Quote:
Originally Posted by PaladinV
So I'm thinking dumbbell clean and press. So I personally can clean and press a 65lb dumbbell. The thing is I'm not that strong.
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Consider that a clean and press maneuver isn't quite the same as BL.
BL is more like "an object that you can pick up in your hand in just one second with a single fluid motion and carry for a considerable amount of time without fatigue." Think "small shopping bag full of groceries" instead of 65 lb. dumbbell.
Also remember that Strength is a function of Size and mass and ST 10 represents hypothetical the human average. If you're young(ish), reasonably healthy, and reasonably fit, and you're are a male on the taller side of average, then you could easily have GURPS ST 11 or even 12 without trying that hard. If you work out, then it's not unreasonable for you to have effective GURPS ST of 13, or at least ST 11-12 + Lifting ST 1 or 2.
People have been speculating about how GURPS stats relate to RL since about 5 minutes since GURPS 1E was released back in the 1980s. For whatever reason, there isn't that much official information about how GURPS relates to real world record perforances. The most thoughtful unofficial attempt was T. Bone's extensive modifications for GURPS 3E.
IMO, folks trying to stat out RL GURPS Move, maximum ST, etc. often get it wrong because they just look at world records and then calculate the required GURPS Move or BL from there. Instead, it is more helpful to look at the range of expected competencies by age, sex, and possibly height and weight, like physical fitness standards tables for the military.
Once you've got a baseline that's at or below average for normal people, only then can you try to model what a top athlete is capable of. Even then, you have to look at average performance. Not Usain Bolt's best day ever, but the average of all his times with the 50 or 100 m, as well as the average times of the guys who came in 2nd and 3rd that day. Additionally, you need to look at what sports physiology says is the theoretical maximum human performance.
Assume any (near) world record represents a critical success with both Extra Effort and governing skill, plus Fit or Very Fit for endurance athletes or Lifting ST for power athletes, and work out BL or Basic Speed from there.
Finally, GURPS isn't good at measuring the "game of inches" or "fractions of a second" which characterize modern world records. Very occasionally you get breakthroughs in training which bring athletes closer to their theoretical maximum performance, but typically performance in world-class athletic events is closely matched. It wouldn't be unreasonable to set hard caps on maximum human DX, HT, & Will, as well as caps on skills like Running, Jumping, etc.
In top-level competition where all the competitors are evenly matched, actual winning time/distance is based on margin of success with skill and/or Will rolls, with the margins of success representing fractional improvement in performance over the next best performance. If the top two or three finishers in the field all have good days, and the winner of the event rolls a couple of critical successes, that's a new world record which beats the previous world record by some tiny amount.