What is my potential as a sprinter (video)

hey guys,

I have been reading this site for a while now and I am finally thinking about competing in track and field somtime in the near future. However i never had a sprint coach or any experience in the sport whats so ever.

I have however been training for my vertical leap through strength training and plyos for the last 2 years. Here are videos (which some of you might have seen already) of my workouts.

The first one is me performing high box jumps of over 5 feet and the second one is a 40 inch standing vertical leap

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9ubvcSun1M

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtWP_PsTnSM

I know this is a vague question but what do you guys think my potential is as a sprinter (up to 100m)… what kind of times can i run if i dedicate myself to the sport?

Some of my other stats are
weight 163
height 5’ 8
10 feet 5 inches standing long jump
485 parallel box squats
300 pound bench
255 pound powerclean.

Thanks a lot for answering.

Well, no one can really tell you what your potential as a sprinter is, seeing as we have no clue how well you actually sprint. Every stat you’ve given is either related to absolute strength or explosive strength, while sprinting is a highly reactive cyclical activity. Some of the strongest and most explosive people on the planet couldn’t run a fast 100M to save their life.

However, assuming you put a good deal of sprint training in, I see no reason why you couldn’t run 100M in the mid 10s.

To start, I would begin focusing heavily on cyclical unilateral speed drills, what is known as RFI in the Inno-Sport system, if you’re familiar with it. My favorite drill is the 1 Footed speed box hops while trying to not let your hips rise. Start on a low box (4-6") and work up to around knee height. Once you get the ability to gain and release tension quickly, you can move on to sprinting. Get some times and see where you stand.

Good luck.

Like Rj24 said numbers are numbers, those are good numbers, but those arent sprints.

That being said thats not a bad place to start, but it depends on a ton of things, right now, from what you gave heck I would say your potential is 10.4-11.5.

Too many things to consider, everyone needs to remember that the 100m is a sprint, not a power lift, olympic lift, or standing jump, so while those factors can correlate, you need to run to see what your potential is.

speedox911! again. like i said on ab.com just get timed to see how fast you are. you can do all the vertical jumps you want but theres only one way to find out…

Yea ill definately time myself in the near future and see where i am. I’ve only timed my self in the 20 yard dash (2.52) and 30 meter (3.6) all handtimed. I’ll give the one legged box hops a shot too.

Thanks for the replies !

2.52 20yd, and 3.6 30m is pretty good acceleration.

Not to knock those times, you said they were hand-timed by yourself, which is very hard to do, and inaccurate. The explosiveness is there for sure though, would love to see where your training leads you.

those are timed by my friend, i also timed it myself by watching videos of them.
They show accelerations and explosivness but says nothing about top end speed and speed endurance.

Go out to a local meet and see what you run, anything else is mere speculation.