Have any of you guys made use of this product or know of someone who has? From what I gather it sounds like a worth while investment, even if a bit expensive. Thanks all.
http://www.everythingtrackandfield.com/detail.aspx_Q_ID_E_2727_A_rnd_E_40
I have a wireless unit with 2 finish beams. It does the job. I ordered mine directly from Brower Timing. I had some problems with the unit a little while back and they were very helpful and prompt in sending replacement parts for free.
Sweet. I’m in then. Thanks
save ur money
Save your money for what? If every school had one of these maybe you could actually measure your true sprint times. Give it to the football team then maybe they’ll know what their 40 times really are. Without it, you run .2 slower, the coach messes up the stopwatch and you think you ran a PB.
most top div 1 coaches are accurate the key word beening most. i talk to a scout before and he said “if your fast then your be fast anywhere”… make very much sense bc look at people like deion and rod woodson… im sure you could spend ur money on something else better.
Most D1 coaches are accurate?? Are you serious? If that is so, why is there such a variation in their (our) 40 times. Let me give you my personal example: In the late 80’s, at a nike camp for high schoolers, my 40 time was recorded by both coaches and and the accutrac (off movement as usual) The electronic timer recorded a 4.42. The “accurate coaches” from the Big8, SEC and ACC had my 40 time range from 4.58 all the way down to 4.24! During my first week on campus my position coach timed me at a 4.44. And besides, the reason I think it NOT a waste of money is simply due to the fact that for the most part I train on my own. You want inconsistant recordings? Try timing yourself.
When I used to work at “Velocity SP” we used it. We used it mainly as a marketing tool only for testing but personally I would love to own one. This way I wouldnt have to time myself or any of my athletes and the times would always be accurate. Although the system is a little cheaply made if you are careful with it , it would be fine. Setup is very easy as well.
A few months ago someone on here was talkign about building these types of systems and selling them much cheaper. Can someone provide the link and perhaps we can bump it up?
I have used it, it’s not bad at all. I would give anything to have one right now. It drives me crazy hearing the kids tell me that they run 4.8 when, on a lazer they’d be more like a 5.4. (They time each other, and suck at it).
The thread is here:
http://www.charliefrancis.com/community/showthread.php?t=10536&highlight=build+timing
With my electronic experience (Associate’s degree plus a lot of tinkering), I can confirm that it can be done for a few hundred bucks. Depends on how fancy or bare-bones you want to go.
We have used these for roughly 10 years in an area saturated with salt air and high-to-strong winds.
Of the 10 cells originally procured only 4 remain fully functional. Even sunlight 45 degrees off axis can damage a cell. In addition, with winds @ 15+, you may need to set the tripod (that come with the device) at 30" or less to avoid blowing over! Hence, some accuracy can be diminished. Heavy duty (anchored) tripods can be costly.
In addition, the special coating to protect rapid lens degradation was expensive. In the end, thay have been helpful for reaction-transition-MaxV segregated monitoring. IMHO, the best apparatus of the system is the multi-function timing device (CM).
I have a Speed Step II (as far as I can tell, it is no longer made) and I find it absolutely critical for speed training, especially if you train alone!
Sprinting without a automatic timer is like lifting weights without knowing how much is on the bar (almost 
These devices are a must for testing athletes (large groups especially). Hand times are so inconsistent - especially if some coaches have biases to certain players (common where I’m from). So the speed trap timers eliminate these biases. Also, I can set up multiple intervals - 10m, 20m, 30m and the way to 40yard dash - that I compare across the board with all the teams I work with. And I don’t need multiple coaches with trigger happy stopwatch fingers.
However, I rarely use them with my track athletes. My hand times are pretty consistent and I get a pretty good indication from workout to workout, rep to rep. Setting up the timers would be a pain in the ass all the time. And I don’t need my athletes always thinking about the times - tightening up to try and improve their times.
They are a handy tool in certain situations, but don’t mortgage the house to buy some.
“However, I rarely use them with my track athletes. My hand times are pretty consistent and I get a pretty good indication from workout to workout, rep to rep.”
Well said… Bob Hayes and a bunch of old school world class athletes didn’t need all these fancy expensive gadgets to get the job done.
As long as you are consistent, hand timining gets the job done!
u r right on man… just run and run fast… IM A OLE SCHOOL TYPE OF GUY…
A better investment - if you must spend money - is a digital video camera. As discussed in previous threads (check the archives) you can have a dual purpose recording/timing device. The time-code for the camera records 30 frames per second so that you can accurately calculate the time a run (and record it on video). When you play back the video, the display will show something like 00:02:12:12 with the 00:02:12 indicated 2 minutes and 12 seconds elapsed, while the 12 at the end of the display indicates 12 frames elapsed. So the actual time will be 2:12.40 (roughly 12 frames x 0.0333333 seconds per frame).
Hopefully that makes sense.
Video is better over short distances for timing by a mile.
The problem you have with timing gates is that the hand can break them ahead of the body or not - so you have a large margin for error (in something like flying 20s). I was involved in some biomechanics research into sprint starts and they didn’t realise this. They had me running 10m splits from blocks faster than ben (1.62s)! It wasn’t until i pointed out that this was impossible that they realised their mistake. If i hadn’t pointed this out htey would have published the results without discussing this point!
These devices can be used during testing periods to see how much the vertical integration training has helped. It can clearly show overtraining if results are diminishing. You don’t have to use them at every track practice but at scheduled testing periods. The other important thing is that if you do run an amazing time then you can boast this time to scouts by saying it was electronic.
If you are lucky enough to get fast(est) times out of your athletes while presenting this kit to the track on a specific day…
Not that I completely object to such devices; just making a point…
If it’s a PB, show it to a scout; what happens if it’s not though?
Are there any other companies that make units such as these either wired or wireless? Our program would love to have one, but the pricing are pretty steep.