Bottom line, your success in the 100 meters lies in 3 areas. 1: your acceleration, 2: your top speed, 3: your mechanics.
The best examples of “speed endurance”, are closes in a 400 meters. A 400 meter man is gritting his teeth, shoulders are tight, his form sloppy, and he’s gutting it out to the tape. The man with the best “endurance” wins.
In the 100, if you are doing these things, YOU LOSE!
The close of a 100 meters isn’t about gutting it out, like you would in an endurance-based race. The close of a 100 meters is about attaining superior technique and relaxation to sustain that top-speed. AND the faster your acceleration/top-speed, the less you have to deal with in the end (Donovan in ATL).
Look at Bruny’s close in 96. His form was sloppy, he was tight, he was gritting his teeth, and trying to gut out his last 30 meters. In 99, Bruny’s close was relaxed, and technique was MUCH IMPROVED, and strides were more efficient. As a result he was able to maintain an already improved top-speed. He ran 9.84 that year, surprise surprise.
And “speed endurance” had nothing to do with it.
Got from a sprint discussion from 3 yrs ago.
What do you guys think? Is Speed Endurance important in the 100m?
Another reply from the discussion that I found very interesting:
The way a 100 meter race is run is different now then it was back in the 60’s because of the kind of physical condition that these athletes are in. You can’t compare the way that Hayes runs his 100 to Greene. And does SE play a role in the 100, yes. But does it make near the difference that max velocity makes. NO! Sam who would win a race a guy who hits 12.1 m/s at 70 meters and has poor “endurance” and slows down 11.8 m/s by 100 meters. Or a guys who hits 11.8 m/s at 70 meters and maintains that until 100m. If you look at 1988 Olympic final, Ben and Carl hit max velocity of 12.1 m/s, while Mitchell and Smith both hit 11.8. Max velocity makes the difference of who wins Olympic and World titles in the 100. Is it different at a high school level or with 100 year old women? Possibly, but were talking Olympics
Here’s some splits from 99 worlds. Greene who won: 60- 70 0.85 70-80 0.85 80-90 0.85 90-100 0.86. Ok now look at Gardner(who came 7th): 60- 70 0.89 70-80 0.88 80-90 0.89 90-100 0.90. So both runners had a difference of 0.01 between there 60-70 splits and their 90-100 splits, so why did Greene beat Gardner if both had the same SE…….BECAUSE Greene has better acceleration and max velocity. That’s what wins races at that level higher max velocities.
