ladies, have you experienced this too?, how come we can't? Options

[easydoing]

i always thought guys were faster than girls. i was sure that if a girl ever tried to slap me i would just block her hand away. but today, this cute blonde at school and i get into an argument, and she goes uuhh, and then flips her right hand out to the side. a second later, *slap* she got me square on my left cheek, and my face just spun to the side. i thought for sure i'd block that, but you can't. she was too fast. you can't even move. i'm like daaaamn! how can you block that? and ladies, have you ever done it? does it work that easily usually? and how come we can't block it? do you think most guys can?

[Reidar]

If you specifically mean "nimbleness", look at male gymnasts:



That goes back to the ability of the myofibrils within the muscle fiber to generate tension. Strength training creates myofibrillar hypertrophy - enlargement of the myofibrils (conversely, bodybuilding is sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, an increase in the volume of non-contractile muscle cell fluid to "pump-up" the muscle). The greater the ability of the muscle to contract, the more honed the tension is that can be applied, which results in more control the athlete has over movement to attain lightness, quickness, power, etc.

Throw in flexibility.

I know people who have straight up power, and people who aren't very strong but can move incredibly quick.

They're stronger than they would be if they weren't fast. Speed is derived from the same muscle fiber type as strength. They would also be faster if they became stronger.

Flexibility comes into play from fiber elasticity. The tension generated by strength, in the long term, has the ability to increase the recoil ability of the muscle fibers. Strength training, in the short term, contradicts this on its own, because the fibers shorten as a defense mechanism against the stress of being stretched and contracted (depending on the eccentric and concentric portion) by the movement, but this is rectified with stretching. It's also why stretching shouldn't be done before resistance training, because the elongation diminishes immediate force output.