WHY kim collins accelarate faster

i have watched athens 2004 100 meters final and found that kimcollins in lane 1 was 1st till nearly the 50 meters then the pack of mo,gatlin,crawford and francis passed him,kim collins have the least muscular size compared to those sprinters but still he manages to accelarete faster than them although he need more power.

Muscular size was never stated as a “factor”. Strength to weight ratio involving overcoming ones inertia is one of the the most impt factors. Its something like f/m=accel and the lighter you are and the more force you can produce relative to your weight the more you will be able to accelerate. If my memory serves me correctly its on of newtons laws.
Besides tha there are many other factors which be be responsible for Kim Collins “acceleration” such as technique, and tendon/ muscle attachments.

from wat i know is that u need muscle mass to carry u all the way to the finish line, look at mo greene b4 and after joining HSI, look at surin when he won the 93 and 95 world indoors, and how bigger he got in 99 to run 9.84. ben johnson in 88. linford christie in 93. i dont really think that muscle mass makes u a better accelerator (jason gardner) as much as it makes u a better finisher. thoughts??

ok as you say F=MA and this law is f=rate of change in momentum that how newton stated it,anyway as to apply more force you need more muscles ,but why kim dont have any appeariing muscles like the other sprinters,and still produces more force to accelearte faster than them,its not nessesary to be the same force but sprinters like crawford have a very muscular tissue compared to there mas but kim not

i ve got ur piont u mean to be a great finisher u need muscular power,as i saw gardner runing the 100 in 10.1… dont remember ,so what is the diffrence between the endurance wieght training and the strenght weight training i think i f u have a good muscular endurance then u will finish well,and still why still gatlin,mo,crawford couldnt catch up with him until the 50 meters

who knows, maybe he wasnt taking his time with the race, letting it build up, as the others do. If they wanted to step on it and blaze, they would hav left him in the dust.

what are you talking about the 100 meters there is no thing such as dividing ur power through the race distance as the gun bangs you run as fast as you can also this race was an olympic final so every one was concentrating and taking it seriously

no i mean, they were relaxed, taking their time, going through the race smoothly, maybe collins was straining is all that im saying.

I think Kim Collins is one of the most physically gifted sprinters of our time. (Up there with Frankie)

His CNS must be extremely explosive.

And yet perhaps the greatest finisher of all time, Carl Lewis, was a string bean, comparitively.

that guy running for Portugal…forget his name, is only 160 pounds and he’s 6’3" and yet he’s the fastest finisher in the world right now supposedly, must be something with being tall and skinny about finishing

I think it’s gotta be the long levers!

6’3 160! damn! it would be interesting to see some of these guys like Obikwelu to go on a bodybuilding program they’d have some incredible gains!

u guys i dont mean to be rude or anyhting but i think all of you are on the wrong track. The F=MA equation is valid but if u look at that equation u will notice that if u increase mass u will decrease acceleration. Now u are right many of the top sprinters in the world now are very muscular but that is only a by product of their training. the ultimate goal for a sprinter is to be able to produce a large amout of force while keeping bodyweight low. that way inertia is more easliy overcome. So now your asking yourself doesnt more muscle mean more strenght, power and thus speed. Thats a big no. First let me state that “strenght” alone does not a champion make. Power is the factor that a sprinter should be after. how much force can u get to the track in the 1/100ths of a sec window that is available to you when each foot plants and takes off. Now allthough strength is important it is not the end all. factors like the stretch reflex cylce are more important. How effeciently are u using your bodies natural mechanism to to create force. Those ppl who can effeciently use the strethc reflex are are more powerfull than those who cant. its like a having a champoin "power"lifter and a skinny franky fredricks. By your reasoning a 300 pound lifter would win the race and be able to hold his speed longer right, the more the msucle the better. But no the skinny man will win, why becsaue he produces more power and uses his body in a biomechanically effecient way.

i agree with u .since power =force*vlocity.so the more faster u are the the more force you produce u are more power full i guess this dont have anything to deal with wieght,

Taking their time? This is a 100m Olympic final we are talking about…not the 10k!!

I know what the vaarious sites say, but Francis is not 160lbs!

there is a need in a 100 m to “take your time” so to speak. if u look at the first 40yd times in a 100 m of top sprinters they are in the 4.4 sec range (yes i know i said 40yd) but in shorter races those times drop to around 4.2. the reason a sprinter dosent go all out is becasue one the must conserve glycogen for muecle contration allowing for a better finish and two it gives them time to accelerate those enabling them to reach a higher top speed and finish stronger. FOR ALL OF YOU OUT THERE ThAT THINK THAT U DONT “TAKE YOUR TIME” IN A 100M YOU ARE WRONG.

i finally got it why kim collins accelarate faster,sine a=f/m therefore as the mass of the sprinter in not to heavy and he produces great force so this sprinter have a very fast accelaration thisi sthe same as kim collins this guy produces a lot of force and he has a less body mass than the other sprinters so he has a greater accelaration.to sum up ifu a need to accelarte faster you need to develope ur body to produce more force by wieght training without and gain in your body mass

exactly what i said on my first post.

Obikwelu seem to have bulked-up in the last couple of years too.