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What always stands out to me about Sir Roger Bannister is that once he broke 4, then others could too. It reminds me how many of our limits are mental and if y

What always stands out to me about Sir Roger Bannister is that once he broke 4, then others could too. It reminds me how many of our limits are mental and if you think you can't you definitely can't. But if you think you can, just maybe you will... I love reading about the 4 minute mile. So many phenomenal athletes mentioned in this article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-minute_mile

bitL 9y ago
Maybe they should start selling "tainted" sport watches that shrink/expand 1 second for each run; that way one can think they trained for a worse time than they actually did. Though we might be already much closer to the limits of human body/technique than back in the day...
martinpw 9y ago
> What always stands out to me about Sir Roger Bannister is that once he broke 4, then others could too. > It reminds me how many of our limits are mental and if you think you can't you definitely can't. But if you think you can, just maybe you will... There is an article here debunking the idea that breaking the 4 minute barrier had any psychological effect on other runners: http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2017/05/the-roger-bannister-effect-the-myth-of-the-psychological-breakthrough.html http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2017/05/the-roger-bannister-... TLDR - the mile record times at that period closely track the 1500m times, which had no similar 'psychological' barrier. Also the impact of WW2 had slowed down record breaking leading up to that time.
- runamok 9y ago
  Well thats kills the romance a bit but always welcome learning something new here. :-)
- truantbuick 9y ago
  That article tries to debunk a slightly different notion than I had in mind. It's not that I imagined everybody was sitting just above 4 minutes when running the mile, and that the significance of those round numbers psyched everybody out until Bannister finally broke through. Instead, it's about knowing what's possible and attainable. It's akin to the story of George Dantzig, who solved two unsolved problems in statistical theory because he believed them to be mundane homework problems. Put it this way: how can something that had never been done before 1954 is now considering a very basic benchmark? I would argue that it's precisely because it is considered a basic benchmark that it is so common. If you know something can be done, that makes it easier to train to. If you know something is commonly done, then all the more. Of course, that goes for any record/benchmark, but Bannister's 4 minute mile seems like a particularly significant one.
rorykoehler 9y ago
Just look at extreme sports for a contemporary manifestation of this phenomenon.

bitL 9y ago

Maybe they should start selling "tainted" sport watches that shrink/expand 1 second for each run; that way one can think they trained for a worse time than they actually did. Though we might be already much closer to the limits of human body/technique than back in the day...

martinpw 9y ago

> What always stands out to me about Sir Roger Bannister is that once he broke 4, then others could too. > It reminds me how many of our limits are mental and if you think you can't you definitely can't. But if you think you can, just maybe you will... There is an article here debunking the idea that breaking the 4 minute barrier had any psychological effect on other runners: http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2017/05/the-roger-bannister-effect-the-myth-of-the-psychological-breakthrough.html http://www.scienceofrunning.com/2017/05/the-roger-bannister-... TLDR - the mile record times at that period closely track the 1500m times, which had no similar 'psychological' barrier. Also the impact of WW2 had slowed down record breaking leading up to that time.

runamok 9y ago
Well thats kills the romance a bit but always welcome learning something new here. :-)
truantbuick 9y ago
That article tries to debunk a slightly different notion than I had in mind. It's not that I imagined everybody was sitting just above 4 minutes when running the mile, and that the significance of those round numbers psyched everybody out until Bannister finally broke through. Instead, it's about knowing what's possible and attainable. It's akin to the story of George Dantzig, who solved two unsolved problems in statistical theory because he believed them to be mundane homework problems. Put it this way: how can something that had never been done before 1954 is now considering a very basic benchmark? I would argue that it's precisely because it is considered a basic benchmark that it is so common. If you know something can be done, that makes it easier to train to. If you know something is commonly done, then all the more. Of course, that goes for any record/benchmark, but Bannister's 4 minute mile seems like a particularly significant one.

rorykoehler 9y ago

Just look at extreme sports for a contemporary manifestation of this phenomenon.