Larry Rawson calculates Bolt would run the 40yd dash in 3.82 seconds

Cal Q Lator wrote:

And no, Rawson didn't mention his leg turnover or attempting this at your local track...

he should have!

Cal Q Lator wrote:

Heard Rawson say that on SportCenter this morning when talking about Bolt's performances. That's not how fast he can cover 40 yards when already moving because Rawson said he could cover that in 2.95 seconds.

And no, Rawson didn't mention his leg turnover or attempting this at your local track...

He came off looking like a f***ing idiot after that.

Honestly, I don't know where Rawson pulled that ridiculous number from.

Bolt's splits for his 100m (9.58) are:

RT: 0.146

0-10m: 1.89

10-20m: 0.99

20-30m: 0.90

30-40m: 0.86

40-50m: 0.83

50-60m: 0.82

60-70m: 0.81

70-80m: 0.82

80-90m: 0.83

90m-100m: 0.83

There's no perfect way to do an equivalent of a 40yd dash time from the splits of a 100m sprinter. But this article does as good of a calculation as possible:

http://speedendurance.com/2009/08/06/40-yard-dash-times-for-usain-bolt-and-ben-johnson/

And from that, Bolt's 9.58 at best would be the equivalent in the 40yd dash for:

1.89 + 0.945 + 0.845 + 0.533 = 4.213

The time in a football forty starts when the body moves, so Rawson is subtracting off the reaction time. Also, they use hand time, so he's probably subtracting off another .24.

I think Stanley Floyd ran a 3.93 in spikes on a track

He's an idiot.

I did the math, and Usain Bolt would likely run between 4.1 and 4.2 the way they time 40 yard dashes at the NFL combine.

Idiots on ESPN have said everything for Bolt from 3.5 to 3.9. They don't know what they are talking about.

Like an above poster said, in the NFL 40yd dash, the clock starts when the guy starts running. So there's reaction time right there. Then, Bolt would surely be able to focus on only 40yds, instead of 100m, so there's some more time.

I'd give him 3.9. If racing other NFL guys though, he'd be walking away from them from about 30m on.

not so fast wrote:

Bolt's splits for his 100m (9.58) are:

RT: 0.146

0-10m: 1.89

10-20m: 0.99

20-30m: 0.90

30-40m: 0.86

40-50m: 0.83

50-60m: 0.82

60-70m: 0.81

70-80m: 0.82

80-90m: 0.83

90m-100m: 0.83

Adding 0.146+1.89+0.99+...+0.83 doesn't equal 9.58

the Reaction time is built into the first 1.89.

ice age wrote:

Adding 0.146+1.89+0.99+...+0.83 doesn't equal 9.58

That's what I saw posted, and I'm guessing that it's probably because those splits are only to the hundredth and not the thousandth. The reaction time isn't rounded because it's a computerized measured calculation.

And the 4.21 I came up with above doesn't include reaction time. It's based on the formula in the article:

sum of these 4 components:

0-10m speed

avg of 10-30m splits

avg of 30-50m splits

.6756 times fastest split (since 40 yards is .6756 further than 30m)

But like I said, there's no way to accurately calculate an equivalent. I was just trying to show that Rawson's 3.82 calculation seems ludicrous.

And yes, hand-timed 40's for football are notoriously inaccurate. There's a reason the fastest NFL players aren't winning Olympic gold.

For what it's worth, I think Bolt's 100m = about 4.21 for a 40 yard dash (without blocks, no reaction time) but I know there's not a football player on the globe who could get even close to him.