Bounce theory

[joeydb]

Originally Posted by v j stauffer

A bounce is a physical reaction to a maximum effort.

Let's say you go to the gym every day. On each machine you can solidly do 25 reps.

As you begin to get stronger and in better shape one day you feel especially strong. So instead of your usual 25 you bang out 30 on each and feel like a badass doing it. You've just run a new top!

Next day you feel it more. Bit more stiffness and soreness. Nothing wrong with that. Great to feel that way. However if you went back the following day not only could you not repeat the 30 you'd be hard pressed to return to the old plateau of 25. What happened? You bounced.

When the body does something special and better than ever before it needs more time to recover.

Same with horses except they can't tell their trainer.

I think that's a good definition. Keeping with your workout analogy, you might have a superior horse after an effort if there was no long term injury, after the short term recovery is complete.

You'd also have to isolate any other causes as best you can. A lower Beyer reached as the result of a bad start would give us doubt about it being a "bounce" event.

If the track conditions were especially favorable one day, similar to the case where the gym athlete happened to workout when they FINALLY lubed the weight stack, and the horse ran better than he could otherwise and then reverts to normal performance - that would not be a bounce either.

And, absent of any cause we could find through observation or searching the recorded data, variations in performance just occur. To me, like your definition of a physical reaction, a real bounce would have to be an interdependence of performances - one driving the subsequent potential lower, actively.