young Brumel video

[jhc68]

Here's a link on the British Pathe site that I hadn't seen before.
Here is another link from the Pathe site

http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=68254

Young Brumel in a training session. No sound, just video.
Great stuff.
Take a look at the landing pit to know why flopping was not practical at the time.

Search the same site for lots of Athletics newsreels including Ron Clarke beating Lindgren in a 12:52 three-mile.

[Marlow]

Re: young Brumel video

What a freakin stud he was. It looks so primitive and he looks so . . . studly.

[dukehjsteve]

Re: young Brumel video

I hate the Fosbury Flop. It uglified a beautiful event.

[Marlow]

Re: young Brumel video

I hate the Fosbury Flop. It uglified a beautiful event.

Actually, it 'athleticized' it. The straddle was too girlie! Looked like a ballet leap. :wink:

[dukehjsteve]

Re: young Brumel video

I hate the Fosbury Flop. It uglified a beautiful event.

Actually, it 'athleticized' it. The straddle was too girlie! Looked like a ballet leap. :wink:

But YOU are the one that said Brumel looked " so studly ! "

[Marlow]

Re: young Brumel video

I hate the Fosbury Flop. It uglified a beautiful event.

Actually, it 'athleticized' it. The straddle was too girlie! Looked like a ballet leap. :wink:

But YOU are the one that said Brumel looked " so studly ! "

HE looks and jumps studly; the technique, not so much.

[dukehjsteve]

Re: young Brumel video

Strange how the PV and the HJ went in different directions. The fiberglass pole made the PV less of a strength event and more of an athletic event, whereas in the HJ, with the Flop, it went from an athletic event to more of a strength/power event.

BTW I hate the Spin in the SP too. Ugly, and too much like the DT.

[marknhj]

Re: young Brumel video

Strange how the PV and the HJ went in different directions. The fiberglass pole made the PV less of a strength event and more of an athletic event, whereas in the HJ, with the Flop, it went from an athletic event to more of a strength/power event.

BTW I hate the Spin in the SP too. Ugly, and too much like the DT.

Actually Steve, you have that ass backwards. The straddle was a strength/power technique with an emphasis on strength, whereas the the Flop is a speed/power technique with an emphasis on speed.

And, since I assume you've never flown through the air ass backwards and upside down, I'll give you a pass on the "athletic" comment! The flop executed properly is a thing of beauty; the straddle is clumsy, awkward, and made athletes look like herniated crabs with hemorrhoids trying not knacker their bollocks on the bar

[dukehjsteve]

Re: young Brumel video

Gee, Mark, let us know how you really feel ! I bow to your expertise as to analysis of the physical attibutes of the event(s) but I still hold to my opinion on the cosmetics.

( Not that either of us is biased or anything like that, huh ? )

[Per Andersen]

Re: young Brumel video

Today there is only the Flop, so that's what I'm interested in.

But I would not have minded if the Flop had showed up about 15 years later than it did. Then we could maybe have seen if there was some possibility to develop the Straddle further with the Diving version, something along the lines of what Bob Avant did.

Yeah, Mark should talk. He was one of the guys who stuck the final knife in the Straddle on July 31, 1980 in Moscow

[mrbowie]

Re: young Brumel video

Marlow. . .studly?. . .girlie?. . .a psychiatrist would have, you should excuse the expression, "a field day" with you.

Besides which you are on the wrong end of this argument.

[jhc68]

Re: young Brumel video

There is a generational tipping point for this issue.

If you are on the early end of baby-boomers and grew up idolizing the great straddle technicians ( Steers, Shelton, Dumas, Brumel, Faust, Thomas, Avant, Hanks and a dozen or more others) then you share a vision of straddling as an expression of high art.
Me, I even saw WR holder Pat Matzdorf as a klutz because he just didn't LOOK good even when he was jumping very high.

My one time Santa Ana JC team mate Ed Caruthers settled for Silver in Mexico City and many of us thought that after years of paying his dues and perfecting his technique (and, yeah, his technique was all strength / power and slow as molasses) he was robbed by a newcomer with a flukey, awkward style... an outlier who got massive elevation from a junk style he developed because he was too uncoordinated to jump the elegant way, the "right" way and who risked paraplegia with every attempt.

Those of us with that background - me, Steve, Mr. Bowie, Per (?) - will always regard straddling as a thing of beauty and flopping as merely efficient and effective. You know, the way I might think that Gnarls Barkley's music is technically perfect and OK for the moment, but lacks the soul and artistry of say, James Brown or Jimi Hendrix or the Stax record catalog.