Elitetrack: Sport Training & Conditioning

Winnesota - 16 February 2008 11:52 AM

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Mike Young - 14 February 2008 11:09 AM

Oh I see....yeah we pretty much never have a max speed emphasis of longer than 8 weeks. In fact I like to keep it right at 8 weeks if possible. I find 4 to be too short. We might do it after those 8 weeks (as part of short speed endurance or as a refresher) but it isn’t the focus.

sorry if these have been answered before:

1) How about acceleration? How long can be effectively trained?

2) What is the relation between acceleration and top speed? I mean from kinematics viewpoint there isn’t any relation but there should be one for a sprinter in real world. Is it possible for the same individual to have two completely different top speeds but the same acceleration (completely different = 0.90 sec and 1 sec for 10m)??? How about the opposite...is it possible (for the same individual) to have the same top speed but different (again more than 10% difference) acceleration?

Your post isn’t really clear, peki. The same individual? Of course you can delay acceleration and hit top speed later or not run as hard or accelerate as far and hit a lower top speed.

Acceleration is trained all the time in many (I’d almost say most systems since most of the tempo based programs even do some short hills or sled pulls or starts of some kind from day 1)--you can’t possibly do high intensity sprint work without some sort of acceleration involved.

you are right, it wasn’t clear enough…

I’m not talking about submaximal efforts but about the development of acceleration and top speed under different training methods for the same individual.

1) Let’s say somebody trains succesfully for a long period of time only shorter distances (up to 10-20m before hiting top speed) and his acceleration is increased. Is it safe to assume that his top speed is increased too? If no then this would mean he would suddenly stop accelerating after a certain point (propably on these 10-20m he doesn’t train?)

2) Opposite scenario. Somebody trains with top speed emphasis and submaximal accelerations and his top speed is increased. Is his acceleration increased too?

Ok I give these two extreme cases just to ask if it’s possible for the same individual to develop acceleration and top speed independtely or significant changes to one of them affects the other…

sorry for my English, I can’t do better

It is impossible to completely separate things like that. Just the effects on strength levels, body composition, muscle tonus, nervous system readiness, etc. would be enough to change both factors even if you were only working on one specifically. I personally think that extreme changes in one will most definitely result in a change in the other, likely due to the factors I just mentioned though.

Acceleration training alone would probably not significantly change your top speed, though it would change how fast you get there. At lower levels though, if you can increase the distance you accelerate, you will reach a higher top speed. Perhaps some of the coaches here can say what they have seen with large samples of athletes, but I’ve found pure acceleration work to only marginally improve top speed on it’s own.

If you improve top speed, you will inherently improve acceleration in some way. Think about it--if you have a faster top speed, you will either reach this top speed at the same time you reached your previous top speed (increasing the rate of acceleration) or you will reach your new top speed later (increasing the distance which you are able to accelerate).

thanks for you reply

davan - 04 March 2008 01:53 AM

Acceleration training alone would probably not significantly change your top speed, though it would change how fast you get there. At lower levels though, if you can increase the distance you accelerate, you will reach a higher top speed. Perhaps some of the coaches here can say what they have seen with large samples of athletes, but I’ve found pure acceleration work to only marginally improve top speed on it’s own.

But isn’t true that if you increase the distance you accelerate then your max acceleration is higher and vice versa? I think everybody hits the max acceleration between 15m and 20m and then the acceleration decreases (and becomes negative from a point). If you hit high values of max acceleration then propably it takes longer for the acceleration to decrease.

davan - 04 March 2008 01:53 AM

If you improve top speed, you will inherently improve acceleration in some way. Think about it--if you have a faster top speed, you will either reach this top speed at the same time you reached your previous top speed (increasing the rate of acceleration) or you will reach your new top speed later (increasing the distance which you are able to accelerate).

If you reach the new top speed at the same time, then you already have increased the distance which you are able to accelerate.

davan - 04 March 2008 01:53 AM

It is impossible to completely separate things like that. Just the effects on strength levels, body composition, muscle tonus, nervous system readiness, etc. would be enough to change both factors even if you were only working on one specifically. I personally think that extreme changes in one will most definitely result in a change in the other, likely due to the factors I just mentioned though.

I agree on the first part, neural and anatomical adaptions will influence both of them, but the question is which of these two, acceleration and top speed, is “easier” to train at least for a slow sprinter like me. Sometimes I feel it’s a waste of time training maxv (submaximal or maximal accelerations) or short speed endurance because of the limitations of my acceleration. Maybe I ran smoother (the transition from acceleration to top speed is technically better) so I gain a few hundres of a sec but my top speed doesn’t seem to improve. I understand that variety in training stimulus is a good thing but sometimes I think what would happen if I concentrate on accelerations up to 30m (plus plyometrics and weigths) I know this is the case early on season on short to long plans but I’m talking about a plan involving only short distances. Am going to reach a plateau in perfomance?

Did you not read the part of the sentence after you bolded it? I said, you will reach a higher top speed?

I don’t think everybody hits “max acceleration” between 15 and 20m… Your greatest change in acceleration would actually be 0-10m and the rate of acceleration would start dropping after the initial steps unless you are actively holding back. Your top speed would depend on how fast you are, but if you are 11.0 or faster it’s probably 30m or later.

How slow are you? You may not have the strength or fitness levels to really train any of those qualities “very well.” If you are that slow, hell, 30m IS top speed because you are probably hitting top speed at 20m or so.