Delayed Acceleration over 100m for a faster finishing time?

Expert Discussion Advanced Sprint Training
1

In the men’s & women’s 100 meters today we have a large amount of athletes who can post super fast time over the first half of the race 0-60m. But their finishing times are not equaling to their first half of the race. We know from recent studies these athletes are hitting their Max Velocity too early. Quote from Bruny while under Pfaff in ‘99 “Basically, I know how to run now. In the past, I used to spend so much energy from zero to 60 metres that, at 60, I had nothing left. Now, I know how to ration my energy. Like Dan says, you must use the battery a little at a time so it isn’t dead at 60 metres."
Pfaff has taught Surin how to divide 100 metres by three:
“From zero to 30 metres is the drive,” the sprinter says. "It’s hard to explain, but you must run as fast as you can using as little energy as possible.
“When I get to 30 metres I’m still driving, but it’s like I haven’t used any energy. Then I hit the acceleration phase, and that’s where I’m still gaining speed, speed, speed. At 70 metres I’m standing tall and I have only 30 metres left, which is easy.”
Surin had the world championship 100 in his grasp until he realized, at 30 metres, that something was terribly wrong: he was leading the race. The comparatively stocky Greene has more explosive power out of the blocks and was expected to set the early pace, and from 30 to 60 metres Surin figured to reel him in.
“But I was in front from the start,” Surin recalls. “It was like, ‘This isn’t what I planned, what do I do now?’ At 70 metres I was tightening up, like before, because I had used up the battery too soon. I panicked, for just a fraction of a second, and that was it.”
Greene hit the finish first in 9.80 seconds, one-100th off his own world standard. As for Surin, his lifetime-best 9.84 was digital proof he was far from being a plow-horse in sprinting’s field of thoroughbreds - and sufficient reason to bring home a pair of spikes“.

Do you guys ( elite coaches/ sprint gurus) feel if these super speeders delay their efforts for the first 40m they’ll match their first half of their races?

If Athlete A hit 50m in 6.05 and he run 11.05 for his finishing time but he lead the race and fell off after

Athlete B hit the 50m in 6.10 but won in 10.90… What if Athlete A delayed his acceleration and drove longer will his time decrease? Any thoughts?

I know of athletes who can post 5.90- 5.95 FAT over first 50m outdoor (1.1w) and only post 11.00 over 100m… they should post at least 10.75… Any thoughts??

Lets assume Athlete A has an MAX Velocity of 10.2m/sec
Athlete B max is 10.1m/sec.

I know Francis coaching principle is to hit max velocity early and hold on similar to Ben’s performance in Soul 9.79 run.

Examples:

1999 World’s Men’s & Women’s 100m Finals

Men’s
Greene (USA) 1st Place

10m 1.86
20m 2.89
30m 3.81
40m 4.69
50m 5.55

Surin ( CAN) 2nd Place

10m 1.88
20m 2.88 ( Caught Maurice here)
30m 3.79 ( Leading race), Burned more energy than Maurice
40m 4.68
{ Bruny Leading)
50m 5.53

Women’s

Jones (USA) First

Lead from start to finish
10m 1.83
20m 2.93
30m 3.92
40m 4.87
50m 5.81

Miller ( USA) Second

10m 1.83
20m 2.94
30m 3.97
40m 4.93
50m 5.87

Kenny Mac~~~~

2

Well in the example of 99, Greene had a slight stumble out of the blocks, I think has more to do with why he was behind Surin at 50M, I don’t believe Greene was conserving energy. Also, I believe that Surin lost over the second half of the race because he panicked because he was in the lead, he lost his composure, I don’t think it’s that he spent his energy too soon, technically he just made a mistake. As well, Greene did not panic, he remained cool stuck to his game plan and moved past him.

3

Good Point

4

Can that be accurate? The women were faster over the first ten meters than the men?

5

Here are some splits from 97 worlds. Notice that Greene is beating both Bailey and Monty at 50 meters, yet maintains his speed over the last half of the race slightly better then those who you could say are “conserving” there energy with slower starts. I believe the idea of telling an athlete conserving energy is just a way to get the athletes to relax during the acceleration phase of a race, it stops them from trying to push to hard, and instead “wait for it”.

Maurice Greene (+0.13s)
1.71 1.04 0.92 0.88 0.87 0.85 0.85 0.86 0.87 0.88s
1.71 2.75 3.67 4.55 5.42 6.27 7.12 7.98 8.85 9.73s
8.71 10.47 11.14 11.50 11.67 11.80 11.68 11.57 11.51 11.30m/s

Donovan Bailey (+0.14s)
1.78 1.03 0.91 0.87 0.85 0.85 0.85 0.86 0.87 0.90
1.78 2.81 3.72 4.59 5.44 6.29 7.14 8.00 8.87 9.77
8.90 10.55 11.28 11.63 11.76 11.80 11.70 11.55 11.38 11.00

Tim Montgomery (+0.13s)
1.73 1.03 0.93 0.88 0.86 0.86 0.86 0.87 0.88 0.90
1.73 2.76 3.69 4.57 5.43 6.29 7.15 8.02 8.90 9.80
8.82 10.34 11.14 11.54 11.62 11.61 11.54 11.42 11.25 10.95

6

Mike sent me this 4 yrs ago…
Quote from Mike Takaha of University of Houston Track Coach…
One of the BEST explanations regarding this subject.
He sent this to me back in 2000.

This is the best illustration I have heard on this subject.

