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I would be interested in examples of sprinting in hunter-gatherer life, as I can't seem to think of many. I may be out of touch with the putative reality of so-called Grok's daily life, but the only example of sprinting I can think of would be running away from predators (whether they were other animals or hostile people). However, I think the frequency of those instances would have been pretty darn low (though the outcome vitally important)? What about some other examples of actual sprinting?

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Sprinting for shelter when it starts pouring rain, perhaps? I can't think of many others either.

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I am skeptical on those people minding some rain (unless they were afraid of lightning), but hey, I could be wrong. – survivalmachine May 6 2011 at 21:17
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What about chasing after something, like a rabbit or other small animal?

Also I doubt that humans magically got along better ... so I would think we did a fair amount of running after and away from each other.

Also - games and play. Kids sprint around naturally, that's probably not new.

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I hadn't thought of play. That's a good point, though I suppose it doesn't cover later life when most of the muscles necessary for adult sprinting are developed. Would that matter? I don't know. – survivalmachine May 6 2011 at 21:20
Absolutely agree. Take your dog to a dog run and play with him. All the sprinting you need. – ben61820 May 7 2011 at 1:34
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Most of it would have occurred during the hunting process. I think many of us overlook just how difficult it is to consistently take down megafauna with (relatively) crude lithic technology. Simply hitting the animal with a single spear isn't always going to cut it. There are plenty of glancing blows and so forth that cause the animal to bolt. Best bet might be to hit it again. The Hadza use bows and arrows and 3 types of poison but still end up having to chase down animals or run back to camp to get help for tracking a wounded animal. Keep in mind that we've always had predatory competitors who will take our dinner if we don't properly secure it ASAP.

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This is intriguing. I am very skeptical on a sprinting human being able to sprint to catch up to a wounded animal. I would be interested if you have references to the Hadza claim, as that might be worth learning more about? – survivalmachine May 6 2011 at 21:15
amazon.com/… – Travis Culp♦ May 6 2011 at 21:38
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How about during play? You need to learn how to sprint for when it really matters, i.e. survival. Not everything falls into the category of pursuing food, although that might be the most important.

I've had to sprint from my older brother plenty of times.. likely saved me a few broken bones.

Big picture.

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I could see how it would come handy in your case... – survivalmachine May 6 2011 at 21:15
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I'm pretty sure that paleolithic humans captured animals not by sprinting but by running for hours until they (the prey) collapsed.

Saw this on Discovery channel so be gentle with your barbs, could well be nonsense.

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I saw a clip on Youtube a modern day hunter-gather tribe doing this. The runner of the group tracked down and killed the animal after 8 hours of running after it. The animal was lying there exhausted when the hunter got to it. And I still think sprinting could be a handy escape from other predators. – Trevor May 6 2011 at 22:14
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How about when Grok needed to take a flying sh*t? There, you probably won't see that on Discovery Channel, but it happened.

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I sprint all the time just to get places in the wilderness. If there's a big gap with a 2-3 foot deep stream running through it, the fastest way to the other side is to gun it and leap across. This is a fairly common example too. Sprinting is often useful for getting the power necessary to leap across something wide.

Also, I think people tend to WAY underestimate our speed and agility. If you're a trained athlete (parkour etc), of course you couldn't sprint down a deer in an open field, but it's a much different story when you're dealing with dense forest, wide streams, big rocks, etc. Sprinting through a setting like that equipped with all the parkour techniques and stuff... I see no reason why you couldn't catch a deer, especially if you already wounded it by hitting it with a big rock or spear. I'm just guessing though. I've never tried it.

