.

Usually when something freaky is happening in sports, you find out later that there was a scientific explanation.  

For example, Secretariat's 1973 year was unpossible - here are the Belmont Stakes that he won by 25+ lengths.  Fans like to think, well, that horse just had a lot of desire.  But there are lots of horses whose desire is max'ed out.

As it turned out, Secretariat had a (physical) heart nearly three times the size of the average horse's.  Similarly, Michael Phelps has physical attributes that give him the advantage in the water.  Ted Williams had eyesight that was quite unusual.  Michael Jordan had weirdly big hands.  You run into this a lot.

.......

For some time, I've been wondering why Marshawn Lynch can run the way he does.  Attitude IS a big part of it, no doubts there :- ) but Pete Prisco explains it in more practical terms.  A great read with great quotes and great sense of proportion.

You'll want to read this one yourself, but there were two big takeaways for me.  First, the idea that Lynch runs with a "sliding" motion and his hips over his feet.  We knew that he ran with his feet wide apart, but it hadn't occurred to me that he "stays in base" that much better than everybody else in the world.  As DeMarcus Ware put it:

"Usually I can hit somebody, and my weight and momentum will push him hard enough backwards or to the side," Ware said. "With him, he's so big and strong and runs very low that it's so rough. You hit him and you don't tip him over. When hitting him, he's still going to lean forward. You don't find a lot of backs like that."

In Brazilian jiu-jitsu they talk about staying "in base" at all times, meaning that your CG is relatively low even when you're whirling into a sit-out technique.

That is something that I can buy into, that Lynch simply happens to run "in base" more than do other backs.  His running style IS weird.  He runs like Gimli son of Gloin.  He has a natural gift for running low, a gift even relative to other running backs in the NFL.  Good for him.

.........

The second takeaway - This isn't the biggest guy in the world, by NFL standards.  He just does not have the muscles that a lot of NFL players have.

Somewhere "under the skin," as they say in aikido, there is a "moving without motion" advantage that Marshawn is deriving.  When he locks his shoulder for a stiffarm, in some way or manner he's leveraging it better.  Better than other NFL players do?  That's saying a lot, you realize.

As a completely separate issue, Lynch's tensile strength seems extra class.  Ware is a DL/LB, 30 pounds heavier than Lynch, but when Lynch sets to back foot and launches the stiff-arm, it's like a pike set in the ground.  Players weighing 250-275 lbs., who can bench-press 400+, consistently lose these stiff-arm contests to Lynch.  Something about power transfer from the ball of the foot through the heel of the hand - horsepower delivered to the back wheels.

Given those natural advantages, Lynch then parlays his Beast Mode state of mind into something that is authentically unique in sports.

........

Prisco finishes up by talking about how Lynch inspires the Seahawks "into a frenzy" when he gets rolling.

Certainly Pete Carroll has to be more aware of this than anybody.  Carroll, after all, was the man who visualized that Lynch could be exactly this, and the man who believes Lynch "closes the circle on our toughness."  I can't imagine that you and I want Lynch back, more than Carroll does.

Dr. D is very curious as to how the Seahawks keep Lynch around.  He's a little more important than all the other $7M players they have.  Do you Seahawks 'rats see a solution here?

You'd hate to see the Seahawks "win the battle" of keeping their salary structure, keeping their "we don't renegotiate" mantra ... but "lose the war" of missing out on their potential Three-Peat.  The Seattle Mariners won the battle in 1998, with Randy Johnson, but they're paying reparations fifteen years on.  That "business decision" wrote the fabric of baseball history in the M's disfavor.

BABVA,

Jeff