Elite Sprinters and the 40-yard Dash

[senri]

If you look at the best times for the 200m vs 100m, it appears that you actually reach top speed post-100m (for instance when Michael Johnson got the world record for the 200 meters at the 1996 Summer Olympics, his time of 19.32 was comparatively faster than Donovan Bailey's world record 9.84 set at the same Olympics). But sport-specific, 40 yards is probably the best measure of speed and explosiveness on the football field.

Incorrect. Top speed is achieved early and lasts only 20m or so. It also depends largely on the duration on ones acceleration in accordance with the power of athletes to prolong said accel. The 200m and 400m races require tremendous speed endurance. To run a proper 200m/400m race you actually have to hit top speed early so you can enter your running form early and hit top speed while in the bend that way the kick gets you sustaining the speed endurance at the straight of the track and not the bend. It's harder to hold onto form in bend.

To hit top speed quick you just need to pop right up from the angle and into your upright sprint position. That will rapidly eliminate your ability to accelerate any further its just momentum and the endurance to hold onto the speed you have generated for yourself as it quickly deteriorates as you approach the finish line.

Kids or any slow person will accelerate very fast and enter top speed the quickest. The rest is speed endurance where they would gas into oblivion and thus lose the race.

For the 40 yard the goal is to accel very fast with as much power as possible in order to hit the top speed early and get that magical sub 4.2 time. But a better 40yd means a slow 100m. If you watch Coleman video i put out earlier you will see that coleman pops upright early. He knows he has to cut accel short to maximize his ability to hit top speed early enough to hit that fast number. In the 100 he would do the inverse.

 

[therealdope]

To run a proper 400m race you actually have to

... make sure a bear doesn't jump on your back in the last 80m down the finishing stretch.

and run like this:

 

[senri]

... make sure a bear doesn't jump on your back in the last 80m down the finishing stretch.

and run like this:

I can make you sprint like this Mr Dope.... let me train you...

 

[therealdope]

I can make you sprint like this Mr Dope.... let me train you...

you won't see these (very sore) Achilles at the Etobicoke Olypium, the field house at the athletic centre on Harbourd or the track at York university, again. Sadly.

 

[senri]

you won't see these (very sore) Achilles at the Etobicoke Olypium, the field house at the athletic centre on Harbourd or the track at York university, again. Sadly.

Hmmm..

 

[PlayswellwithLawnDarts]

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

Bo was a freak of nature to the point I argue with friends that he had to be on some type of test to this day.

 

[Patrick Carey]

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

I believe Bo.

Herschel Walker is a liar. Unless he comes out and says he was lying about only eating salad and soup, i discount anything he says

 

[DLX]

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 side with my other half on this one

 

[Possum Jenkins]

Probably all the steroids and hormones pumped into our beef starting to manifest

Europe uses more natural beef and not alot of athletic fast guys despite providing much of our white ancestrage

Coincidence?

A European white guys vs American white guys comparison would be interesting.

At least in basketball, European hard workers have a distinct advantage. Which is very interesting seeing as how basketball is a distant #2 and sometimes even #3 sport in almost all of those countries.

 

[HunterSdVa29]

A European white guys vs American white guys comparison would be interesting.

At least in basketball, European hard workers have a distinct advantage. Which is very interesting seeing as how basketball is a distant #2 and sometimes even #3 sport in almost all of those countries.

i think that's a circumstance of more height, than athleticism. How many euro white players had hops like Rex Chapman for instance? or the Plumlee brothers? the answer is none

the average male in say Germany and the Netherlands is taller than the US, and then clearly they are producing some tall ass cats from former Yugoslavia (a good portion of the white foreign players in the NBA historically)

think about all the good white European players historically, only Petrovic and Dragic are not that tall and hardly any of them were known for being even remotely explosive...
Dirk
Smits
Peja had decent height and is probably the most underrated Euro player in NBA history IMO
Hedo
Jokic
Both Gasols
JVal
Kirilenko if we count Russia
Vlade
Detlef
etc....

yes there have been shorter, guard players (i.e. Jose Calderon probably being the 'most' successful since we're not counting Nash as he's S. African/Canadian) but they usually aren't as good as the taller guys or have as long of careers

 

[Possum Jenkins]

i think that's a circumstance of more height, than athleticism. How many euro white players had hops like Rex Chapman for instance? or the Plumlee brothers? the answer is none

the average male in say Germany and the Netherlands is taller than the US, and then clearly they are producing some tall ass cats from former Yugoslavia (a good portion of the white foreign players in the NBA historically)

think about all the good white European players historically, only Petrovic and Dragic are not that tall and hardly any of them were known for being even remotely explosive...
Dirk
Smits
Peja had decent height and is probably the most underrated Euro player in NBA history IMO
Hedo
Jokic
Both Gasols
JVal
Kirilenko if we count Russia
Vlade
Detlef
etc....

yes there have been shorter, guard players (i.e. Jose Calderon probably being the 'most' successful since we're not counting Nash as he's S. African/Canadian) but they usually aren't as good as the taller guys or have as long of careers

Yeah, my post wasn't that much about athleticism so it was slightly off-topic. It had more to do with skill and overall performance.

You're right that the Euro guys are usually slower, but somehow they still kick ass. You hardly ever see slow, skilled, American white guys. Love is probably the only exception because even Hayward is fairly athletic.

Disagree with the height thing though. Germans and Netherlands are a little taller than US whites but those two aren't producing almost any basketball players. The Balkan countries and southern Europeans are, and they're at least comparable if not shorter than Americans. I think white dudes just stopped playing basketball and have kinda "given" the sport to black guys.