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@total fing hippie: I didn't really mean catch the deer with your bare hands and use BJJ to submit him or something. My point is that we're a lot faster than most people realize. You studied the traditional methods of people who lived in a dense forest, but how do you know they're good at moving or anything like a real paleo hunter-gatherer tribe? BTW I didn't mean dense forest anyway. I meant dense forested areas plus lots of big streams, rocks, etc, which would help even the playing field. Can a deer jump off a 15 foot rock? Just wondering. – Anonymous Coward May 6 2011 at 23:28
Continued: The point is, people WAY underestimate our speed through a varied environment with things like big rocks, trees, streams, etc. Why couldn't we use that speed to run after a deer we just wounded with a big rock or something? Might seem primitive, but I assume we're still adapted to hunting without something as technologically advanced as a bow and arrow. Plus how's it not using our brain? You would have to pick the right environment, lead it on paths we're especially good at (big drops if they can't handle that or something), and know all the parkour shit. – Anonymous Coward May 6 2011 at 23:32
Continued: Believe it or not, there is a gigantic variety in parkour and it certainly doesn't come instinctively. You have to use your head to know what to do in what situation, especially if you're trying to lead an animal on the routes it's worst at and the ones you're best at. I'm still just here guessing on something I don't know anything about, but I see no reason why you couldn't pick the right spot and hunt a deer with nothing but rocks and your agility. I'm just pulling this shit out of my ass though, so whatever. Prove me wrong. Why couldn't you kill a deer with rocks + sprinting? – Anonymous Coward May 6 2011 at 23:35
Continued: Maybe you wouldn't need the sprinting if you use the rocks? Well what about wounding it and then running it down? I guess you could track it instead? One thing I have trouble with though is then why are we so good at moving quickly through these kinds of environments? I really don't see it as crazy to suggest that you could train and get to the point where you could sprint down a deer in the right environment. Maybe not dense forest and big hills, but perhaps places with big rocks, streams, etc? – Anonymous Coward May 6 2011 at 23:37
Continued: By the way, we could just drop the whole deer thing and just say that there definitely are animals that you could use sprinting and agility to catch. In fact, here's an example: youtube.com/watch?v=_R_0FryVRNk They hunt rabbits with their bare hands. There's proof that we can hunt SOMETHING with our speed and agility. Perhaps we wouldn't be a match for deer, but looks like we're good at catching rabbits. – Anonymous Coward May 6 2011 at 23:40
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Of course it is/was.

running after slower prey (small mammals, ground birds, injured or young prey). running after wounded fast prey (ungulates). running towards an animal that is struggling to break free of a trap you've laid. running away from angry mastodons and tigers.

I have startled bears in the woods and my modern knowledge told me to stand my ground. but i bet many a paleolithic man or woman turned tail and ran. and you better believe that you can haul ass with 600 pounds of angry bear chasing you.

did you ever see the opening scene in Last of the Mohicans? Hawkeye is chasing after a moose (i haven't seen it in ages, it may have been an elk or large deer) that he has shot. just imagine he'd shot it with a bow and arrow or stabbed it with a spear or hit it with a rock or...

an animal or enemy grabs your baby. you are going to speed walk in pursuit? running after a fleeing enemy. running away from a stronger enemy.

It's called fight or FLIGHT for a reason. It wasn't done every day or even every week. but when you needed to do it you were able to do it.

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I understand your point, and I agree that it was very important, just not overwhelmingly common. However, I still don't buy the argument that humans can catch up with any wounded wild animal that they couldn't catch up with if it was healthy. What small mammals could we catch? Rabbits? Squirrels? Those critters are FAST. I don't know, maybe a muskrat that was caught far away from water? – survivalmachine May 7 2011 at 1:42
guns and modern bows are incredibly lethal. the reason we don't chase after wounded game today is they will run from us and possibly die while hiding and we may not be able to recover the body (loss of meat and inhumane). paleo man would have made much less lethal blows and therefore had to track and chase game in order to finish them off and recover the body before other animals did. ask any hunter. – Tim May 7 2011 at 17:00
and yes, paleo man wasn't being chased by mountain lions every day. but the average hunter gatherer would have had several encounters over the course of his life with large predators. depending on how circumstances it may have been an almost daily thing. how many modern men can say the same? less them 1% of 1% of us. life was completely different. – Tim May 7 2011 at 17:01
survivalmachine - can you imagine hitting a rabbit with a big rock? what if you crippled it but it could still somewhat run. you'd be fast enough to catch it then, right? but you'd still sprint because dinner was on the line. if you use your imagination a little bit I'm sure you could think of hundreds of scenarios where being fast would mean the difference between eating and starving, and between living and dying – Tim May 7 2011 at 17:05

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