I only trust full squat numbers.
Typically when people say parallel, they actually aren’t at parallel, it just looks that way in the mirror 
You can only tell from the side.
every inch makes a big difference
I’m not a 100/200 runner, but when I was about 165,(175 now) I did 515lbs and on a seperate occasion I did 3x455lbs. This was all during the football season.
True
One man’s parrallel is another mans partial
Ass to Grass - the only true measure.
a better question would be what everyone’s front squat much less cheating on that movement.
or as no23 says, should be ass to grass, with a video clip so theres no mistake! as the weight increases the the depth decreases
and by the way 3@365 (half squat) at some where between 180 & 185.
Having said that - it depends on the size of the ass!!!
( 
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Very true but they are also quite different exercises. I firmly believe that the eccentric to concentric switching in the parallel squat makes it a better choice for sprinters but it is crucial to have everything firing properly and in alignment. So many people twist up when they squat heavy to parallel. Squatting to the floor seems to help a little with this if you have probs as it seems to be easy to activate all your muscles in the correct order from the floor.
This is true. Unfortunately the real victim of this is looking right back at the athlete when they look into the mirror. It’s much like training times. Many have run world records in training but none of this counts until the race is run
Having said all that, I do think that 1/4 squats can be quite useful in a max strength phase. The trouble is, most people do these as 1/8 squats
DCW, could u please elaborate more on these statements?
Parallel Squats
I’ve found that the heavy parallel squats (my definition of parallel is hamstring parallel to floor) that we have been doing this year in max strength phases have really delivered results up to the first 20m. The way we have been doing them is a controlled eccentric portion and then an instant switch to a fast concentric portion - as fast as possible, which, may not be that fast when the weights reach the athlete’s upper limits - we are after maximal recruitment not speed of movement perse.
I’m not trying to claim any sort of classic specificity argument, but what happens with the parallel squats performed this way is that there’s an awful lot of force required to firstly stop the weight and then move it upwards. Much more than a full squat. This is why you find guys with a big full squat find they have to often reduce the weight to do a proper parallel squat unless they take one-two days to pause and then lift the weight upwards again. The main purpose of weights in sprinting is to improve initial acceleration. The parallel style squats seem to help this over the slow full squat.
Quarter Squats
These let you expose your whole body to a much heavier load than you are used to. You should be able to go up to 30% heavier than you parallel squat. We did these to a quarter depth, i.e. half way between upright and parallel and again switched as fast as possible up onto the balls of the feet.
With respect to those of you who referenced mirrors, Mirrors are the enemy! They jack up the physiological components that are responsible for spatial awareness (i.e., proprioceptors). For all of you who look in the mirror while training with weights, do yourself a favor and face the other direction. If you are using a power rack than put the j-hooks on the uprights that are farthest from the wall and put your back to the wall. Have your training partners assess depth.
You won’t find any mirrors in olympic lifting training halls or serious powerlifting gyms.
James Smith
Well I believe Fullsquats with bands do a similar thing without the drawbacks IMO.
The bands help in two ways, they catapult the weight downwards so you have to brake hard to switch directions, this extra kinetic energy means you also get the stretch reflex snapping harder to go faster upwards, much like depth jumping in a way.
You also get extra loading on the top end - for me an extra 120lbs or so, the way I have em setup. This does play tricks with the CNS forcing you to explode harder all the way to the top. Normally one slows down to stop the bar jumping off the back, the bands minimises this effect, plus I hold the bar with a real close grip, so that keeps the bar tight.
Last session I did the following with the bands adding an extra 120lbs or so on the top, and just kicking in an inch off the bottom of my fullsquat.
155x3, 190x3, 230x3, 250x3, 270x3, so with bands I get 275x3, 310x3, 350x3, 370x3, 390x3 at the top, and the original bar load at the bottom, without the risks of real bar weight and extra advantages to boot
I only advocate partial squats in low volume (3x1r) and as an addition to a full squat workout. Reps are done off pins and are closely monitored to ensure tight form and ‘reasonable’ bar speed. In my experience the exercise carries a high risk of injury, e.g to patella tendon, and lumbar spine.
Heavy partial squats may be effective in reducing neural inhibition but they also cause extreme CNS fatigue. In my opinion the negatives typically far outweigh the positives (and the latter can be achieved with significantly lower volume!). Additionally, time under tension is much lower in partial variations, therefore volume must be increased if partial variations are performed alone.
I therefore agree with CC, full squats with bands (purple?!) are a superior option.
yes - purple bands
I have 140lbs worth of plates anchoring them, and if I stretch the bands a few more inches they start to come off the floor.
I agree with David W and CoolCol, but you shouldnt disregard partial movement as they can be used to provide variety and a different stimulus every once and a while.
Maybe for powerlifters. Partial movements have no place in an athlete’s training program, IMO.
As an exclusive training means I’d agree. But to categorically rule out a whole class of potentially beneficial movements is jumping the gun IMO.
If your’e making that statement based on the idea that it should have a direct carryover to the sporting movement, then there is some merit. However, a foundation of strength is rarely if ever harmful for anyone’s performance. During maximal strength phases partial movements could be very useful to athletes.
Again as i said in my other post, these are merely options that work the same muscles in a different way, you cannot stick strictly to one thing and yes the partial movements do have their place in an athletes lifting schedule as it provides a different stimulus so that constant adaptation of the organism(read continued STRENGTH and POWER GAINS) without stagnation or overtraining of the CNS. there are more than one way of training and the conjugated method of changing exercises to disallow stagnation and overtraining are pretty much the best method out there without a doubt, so maybe you want to tell people like CTand Louie Simmons that exercise variation with the use of partial movement and movements that strengthen the same muscles, go ahead because the purpose of weight training is to strengthen the muscles specifically involved in the movement(partial movements strengthen these muscles as well!) and to cause increased neural drive and efficiency(which with the same movement stagnates when using a heavy load after 3 weeks and caused overtraining to the CNS) so would it not make sense to vary the exercises to continue the strength growth and positive neural adaptations through the variance of exercises(ie partial movementsthat work the same musculature…)?
Also there are no exercises more specific to sprinting per se, exercises are specific to sprinting in that they strengthen the muscles involved and decrease the threshhold for the nervous systemto activate that muscle.
Col, David W, numba56, PowerManDL, Matt Haugen… do any of you work with sprinters or is your primary focus just to get the most weight in the air and/or have the biggest muscles? If this was my aim then I would be doing full squats and working with bands. However, it isn’t.
I work with myself(football player whose main goal is speed) and two sprinters who are friends. What Ive written for them has worked. One 55m went down 3/10 of a second since September. The others two hundred time has decreased by 2 sec since July when I started working him out.
dcw23 - how do you know it won’t help? Everything is worth a shot once or twice.