Elite Sprinters and the 40-yard Dash

Madmick

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So ESPN is running a feature, "The 20 Most Dominant Athletes of Our Time", and Usain Bolt was listed at #10. I cannot fathom how anyone could assemble a compelling list of a nine athletes all deserving to be ahead of him, but okay. We'll see.
http://www.espn.com/olympics/story/...spn-list-most-dominant-athletes-last-20-years

*Edit*
Oh, yeah. Here is the full list:
http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...on-james-most-dominant-athletes-last-20-years
LOL@Peyton #3. WTF kind of designer street drug has taken over in Bristol, these days?



Anyways, in the article, it said he had a 40-yd Dash time of 3.99s. Incredulous, I went to look that up, and I found a bunch of articles (not just the one that was sourced) that were trying to extrapolate his 40-yard time from looking at his best splits for the 100m between 30m and 40m. Obviously, this isn't totally fair to Usain, since he's not bursting for a pure 40, but subtracting time based on that fair argument cannot be reliable. This time isn't real.
ESPN said:
Bolt's record 100M time, per MileSplit.com, nets to a sub-4.0 40-yard dash. That would best the NFL combine record of 4.22, set by Bengals WR John Ross.
nfl3.jpg


So another Google turned this video up. Impressive:




The thing is that Usain may not even be the best 40-yd dash runner due to his height. Sprinters already knew over 100 years ago that top speed wasn't even reached until the 40-yard mark. Obviously we would look to the 60m champions.

Usain's best split ever at 30m is 3.78s (ran three times including his 2008 and 2012 gold medal races). Apparently Michael Greene (JAM) in 1996 was .01s faster at that mark with 3.77s, but because at that point they've only traveled 32.8 yards, it's tough to believe he would still be ahead by the end of the dash; we know for a fact that Usain had already eclipsed him by 40m.

@senri, have any of these 60m or 100m champions taken a detour recently to specialize in the 40-yd dash training for a little bit just to see what they are capable of? Or at least taken some runs on a track like the guys above?
 
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Walter Dix has a youtube video of a 3.75. But he didn't do it on field turf, he did it on a track.

Ben Johnson was the fastest ever over the first 40m. Waatch out for Christian Coleman though, he's about to set some records.

One thing to keep in mind is that track surfaces are faster now than when Ben Johnson was at his best. Once the new track surface was introduced for the 1991 IAAF WC times dropped. Prior to the 1991 WC no race had more than 4 runners go sub 10secs. In 1991 in Tokyo 6 guys went sub 10 and 2 sub 9.9.
 
Walter Dix has a youtube video of a 3.75. But he didn't do it on field turf, he did it on a track.

Ben Johnson was the fastest ever over the first 40m. Waatch out for Christian Coleman though, he's about to set some records.

One thing to keep in mind is that track surfaces are faster now than when Ben Johnson was at his best. Once the new track surface was introduced for the 1991 IAAF WC times dropped. Prior to the 1991 WC no race had more than 4 runners go sub 10secs. In 1991 in Tokyo 6 guys went sub 10 and 2 sub 9.9.
Also the NFL combine is not using an IAAF type of track surface ...the new surfaces in track and field are crazy/stupid fast now...
 
Walter Dix has a youtube video of a 3.75. But he didn't do it on field turf, he did it on a track.

Ben Johnson was the fastest ever over the first 40m. Waatch out for Christian Coleman though, he's about to set some records.

One thing to keep in mind is that track surfaces are faster now than when Ben Johnson was at his best. Once the new track surface was introduced for the 1991 IAAF WC times dropped. Prior to the 1991 WC no race had more than 4 runners go sub 10secs. In 1991 in Tokyo 6 guys went sub 10 and 2 sub 9.9.
I thought I saw 3.75s in my Googling, but I lost track of it, and I couldn't find it again. I was trying to find a video of a 100m head-to-head with Usain where he was out in front of Usain by a considerable margin at the 20m mark. I know I'd seen that, more than once, and had discussed it here in the past, but I didn't have the patience to dig.

I don't think Ben is the fastest ever past 40m. I went and re-checked that table from my hyperlink after you said this; first, I had to correct an error from the OP because I misread Ben's 30m mark (it was 3.80, not a 3.77 tying Michael Greene). The IAF report for Ben's 1988 time (and personal record) tracks him at 4.66s at 40m, but then 9.79s at the finish (+5.13s); Usain hit 4.64 in Berlin before finishing at his 9.58 (+4.94s).

