Art De Vany: Odds and Ends, Part 3

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Odds and Ends, Part 3

October 18, 2005 06:50 PM

1. The blog went way over 2 million hits a day or two ago; more than 21,000 hits per day from 85 countries. 100,000 hits a day is the max. OK, not a big deal since blog hits are power-law distributed, meaning they have no natural scale. Just a number with no natural limit or size. So, I should not have formed any expectations about hits, but I did and I am still surprised.

2. The latest, greatest and most likely last version of "Has Home Run Hitting Changed in MLB Baseball?" is up under the Research heading at the top of the page.

No, home run hitting hasn't changed and the steroid argument hasn't even been made in a cogent or rigorous way. It won't survive the evidence no matter how it is put. I don't think the proponents know how to make the argument, they are content to put forth meaningless averages without specifying a model. They have a hopeless task because what they have to do is make a model that says, here is home run hitting off steroids and here is home run hitting on steroids. Nobody has a model of home run hitting that holds even a drop of water, so this is not a doable task.

3. Questions about Matt Furey's approach and Hindu squats, push ups, bridges and such. Body weight exercises are great. Spine flexing, as in Hindu pushups, neck bridges, and reverse push ups at high repetitions is not. You will break the pars section of the neural tube, as female gymnasts do from too much flexion/extension.

4. On CrossFit. I like the approach (I think they even drew some inspiration from my earlier writings). But, there is no way I would do the high reps they do. There are two ways to overload systems: high peak stress and high repetitive stress or many duty cycles. I go in between on both and never go to failure on a weight and never go to full fatigue on repetitions. In fact, I prefer slightly lighter weights, natural and standing movements, done at a fast speed. This was how the great Soviet Champion Alexyev trained. The speed strength helped him set many records.

5. On marathoners. These guys are too serious. My post is fun and filled with scientific references. Even the personal cases are to be taken with some weight, for they do have small sample properties that are informative. I won't dream of doing a marathon or training that way. I don't want to be old and slow.

6. John Lott has some great new papers up on his site www.johnrlott.org.

7. Thanks to Tyler Cowan and his great economics blog, The Marginal Revolution, for mentioning my home run paper. He is a former colleague who left UCI for higher pay and better opportunities.

8. Albert Pujols is one of the best hitters in MLB. His home run last night was the perfect stroke; short, quick, with great extension. Coming off a Brad Lidge high velocity pitch that was enough to put it high off the back of the stadium. He seldom strikes out and has a high home run per strike out efficiency, a statistic I develop at some length in the new version of my paper on home runs.

· Everything

Comments

Posted by: Flower Online at September 12, 2006 7:02 AM

By the way, I also had a couple of posts on your home run paper!

Posted by: John Lott at October 19, 2005 5:34 PM

Thanks, Art. The papers are on this site here.

Posted by: John Lott at October 19, 2005 5:34 PM

I second that, I would like to know about that neutral tube breaking danger. Thanks

Petr R.

Posted by: pruzicka at October 18, 2005 11:51 PM

Art,

Could you elaborate a bit, or provide some references, on the breaking of the pars section of the neural tube?

I take it various yoga poses such as "Wheel" would have the same effect?

Also, given your interest in "speed-strength," have you ever done anything with Jump-Stretch bands?

Thanks,

A.McGowan

Posted by: A. McGowan at October 18, 2005 7:53 PM

Odds and Ends, Part 3

October 18, 2005 06:50 PM

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