OT: Are athletes really getting faster, better, stronger?

[Clonamery]

He did a lot more than that every night...and day

Women weaken legs.

Well, it could be said it was whatever self doubt that was making him drink/philander that got in his way. Plus that sprinkler hole that wrecked his knee...

 

[XLIX]

There are pitchers these days who are regularly hitting 103, maybe even 104 mph on the radar gun. That’s blazing speed. Back when I was a kid, if Clemens or Gooden threw some heat, it was usually in the mid-90s.

Yeah but Clemens had 17 complete games in ‘87. The current MLB leader for this season (sitting here in mid-August) has 3.

 

[XLIX]

I don’t think any sport has changed more in the past 50 years or so in terms of athletic superiority than football. The size differential alone is astounding.

 

[XLIX]

He did a lot more than that every night...and day

Women weaken legs.

 

[RobertWeathers]

View attachment 23875

Hysterical.

There was another rumor he had sex in the woman's bathroom at Fenway Park in the late 50s. The visitors clubhouse bathroom was clogged and he was walking around and had to go. He emerged from the stall and the rest is history.

 

[maust]

Ray Lewis killed a couple of guys, and the second one was bigger and faster than the first.

You'd think he would have started with the bigger and faster guy but among the many things Ray Ray is guilty of, being intelligent has never been among them

 

[jimnance]

There are pitchers these days who are regularly hitting 103, maybe even 104 mph on the radar gun. That’s blazing speed. Back when I was a kid, if Clemens or Gooden threw some heat, it was usually in the mid-90s.

That's not accurate. By all accounts, radar guns in the 60s and 70s registered about 5 mph less than today's. Nolan Ryan was clocked over 100 on the old guns which would easily put him at 105 today. Clemens threw 100.
Oth, there are certainly more guys throwing 97+ today than before.

 

[IllegalContact]

I’ll watch the video later but the answer is yes, they are bigger faster and stronger than they used to be. That’s why the concussion problem has only gotten worse and worse. F = mv^2 and both the m and the v has gotten larger and larger so the force of impact has increased correspondingly.

concussions have always been there........identifying the condition has improved.......people got knocked senseless all the time......they just didn't call it a concussion

 

[zydecochris]

I’ll watch the video later but the answer is yes, they are bigger faster and stronger than they used to be. That’s why the concussion problem has only gotten worse and worse. F = mv^2 and both the m and the v has gotten larger and larger so the force of impact has increased correspondingly.

It is not F that is proportional to mv^2, It is actually the Kinetic Energy K=(1/2)mv^2. If a player has mass m and velocity v, his momentum is p=mv. To stop his momentum (e.g. with a tackle or hit) takes an impulse I which is the integral of the force vs time, equal to Ft if the force is approximated to be constant and t is the time to stop the player. Thus, the actual force the player feels as he is stopped is ~F=mv/t. If the player is stopped very quickly, say with a helmet to helmet hit, t is very small and the force the player feels is enormous and a concussion can occur. If t is larger, say by slowly dragging the player down, the force felt is much less. Either way F is still proportional to both m and v, so the bigger and faster the players the bigger forces are felt during a tackle or hit.

....I’m surprised Palm Beach Pats Fan didn’t beat me to this

 

[NormZauchin]

Of course they are bigger, stronger and faster. It has everything to do with nutrition, training and the need for 110 percent dedication to the sport you participate in. Same reasons people grow taller than 5’3 and average lifespans are twice as long. Genetics I am sure play some small role as well.

Unless you are talking about some special athletic eugenics programs the Russians and East European communist regimes may have run back in the day, the genes that players have today are the same as they were 50 years ago. Two hundred thousand years of homo sapiens evolution is not easily altered. With human gene editing in its infancy, the possibility of creating human supermen looms on the horizon, but most scientists and public policy pundits seem to be opposed to going down this path.

 

[NashuaPats]

That's not accurate. By all accounts, radar guns in the 60s and 70s registered about 5 mph less than today's. Nolan Ryan was clocked over 100 on the old guns which would easily put him at 105 today. Clemens threw 100.
Oth, there are certainly more guys throwing 97+ today than before.

It's estimated that Ryan's' record fastball of 100.9 mph would be clocked at 108.5 mph today.

Pitching by numbers: 'Fastball' provides scientific looks at baseball

 

[supafly]

Yeah but Clemens had 17 complete games in ‘87. The current MLB leader for this season (sitting here in mid-August) has 3.

Yeah, he was a workhorse. I didn’t realize that it was that low, this year.