I know what bone bruises can be like because I USED to (not anymore) pitch to boys without L-Screen protection. In general I stacked two buckets because I can always project myself frow waist up but the bat speed off of juice up composite bats was too much to get to the low ball. One time my foot was dangling and didn’t make it back, and it hit me so hard I had a second kneecap for about two hours. Never saw such swelling and no break, just a deep bone bruise that took a few weeks to heel. In fact about 2-3 months later I had a vein burst down in my foot which was a result of that impact. So I am sure this stuff can hurt….
I just mean the fake stuff, and guys acting as if they are hurt. I really don’t like that.
By the way iforget let’s not cherry pick your great us athletes. Do you think it’s any coincidence that your typical HS 100 meter stud is also the running back on the football team? Have you checked the vertical leap on these guys which is a indicator of the power contained within their posterior chain? I didn’t see any centerfielders in your list. Do you see many guys on the US team you’d thrown in for Rickey Henderson?
And let’s not forget the way Barkley embarrassed the rest of the world despite being a few pounds over ideal weight. Strange that none of the prissy Euro basketball players could handle him despite the fact that they “looked like athletes”.
Don’t forget hand-to-eye coordination, depth perception, reaction time, etc. The US team is comprised of our best soccer players, but not really our best athletes. Regarding the weight my feeling is there is a certain amount of weight in anaerobic (i.e. power/strength) sports that seems to be ideal for each guy and for that player it’s an individual thing. Certain positions you don’t want to lean out excessively.