 

[therealdope]

think about all the good white European players historically, only Petrovic and Dragic are not that tall

Petrovic was 6'5", what did you want him to be?

 

[HunterSdVa29]

Petrovic was 6'5", what did you want him to be?

Just the league average, 6'7", i used as a cutoff

Didnt mean it it as a slight

 

[therealdope]

Just the league average, 6'7", i used as a cutoff

Didnt mean it it as a slight

That's the league average for guards now? What was it in 1994 for guards? He wasn't exactly small at the time.

 

[HunterSdVa29]

That's the league average for guards now? What was it in 1994 for guards? He wasn't exactly small at the time.

no, just the league average in general, and it's been that way since the 80-81 season
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_stats.html

 

[Scerpi]

Bo Jackson has been named Greatest Athlete of all time by ESPN sports science. He's so legendary that it doesn't even seem real. Bo is the only man in history to ever be named to an NFL Pro Bowl and to an MLB All Star game during the same season. That means Bo was one of the best football players in the world while simultaneously being one of the best baseball players in the world. How is that even possible?

For anyone interested this is a short 3 minute clip highlighting some of the things Bo Jackson would do. He has been unmatched in sports history as far as pure athleticism.

This Is all you need to know about Bo

 

[MadSquabbles500]

Yeah, my post wasn't that much about athleticism so it was slightly off-topic. It had more to do with skill and overall performance.

You're right that the Euro guys are usually slower, but somehow they still kick ass. You hardly ever see slow, skilled, American white guys. Love is probably the only exception because even Hayward is fairly athletic.

Disagree with the height thing though. Germans and Netherlands are a little taller than US whites but those two aren't producing almost any basketball players. The Balkan countries and southern Europeans are, and they're at least comparable if not shorter than Americans. I think white dudes just stopped playing basketball and have kinda "given" the sport to black guys.

You have Donte DiVincenzo, Graysen Allen.

 

[aries]

Old thread but I thought it worth mentioning Su Bingtian since he has a faster 60m time than Bolt (or anyone for that matter) at 6.29 seconds set at the 2020 Olympics and he has a faster 30m split as well at 3.73 seconds. Looks like a likely candidate for being the fastest human ever over 40 yards.

EDIT: I thought I'd add some numbers here for a best estimate of his 40 yard time. He ran the first 30m in 3.58 seconds minus his reaction time (combine timing starts when the sprinter moves off). And his velocity at this point was 11.2m/s. That means he'd cover the next 6.58m (total equal to 40 yards) in 0.588 seconds. Which would give him a 40 yard time of 4.17 seconds.

But it may be faster because the combine is hand timed from when the athlete starts moving and according to the IAAF no athlete can react faster than 0.10 seconds, so is a middle aged combine official going to beat that? They are probably even slower but lets say they can react in 0.10 seconds. That moves Su's time to 4.07 seconds. And then add to that 11.2m/s is his speed at 30m. His top speed for that race was 11.6m/s. So it's likely that his speed at 40 yard was slightly faster, I'd only be guessing at that point. So it's likely it's sub 4.07 seconds. Su himself reacted to the gun in 0.15 seconds so it would be pretty impressive if an official hand timing it reacted in the same time. Which would put him at 4.02 seconds not even allowing for a likely higher sprinting velocity at 40 yards.

But he has the advantage of using blocks and spikes, without which as with the combine test he would run slower. However, Chris Coleman who holds the 60m indoor record at 6.34 seconds has run the combine 40 yard in 4.12 so Su running faster is quite likely.

I got the figures from this link:
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/2021/10/tokyo-sprint-analysis/

 

[heavyarms21]

Old thread but I thought it worth mentioning Su Bingtian since he has a faster 60m time than Bolt (or anyone for that matter) at 6.29 seconds set at the 2020 Olympics and he has a faster 30m split as well at 3.73 seconds. Looks like a likely candidate for being the fastest human ever over 40 yards.

EDIT: I thought I'd add some numbers here for a best estimate of his 40 yard time. He ran the first 30m in 3.58 seconds minus his reaction time (combine timing starts when the sprinter moves off). And his velocity at this point was 11.2m/s. That means he'd cover the next 6.58m (total equal to 40 yards) in 0.588 seconds. Which would give him a 40 yard time of 4.17 seconds.

But it may be faster because the combine is hand timed from when the athlete starts moving and according to the IAAF no athlete can react faster than 0.10 seconds, so is a middle aged combine official going to beat that? They are probably even slower but lets say they can react in 0.10 seconds. That moves Su's time to 4.07 seconds. And then add to that 11.2m/s is his speed at 30m. His top speed for that race was 11.6m/s. So it's likely that his speed at 40 yard was slightly faster, I'd only be guessing at that point. So it's likely it's sub 4.07 seconds. Su himself reacted to the gun in 0.15 seconds so it would be pretty impressive if an official hand timing it reacted in the same time. Which would put him at 4.02 seconds not even allowing for a likely higher sprinting velocity at 40 yards.

But he has the advantage of using blocks and spikes, without which as with the combine test he would run slower. However, Chris Coleman who holds the 60m indoor record at 6.34 seconds has run the combine 40 yard in 4.12 so Su running faster is quite likely.

I got the figures from this link:
https://www.hmmrmedia.com/2021/10/tokyo-sprint-analysis/

Didn't know Rice could move that fast.

 

[aries]

Didn't know Rice could move that fast.

Rice? Is that some sort of ethnic slur?