Why not have gates at the start as well? Just something to take out the twitch factor of the pad.
i agree with you. i have had no problem with the touch pad. if nothing else it is consistant. Also, the speed trap II timing system has a “ready-set-go” feature in which the timing starts as soon as the third beep is made. it will also give you your reaction time if you use the touchpad too. to me this is as accurate as you get outside a meet. hand times though better than nothing, even when the timer seems to be consistant, a hand time is never right.
yeah, i used that also…
the VERY FIRST time i used it, i did have problems with the release of the pad from a 3 point stance under my hand. Previously id only used it under my foot (which i think is a much better way of doing it btw) …
but, after i got used to the 3pt stance, i feel it was very consistant, so i like it alot.
2009 Addendum
Here’s the official, and 100% reliable, description of the timing as it occurred at this years combine; and based upon my conversation with my NFL associate, this is the way that it has been in the past so the following account must serve as a slight correction to what I stated in reference to last years event.
For those of you who watched the event on the NFL Network, the ‘unofficial’ times that are posted immediately after the athlete runs, via the media, are recorded by an individual with a hand held/stop watch.
Alternatively, the ‘official’ times are recorded on a laser (manual start/laser finish) and there were actually two different laser systems in use this year (one as a primary and the other as a back up).
Each team, however, has representatives at Indy who record their own hand held/stop watch times of every athlete and these are the times that are brought back to each team’s respective cadre.
So, in reality, the ‘official/manual start laser finish’ times, while they are the ones that are posted on the www.nfl.com website as well as those that are televised, are not paid any attention by the NFL scouts/coaches. They are essentially only for the public.
It is hand held/stop watch times that are reviewed by the respective teams and each one of these times obviously varies due to each team’s timer’s degree of accuracy in timing.
Thus, it is possible that there are 32 different times that are brought back to each team, respectively, for the same runner.
Impressive that, according to the ‘official’ manual start/laser finish times, some of these American footballers are running low 4.4 and sub 4.4. on field turf.
“laser” timing doesn’t buy you much then. getting the finish manually is easy. all the variance is in the starting. if i were a combine trainer, i’d train all my guys to wave their hand out into the laser at the finish. -.1
would that be “official”
Mortac, I’ve had kids try it and it didnt seem to work on my unit, Speed Trap 1.
Hah, how would it not work? You can stand in front of the unit and wave your hand in front of it, right? Maybe they missed the beam. Need to implement a chop technique maybe:) I have a speed trap II and I trust it about as far as I can throw it (which is reasonably far actually).
I use our Speed Trap II routinely in the testing/monitoring of my athletes and while I do not use in in the fully automatic mode it still provides me with 50% less contribution of my own human error in comparison to the stop watch.
While it would be irresponsible to compare the data obtained from the Speed Trap system to times recorded at track meets, I find it very useful for testing/monitoring purposes; although, the actual logistics of set up/breakdown are less than efficient and I’d much favor less moving/removable parts.
Does anyone have any familiarity with this company/product line:
James hope all is well. Thanks for the info. The system the NFL uses seems so retarded. If there is semi-automatic timing why the hell are there scouts/representatives bothering timing and why are these the times the ones going back to the teams? Do they not trust the other timing method (laser) ? Can’t their time and $ be spent on other things?
Btw…that link did not work for me.
I edited the link. you’ll have to search for and review the few different timing devices.
What my NFL associate told me regarding why the quasi-laser times are not used is because they prefer to go with their own hand held times under the assumption that there is also room for human error in starting the laser manually.
He acknowledged that the quasi-laser time is always slower than the stop watch and I know via my own coaching experience and interaction with football coaches that the coaching industry is far too antiquated and dogmented to restructure their concept of speed according to what is real vs the popular and accepted science fiction that is associated with what the stop watch tells us.
Their would be far too many egos shattered if the combine went FAT.
Despite this, it is my opinion that all 40yd dashes, whether they are ran at the combine or not, should be timed with a gate .5yd in front of the starting line and another .5yd past the 40yd line. This would provide a fair and consistent enough measure of the 40 time via FAT at the small expense of initiating the timer not from first movement but from a fraction of a second after first movement while still allowing the athlete to start when ready and, most important of all, obviating the possibility of human error.
Sounds good to me. I pretty much do that already with my football athletes. We also do splits at 10 yards and 20 yards so that we can compare speed “off a running start” if the three-point stance is problematic for some individuals.
The speed trap timers I use can sometimes get tripped inconsistently, so we do allow the small buffer area to make things run smoother.
But, perhaps some egos need to be shattered at the combine…
Agreed on the splits. I only have two gate set ups so, to date, and regarding the set up I use for any 40yd sprints, I manually trigger the start and have one gate either at the 10yd or the 20yd and the other at the 40yd. Thus, I’m unable to collect 10, 20 and 40yd splits in single runs with my current set up.
Regarding running starts, I have recently determined that, as far as training for the 40yd goes, the majority of sprints initiated from a 3pt start can be limited to 10-30yd efforts while the majority of other runs in the 20-60yd range may more effectively be initiated via flying starts in which my guys take approximately a 20yd build up/approach to the first gate. Thus these flying sprints are FAT.