How trainable is 100 meter times? I know that there are a million variables here but what could a person that was relatively untrained in sprints expect to knock off there 100. Let say the person through team sports was able to run a 12 and change. I would be interested in hearing some discussion on that.
bowser thats a tricky question which can have many different answers.firstly and most importantly anyone will improve with proper training so you will get faster,period!!
the question is how much faster?
that depends on current state,training level,training plan and so on but as i said you will get faster with proper training and from a beginners point of view the initial drop in time can be up tp 6 10ths of a second with minor adjustments
My first 100 as a scrawny 5’5 120 pound kid was 12.3 on a really soft track. after one year of training ive gotten myself down to 11.1. I gained abuot an inch and 8 pounds in that year. Year two coming up soon (both times were handtimed)
Another point to keep in mind when talking about trainability is that there are many paths to the mountain top, and athletes will respond better to certain combinations of training elements than others, which is precisely why you can’t use cookie cutter workouts. For example, Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis reached comparable levels of performance using different training approaches. Whereas Ben performed a lot of weight lifting with very little (and eventually no) jumps training, Carl did just the opposite. Similarly, Ben thrived on short distance training and moved away from longer special endurance runs, which drained him. By contrast, Tony Sharpe needed more training at longer distances in order to recover from the shorter work.
This gets into the “sprinters are born, not made” debate. Obviously, very few have the talent to be truly world class, but I also think the average 100 performance for the sprinting population can be higher than it is. When I hear coaches say or write that speed can’t be trained that much, my usual response is no, you just haven’t figured out how to adapt to that athlete’s needs.
Thoughts?
Flash - good points. I agree.
Cocca - is that you in the pic?
Nah thats Konstantinos Kenderis. I got some growing to do to get that big.