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Big guy, small guy: the role of physics in sports

Posted October 9, 2007 at 12:00 PM by Christopher Jack

Section: In The News, His Fitness, Alt. Therapies, His Health, Physical Health

Sometimes it takes more than hard work and dedication to become successful.  While hours of practice and work would obviously help you make strives, more goes into success than just a lot of hard work.  Because of the simple laws of physics, the biggest and strongest guy may thrive in sports like basketball and football, but put the same extraordinary athlete on a bike or in a pair of running shoes, and they may be at a large disadvantage. 

Physics dictates that distance sports, such as running and cycling, or for the small people.  Power sports, like rowing and swimming, are often dominated by the big. Sometimes, you see great size differences in the same sports, but at different positions (take, for instance, the baseball players in this picture).

Dr. Niels H. Secher, and anesthesiologist, exercise researcher and avid rower at the University of Copenhagen, follows the simplicities of physics when prediting how fast competitive rowers could go based on their sizes and the weights of their boats.  He was accurate to within 1 percent.

Elite male towers, which can weigh up to as much as 250 pounds, take advantage of their size to move more oxygen and generate more power.  Their larger muscle mass stores more glycogen, which fuels their short, intense spurts of power.

The same logic goes for elite swimmers.  Taller swimmers allow for shorter bursts of power, using their larger muscles much like rowers would.

On the other end of the spectrum, elite runners are, on average, much smaller.  While it would only seem to make sense that taller runners, with their longer strides, would glide along.  Length of stride, though, does not determine speed.  The taller you are, the more you weigh, the harder you have to work to propel yourself forward throughout the course. 

It should be no surprise that most elite male runners are between 5-foot-7 and 5-foot-11 and weigh between 120 and 140 pounds.  The tallest elite marathoner today is Robert Cheruiyot, who is 6-foot-2, but only weights 143 pounds.

A decision comes into the hands of parents and high school coaches, then, who see young athletes mature and develop. Should coaches encourage young athletes to compete in other sports with the prospect of being more competitive, even great?  The answer just really lies in the fact that most people compete for the love of the game, not necessarily for greatness.  Continue to do what you love, but note that physics may work against you.

Research sources and for more information: [NY Times]; [picture]

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Tags: basketball, bikers, dr. niels h. secher, fitness, football, men's fitness, men's health, physics, runners, size, sports, university of copenhagen

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