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Why a bear can take your head off (or: an extended reply to mooncamping)

Recently, I went to a teaching workshop that I thought was going to be horrible.  Then, the guy giving the workshop opened with the question: "Why can a bear take your head off?" coupled with him acting out a head-removing swipe on a student in the front row.  I was instantaneously more focused than I had been in months.

Star-divide

This is relevant to football, I promise.

You see, people think that bears are stronger than humans because they are so big, but that is only partially true.  Bears also have a lot of built in skeletal leverage, too. 

Every joint is a lever.  Let's take the elbow as an example because it is a pretty simple joint:

3858316444_f28f44f493_o_medium

The joint itself is the "fulcrum" of the lever (think the middle of a see saw).  We'll call the distance between the fulcrum and the point where the biceps tendon attaches to the forearm the "effort arm" of the lever (the blue section).  The distance between the biceps tendon and the weight or "load" is called the "load arm" of the lever.  As you can see above, on humans, the effort arm (blue) is much much shorter than the load arm (purple). 

Because of the short effort arm and the long load arm, a lot of force (huge biceps muscle) is required to move a relatively small load.

Now let's take a look at a bear's arm:

3857526815_f65252d41d_o_medium

The effort arm (blue) is a lot longer and the load arm (purple) is a lot shorter versus the human arm.

This means that if a bear and a human had the same size biceps, the bear would be able to lift a much heavier load (or swipe your head clean off your body).

 

Ok, so how does this apply to football?

Not all humans' tendons attach in the same place.  Some people's tendons attach closer to the elbow (making for a shorter effort arm) and others attach further from the elbow (making for a longer effort arm).  Even if that tendon is a fraction of an inch different between two players it can make for a big difference in strength--and this occurs all over the body, not just with the biceps.

So even if two humans have biceps (or any muscles, for that matter) that are exactly the same size, one can be much, MUCH stronger than the other.  Because of several factors, including a players' skeletal leverage, scouts can't determine a player's strength or speed based purely on their size or weight.

While scouts might drool over the imposing size of a lineman or might look for players of a certain size to play a certain position, size always takes a back seat to talent.  Height and size are one of many, many measureables a scout will look at when evaluating a player, and most (if not all) of those measurables are trumped by film evaluation.

A player's dimensions or proportions don't necessarily tell us much of anything about a player in terms of their raw physical skills, let alone their skills as a football player.

3 recs  |  Comment 20 comments |

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It looks like you are lucid. Congratulations my friend.

by mooncamping on Aug 26, 2009 6:08 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Moon, your act is tiring. We would all be better off if you didn’t go down swinging, but rather quietly.

by Roger Dorn on Aug 26, 2009 9:25 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

boy, you went from funny to exhausting to king-sized prick in a hurry, didn’t you?

by Dawg Nuts on Aug 26, 2009 10:25 AM EDT up reply actions   1 recs

Seriously.

www.lowbrowsophisticate.com

by kwoog on Aug 26, 2009 1:08 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

I’ve got a… nevermind.

by fwembt on Aug 26, 2009 10:01 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Here’s my question: do you actually camp on the moon? If not, what is the reason for your moniker?

by fwembt on Aug 26, 2009 10:01 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Good post, but an even better title.

by drjeo on Aug 26, 2009 2:14 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

I like it.

To be honest with you, though the post had nothing to do with football, I actually found it pretty interesting. Now I know that it was suppose to be a jab against mooncamp, but none the less, it was pretty good…actually learned something new today haha.

by Vandylaxn21 on Aug 26, 2009 3:08 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

It kind of does have something to do with football. Two players who are both 6’3", 315lbs could be very, very different in terms of their raw strength, and this is part of the reason why.

by rufio on Aug 27, 2009 5:42 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Are you saying we should get a bear to knock some sense into mooncamping?

just kidding of course

" Of course Steroids should be allowed! I wanna see 700 foot home runs and 90 yard field goals! I litterally want to see someone's d**k get shoved in the dirt!"

by BradyQuinnisBeast on Aug 26, 2009 10:46 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

If he knows how to camp on the moon shouldn’t he at least know how to take on a bear?…

…Okay, that was weak.

by SpecialBrownie on Aug 27, 2009 5:04 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

good post though rufio

" Of course Steroids should be allowed! I wanna see 700 foot home runs and 90 yard field goals! I litterally want to see someone's d**k get shoved in the dirt!"

by BradyQuinnisBeast on Aug 26, 2009 10:46 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Urlacher

Does he fall into the category of Bears that can take your head off?

If only it was '95 again...let's go Tribe!

Don't hate on D.A., you would suck too if your only target had brick hands.

LeBron the time is now, get hungry and get goin.

Also, Munch is BA.

Guiltless advertisement for a site I make money with, don't hate! Just try it out if you are interested.
http://www.neobux.com/?r=adilisio

by mackAttack5 on Aug 27, 2009 1:00 PM EDT reply actions   1 recs

no, but the bear in the FatHead commercial with Urlacher jersey and the fire and the alarm going off does.

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
--George Orwell

by jackmca on Aug 27, 2009 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

That commercial did blow my mind.

by SpecialBrownie on Aug 27, 2009 5:03 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

yes

one of the greatest commercials of all time.

"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
--George Orwell

by jackmca on Aug 28, 2009 10:09 AM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

YouTube Link.

2009 Prediction: Att - Yds - TD
Jerome Harrison 95 - 532 - 8

by Simmsinns on Aug 28, 2009 8:46 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

a lion can take a mans head off

not the weak NFL version of one

If you dont like me please ignore me and my posts

The Pirates,Reds,Royals, and Padres are not major league teams

by angryandy on Aug 30, 2009 4:16 AM EDT reply actions   0 recs

yes

i saw that faces of death where the guys shoot the lion with some one-shot rifle crap, and the lion just gets mad. what follows is pretty ugly.

"I know where you're at, man. You had it all, and now it's gone. It's torn a hole in your soul bigger than my Escalade. So you turned to the drugs, the alcohol. Pornography, free-basing with OJ, human trafficking, dog fights slash orgies... darkness."
-- Craig Robinson as Reg Mackworthy in Season 1, Episode 5 of Eastbound & Down

by jackmca on Aug 30, 2009 3:13 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

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