The altered sprint mechanism observed by Komi were for 10.5-11.0 male sprinters. This fact alone should be enough to be extremely cautious about the use of over speed regardless the level of the sprinter.
And what % of speed increase was being achieved? Also how would this realte to the % increase of doing 60-80’s off a bank?
Any chance you can list the name of the studies done so I can take a look?
Max speed was 9.96m/sec and over speed (supramaximal) was 10.82m/sec.
You can easely find the articles with Mero and Komi as authors on the net or libraries. That’s the mains ones i recall for overspeed biomechanics, as for training concepts, look for Vittori (ITA), Dimitrov and Antonov (BUL), Korchemniy (UKR/USA) or Gagua (URS).
Just found an article by Vittori and Bosco on NSA 1986, 1 (download on IAAF website). Biomechanical characteristics of sprint running during maximal and supra-maximal speed.
They found shorter contact AND flight…
Thanks. I will check those out.
That’s a big speed increase- above 9%.
the pro-west banking system is where the banking rises well into the exit of the corner whereas the old tracks (like ours) fall away just when you need the banking the most. It’s prob what you have now.
So does that mean that running 60-80’s off banked tracks are in fact an overspeed method of training and would in fact alter mechanics?
I’m really not sure.
Why did you choose to do it first thing in the morning?
What means of strengthening did you use to make sure they are ready to handle this kind of training?
And since it seems quite important from the rest of the discussion in this thread and 0.2 of an improvement is significant, what level of athletes are we talking about here?
Can you put something on U-Tube and post it here to see?
Here is my last race at Boston. I am in Lane 6 with the Yellow and Red.
I ran 22.54 which ties my old PR but just under my new PR that I ran last week in NYC. 22.48.
Only heats 1-4 this weekend were able to use blocks. Not sure how much that may have accounted for in my time.
That is pro-west banking but to really see what you mean by overspeed I need a shot from the side approx hip level of one of your runs down off the corner and into the straight.
Perhaps at my next meet at the armroy if it doesn’t affect my warmup I may be able to provide that. If I trained on the bank track what if I setup the speedtrap coming off the curve for a flying 30 and comapred it to a regular flying 30? I probably won’t be able to do this since it’d be tuff to find time to train at that facility and the fact that you cannot wear spikes or plastic bottom shoes when training there.
Any other thoughts/feedback about my race since you viewed the tape? 
Might be hard to time but I thin you’d see a difference from a side-on view
The following is from Valeriy Borzov’s training article hyperlinked elsewhere on cf.com:
“One of the problems the sprinter is facing after several years of training is the
development of a movement stereotype. It doesn’t matter how intensive and
many-sided the training routines employed, a distinct rhythmical structure of the
running stride will be formed. This stereotype, once firmly established, is known
as the speed barrier.
Several training methods and specific exercises, including the use of mechanical
assistance, are recommended to overcome the speed barrier. I fought the barrier
by employing downhill running on a slightly declined track. It helped to eliminate
the already existing habits and apparently assisted in the development of new
rhythmic structures.”
Some food for thought,always.
Perhaps the angle of the slope is the critical factor 
Maybe a <1% gradient may have a benefit without issue …???
I had this issue and got some advice to do downhill running. Not that i could have done it because there is nowhere flat and down hill! This was the end of last season. This season we did a simple GPP and SPP and came out with significantly higher top speed. The importance of having that max speed in place early in the season is crucial because it is very hard to do it and improve speed endurance at the same time. My point is that a period of rest followed by progressive acceleration and max speed work allowed us to break through the “never reaching 6th gear” barrier. Maybe overspeed would have worked as well but it wasn’t necessary.
I think the Russians wrote about 2.5% for downhill work.
Top speed is many faceted and, as I discussed on the GPP DVD, top speed can be trained as a sub max technical issue (in the GPP) and as a max speed item (early in the SPP in a S-to-L program), carried out with a full relaxed run up over a 20m distance with complete recovery.
As you probably know, it is very possible to hit speeds above those attained in an actual competitive 100m because of the lower cost of a more gradual approach to the max speed zone. The emphasis is on complete relaxation and can be done without any assisted method.
The problem for the vast majority is not to break out of a speed barrier, as they haven’t maxed out on their strength and elastic work, but to prevent one from being set in the first place.
This can be done by incorperating variable speed work (in and outs or speed change work [fast-easy-fast, flying 20s from various build-up distances, running with a strong tailwind, etc).