Fun look at raw athleticism, Jordan versus Jackson...
Burst. Exceptional players have explosive action. Rarely, a natural like Bo Jackson is a born great freak of nature. Jackson has the All-time NFL Combine 40 yard sprint record, 4.12 seconds...at 227 pounds.
In a "separation game", burst informs separation. Athleticism, size, skill, and mental inputs (vision, decision-making) are game changers.
How can we measure athletic explosion?
The three cone drill is a popular metric at the NFL Combine. But what about "playing speed versus timed speed?" Playing speed separates performance from potential.
Rebounding imperfectly relates to height. Height helps rebounding but the correlation is nonlinear. Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell are at the top, yet Abdul-Jabbar is at the far right. Anticipation, positioning, toughness, desire, and power all contribute.
Training enhances athletic explosion.
Practice reinforces explosiveness. We're constantly urging athletic explosion. "Don't cheat the drill." Volleyball coach Richard Barton preaches INTENT when teaching hitting. "Hit as hard as you can. We'll teach you better control."
Games reward explosion under control. Russell Westbrook takes off with 5 Gs of force and slams home a tomohawk at 50 mph.
Anson Dorrance's competitive fury only plays when accompanied by the requisite explosion and skill.
Lagniappe:
Chris Oliver shares actions off of a "diamond" half-court set.Diamond set-ups are popular overseas. They can flow into ball screen actions like in this example. pic.twitter.com/wewDkg1GnO— Chris Oliver (@BBallImmersion) October 1, 2018
Lagniappe 2: Diacope
Diacope is a rhetorical convention in the form, A-B-A...go, team, go. Burn, baby, burn. Captain, my Captain. Sunday, bloody Sunday. Go, dog, go (Dr Seuss). But the most well-known, irreverent introduction came with diacope in the 1962 video above as Sean Connery introduces himself at 1:09.
