster, giving you speed, but tire faster. Roughly speaking, if you have alot of ST's you are genetically predisposed to things like long distance running, while those successfull in sports like football tend to have a higher composition of FT's.

 

There's nothing you can do to change the composition you are born with. However, there is something you can do about quickness. Through certain training techniques you can 'train' your muscles to recruit alot of FT's at once - you get tremondous burst that way.

 

As to ICE's point, it is important to realize that the largeness of the muscles in sprinters legs - particularly short distance sprinters - is not the source of their speed but rather a secondary effect of rigorous training, just as the rest of their body is likely to be muscular.

 

So what does this mean for McGahee? I dunno, depends on how he is training. I suspect he is just bulking the muscles to strengthen the knee at this point, and we'll see even more burst next season when he pushes his weight training to the maximum.

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