That would seem to be a clear indication that Usain's top speed past 40m was substantially faster.
 
It wasn't official but Bo is said to have run a 4.12 at the combine.
 
Also the NFL combine is not using an IAAF type of track surface ...the new surfaces in track and field are crazy/stupid fast now...

It wasn't official but Bo is said to have run a 4.12 at the combine.
Hand-timed, so it's not the same, but I think that was "official" according to the measurements of the time. Think he hit a 4.08, unofficially.

Factor that in and neither matches a 4.22 for the average person timing (+0.14s-0.19s).
 
not all surfaces are the same ...and the old times listed of various athletes would have been on a variety of surfaces as well...
Yes, I was just posting the 4.22 to show that it was run on actual grass.

As I pointed out with the edit addressing Bo's alleged times, the main reason the NFL doesn't retain old tested times from workouts and the early years of the Combine (established in 1982) is that the variation in testing renders comparison invalid. The controlled and precise testing protocol they use today only dates back to 2006 which you can track at NFL.com
 
Yes, I was just posting the 4.22 to show that it was run on actual grass.

As I pointed out with the edit addressing Bo's alleged times, the main reason the NFL doesn't retain old tested times from workouts and the early years of the Combine (established in 1982) is that the variation in testing renders comparison invalid. The controlled and precise testing protocol they use today only dates back to 2006 which you can track at NFL.com
I have a blocker on my computer so I didn't watch the video...what is crazy about Usain Bolt is he had poor dietary habits and was by far the best sprinter in his era...there are uniquely gifted/generational athletes, and he is one of them...
 


Hand-timed, so it's not the same, but I think that was "official" according to the measurements of the time. Think he hit a 4.08, unofficially.

Factor that in and neither matches a 4.22 for the average person timing (+0.14s-0.19s).


According to Bo and the sports guys covering Auburn football, it 4.13 at Auburn and electronically timed.
 
It wasn't official but Bo is said to have run a 4.12 at the combine.
With Bo it was really about a guy that size running that fast. It was like watching a truck that could outrun a sprint car. Bo could have beat John Ross' time carrying Ross on his back. (more or less a joke but you get what I'm saying;))
 
According to Bo and the sports guys covering Auburn football, it 4.13 at Auburn and electronically timed.
Damn. That part is news to me. I knew of the (apparently wrong) 4.12 time, but I was unaware of the His & Hers episode he gave 2 years ago.
 

Damn. That's incredible.

But to know that Bo Jackson actually matched that (almost!) at 225 lbs while he had the skill to compete professionally in two of the major 3 ball sports....

[<dunn]

Bo really did know.
 
Damn. That's incredible.

But to know that Bo Jackson actually matched that (almost!) at 225 lbs while he had the skill to compete professionally in two of the major 3 ball sports....

[<dunn]

Bo really did know.

He had football speed as well. Running a 40 in a track suit isn't football. Get those pads on and read the block and take this angle so the safety can't cut it off and so on.
 
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Damn. That's incredible.

But to know that Bo Jackson actually matched that (almost!) at 225 lbs while he had the skill to compete professionally in two of the major 3 ball sports....

[<dunn]

Bo really did know.

Bo is a freak no doubt. Even among the beautiful ebony entities among us, still he is a rare being. I would have loved to taste his flesh during his prime...
 
I wish we had these sorts of measurements for rugby players, I think americans sometimes go a bit overboard with the raw numbers, but some of this stuff is obviously interesting and makes for fun comparisons. Jonah Lomu was the nearest thing we had to Bo Jackson in terms of someone that big and powerful, but who was also incredibly fast and athletic...though he was bigger than Bo, and presumably slower. He was asked to sign for the Dallas Cowboys in the 90s so we could have got his measurables then. He ran a sub-11 second 100m at 6"5 and 120kgs or so, not sure how he would have done in the 40.
 
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According to Bo and the sports guys covering Auburn football, it 4.13 at Auburn and electronically timed.

Does anyone actually believe that though? Herschel Walker claimed to have run at 4.3 while training for Strikeforce which is equally as laughable.
 
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