[quote author="Zack Trapp" date="1361663717"][quote author="Callam Mccabe" date="1361662880"]On quick inspection most of the athletes seem to hit top speed between 6 and 7 seconds worth of running. You can’t use outliers to support an argument. There is evidence to support what Derrick is saying.
Obviously the majority of elites, who are skilled, are going to accelerate in the ideal time. I just disagree with what Derrick said that all athletes take roughly the same ammount of time to reach top speed. There is no way 11.0 guys are accelerating all the way to 45 meters.[/quote]Zack,
One thing you will hopefully learn as you mature is that what seems like “common sense” takes a back seat to empirical data. You’re talking to experienced coaches/athletes who have looked at hundreds of splits and acceleration curves.
There is a range, and outlyers aside, what Callam and Derrick are saying is valid. Part of this is about energy systems. Its not a coincidence that deceleration begins almost immediately after peak velocity is established. It is rare for an elite athlete running full out to maintain Vmax for more than 10 meters. Energy available from Stored ATP lasts about 2 seconds, and the ATP-PC system is greatly reduced after only about 6 seconds, and is almost non-existent after 10 secs. There is very little variance in this number from person to person, and as a result, after 6-7 almost everyone transistions to a less effective energy system, becoming unable to maintain the Vmax they just established. Faster sprinters accelerate at a greater rate over a longer distance, but the duration of accelration, while it is trainable and can/does improve, it does not vary greatly unless the athlete is a rank novice or has issues with injury or mechanics.
As Derrick hinted, if this were not true you would have novice sprinters hitting Vmax at 25-30m then maintaining that Vmax through to about 50-70m. It doesn’t happen. Even with novice sprinters, deceleration begins almost immediately after true Vmax is reached.
Velocity vs time curves for slower sprinters look very much like the curves for elites…there just flatter at the beginning due to a lower rate. When you look at velocity vs distance, Vmax does appear to occur “earlier”, but really “earlier” is not the proper term, because it does not occur that much sooner in terms of time; it occurs sooner in terms of distance covered.[/quote]
Is there any actual data on this type of thing? Most of what I’m saying about lower level athletes is coming from what I’ve heard from those who coach at that level…I think that most people do hit it in a similair time frame…but its a bit wider than you guys are saying. I think the window is a bit wider than you guys have been saying 4-7 seconds from what I’ve seen….4 seconds being weaker/slower athletes who are at 25-30 meters at that time period…and then they spend the majority of the race decelerating. Better athltes accelerate longer…both distance and time wise.
While not entirely valid, comparing elite HS sprinters to elite pro guys…the best HS guys are running upright between 12-14 steps as opposed to 16-18 from guys running under 10. There is a correlation…but I don’t think its as similiar as you guys are suggesting.
Of course, this is all coming from things I’ve read/seen. I don’t have any actual data on the acceleration patterns of anyone who isn’t elite and I’m not sure if its really availible.