Quote sent to Kenny>>4*&@#$%
From: Mike Takaha#@!&^$< @uh.edu>
Subject: Acceleration
Date: Tue 22, Feb 2000 12:45 am

In the 100m, you have to run the race so you are running close to your top speed for as long as possible. You can only maintain your top velocity for about 1 sec. Deceleration will increase with time ( the longer you slow down the more you will slow until you tie up) So the key is to keep the deceleration at the end of the race to a minimum by reaching your top speed at 60-70m, leaving 20-30 to decelerate (2-3 sec). Studies show that deceleration at that point is slight, but increasing. That’s why it is very common to see someone get out very quickly and build a huge lead at the halfway point of the 100 m, but get passed by others over the last 20 m. They simply are slowing down a lot while the other are near Max velocity. Using random numbers say your top speed is 12m/sec. After you reach that speed, you can maintain that for 10-15m then begin to slow slightly to 11.6m/sec for the next 10m, then 11.55m/sec, then 11.45m/sec then 11.35m/sec then 11.15m/sec. So if one accelerate as rapidly as they can and reach max speed at 40m, while another sprinter accelerates through 60m, the first one is going 11.45msec and the second will be at 11.15m/sec.

Mike Takaha

7

Darrell Smith of HSI taught me yrs ago. Sprint position will not be reached until 40 m. Top end speed around 60 m. The trick is to get there with as little effort as you can and that requires efficiency.

8

I understand what Mike is saying about the deceleration being a huge factor. But, to me max velocity is an even larger factor. If athlete A has a max velocity of 12.0 m/s, and athlete B has a max velocity of 11.7 m/s. Athlete A can decelerate at a quicker pace then athlete B and still be running the same speed as B.

9

if you watch the vancouver seminar, charlie shows a point in the race where bruny over-strides, throwing him off allowing mo to pass. i believe charlie said bruny most certainly should have won this race.

10

Interesting discussion. I remember seeing bruny surin run through the points in kenny mac’s first post a couple of years ago on tv. I’ve also noticed maurice greene has the same philosphies regarding starts. Maurice describes it as using power, as opposed to speed, to accelerate to save energy and says that during the acceleration he tries to keep the stride long and get the most out of every foot contact. So really he is using a slightly longer foot contact during acceleration which will create comparable acceleration to flat out because the force is applied for longer on each step but saves energy because of less strides and less frequency in the acceleration phase which he will then have left for the max speed and deceleration phase. That’s my take on it anyway.

11

One problem for Bruny in Sevilla was the best speed of Mo (50- 60 m in 0"85 vs 0"84… then he lost 0"01 every 10 m segment except the last one, perhaps for the finale sprint technique)
With a perfect final of race, he could do 9"82- 9"83, i think

Valerio

12

We’ve been through this extensively on the old forum (anyone have a link?)Agree that relaxation is key but this crap about delaying accel? Bruny is faster to 30 than Ben but he, like all others before or since fell back from 30 to 80m till Ben shut it down. With R/T removed as in the listed examples, Ben was 3.668 to 30m- but 6,198 to 60m! and 7.888 to 80m on a vastly slower surface!
Imagine that an athlete is running smoothly and is in front- but panics because his coach told him he should be behind! What kind of discussion is this?? Is this a race model to strive for? Give me a break!

13

Absolutely! It was Bruny’s to loose, till the pre-race words of wisdom sank in, because BRUNY WAS IN FRONT AND MO DID NOT POSSESS ADEQUATE SPEED TO PASS HIM.
Let this serve as a warning to coaches: “Think twice and speak once!”

14

This is exactly right- BUT what has that got to do with your splits? Perfect form will allow you to execute the race you’ve trained for- no more- no less. If you havn’t read the section on this topic in Speed Trap, I suggest you read it now. It’s no use worrying about how to spend a dollar, if your competitor’s got a buck and a half!

15

This is the most accurate information I believe:
from Biomechanical Research Project Athens 1997

Name: Vel>11m/sec

                             from (meters)  Till

Greene (USA) 28.6m 100m
Bailey (CAN) 24.6m 95.9m
Montgomery (USA) 27.78m 97.91m
Fredericks (NAM) 29.62m 97.63m
Boldon (TRI) 30.09m 92.70m

The longer the top speed area the better the result… The medallist covered more than 70m w/a velocity of more than 11.0m/sec. Greene covered more than half of the race over 11.5m/sec.

This can tell us a lot from the #'s above.

Any thoughts

16

Charlie I understand your point.

Where in Speed Trap?

Thanks

17

I don’t think it is a case of delaying acceleration as such more that they are modifying there technique to one that is slightly more efficient to spare more energy for the max speed portion of the race but at the cost of acceleration. Obviously they feel thay can make up more in the max v phase of the race than they loose in the acceleration phase.

18

(should read % LESS THAN 11mps) This supports what I’m saying. It doesn’t matter when you reach the top speed- more is better- and that takes more specific fitness.

19

I suggest you read carefully this topic:

http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=4486&page=1&pp=15&highlight=30m

dcw23 did graphics showing direct relation between first 30m and last 40m during women’s 100m races. It’s obvious that it deals with energy distribution. Running the first 30m slowly in order to save energy is absurd to me. Each athlete needs to find the right stride pattern, mechanics in the start and acceleration phase in order to be as fast as possible and limiting waste of energy. Many sprinters can produced fast starts, but few of them are efficient, i mean few can old their early advantage through the race. Study Flo-Jo, the answer is there.

20

Agree, but the problem in early accel may be technical- an inefficient pushing action that the atlete can’t transition out of into the cyclical action needed later in the race