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The old adage is that one can't coach speed. It is a natural gift. It seems now that that old adage is somewhat modified. One can't coach speed but one can improve it chemically.

In the latest edition of Annals of Internal Medicine (2010; 152: 568-577), there is a published study of a randomized placebo control blinded study looking at growth hormone alone and in combination with testosterone. Guess what, those taking growth hormone alone had improved sprint capacity (a measure of power and anaerobic performance). those taking both growth hormone and testosterone show even greater increase in sprint capacity.

As of now, growth hormone can't be detected. Testosterone can be detected.

Now the funny part is the editors, supposedly very smart folks, commented that, “The athletic significance of the change in sprint capacity is unknown.” So if one can have more power for long, the editors haven’t a clue whether that is important or not.

Wish growth hormone was around back in the day.

and you would look younger too....

i think its funny that athletes get blasted for taking illegal supplements to enhance their careers, but actors get a free pass on taking HGH.

You drew the wrong conclusion from this article... it's not saying it improved their speed. It demonstrated an increase in the duration of maximum output, not a necessary increase in speed.

It also mentioned the decay of the effect 6 months after the dosage stopped.

smu diamond m wrote:You drew the wrong conclusion from this article... it's not saying it improved their speed. It demonstrated an increase in the duration of maximum output, not a necessary increase in speed.

Indeed, the study didn't measure pure sprint speed. But the improvement in strength is key. Improved strength has been shown to increase speed. If one can increase the distance covered for a given max stride, one increases speed. This is one reason for strength training. The study did show increase in power (strength) as well as anaerobic performance. In a sprint, most surpass their anaerobic threshold quickly. Thus, a good bit of the sprint is in anaerobic metabolism which is very limited in duration and finite by genetics. The ability to function in anaerobic metabolism doesn’t change with conditioning (or deconditioning). If this study is confirmed, then an increase in anaerobic performance would mean that a finite and significant limitation to max performance in anaerobic metabolism has been increased beyond genetic limitation. And that too could lead to better speed (i.e. less deceleration in a sprint).

Actually you can coach speed or at least how it is measured. Why do you think those fb players go to the training and speed camps before they go to the NFL combines or their pro days. How does ES have such a fast time compared to S McNeal when Mcneal is considered a faster player after the combine results? Why does Michael Johnson have the sppeed enhancemaent camp in McKinney? Does it really make you faster or just improve the testing?

Coaching can refine technique to get you from A to B faster. So in that sense you can coach speed. But coaching cannot improve your genetic potential, which apparently can be altered chemically.