Can a sprint expert explain all the false starts in Paris?

They moved before the gun was fired.

A. That starter is terrible.

The starter was holding them in the blocks for 5 seconds between the "ready" and "set" commands.

I'm think A for almost every time but I did hear a "shhhh" sound during the restart of the women's 100m

Early on in the meet someone commented on the fact the starter was "terrible". Then never expounded, but am guessing as mention, it was the length of time he was holding them.

kmaclam wrote:

Early on in the meet someone commented on the fact the starter was "terrible". Then never expounded, but am guessing as mention, it was the length of time he was holding them.

They also stated crowd noise several times, too.

Dumb White Guy wrote:

kmaclam wrote:

Early on in the meet someone commented on the fact the starter was "terrible". Then never expounded, but am guessing as mention, it was the length of time he was holding them.

They also stated crowd noise several times, too.

They say that at basically every Diamond League meet

Supposed to be held for maximum 2 seconds.

If they implement one of those gates they use for horse races it would solve everything

note the video review almost always showed there was no foul by any athlete, at least none that could be visually detected

but why wrote:

note the video review almost always showed there was no foul by any athlete, at least none that could be visually detected

Its reaction time tripping the block electronics in those cases. The difference between .10 and .09 for example is not discernible to the naked eye.

They all wanna be her. wrote:

Supposed to be held for maximum 2 seconds.

I know of no rule book, at any level, that says that. If you can point me to one that does say that, I'd appreciate it.

The starter should hold them until the field is still. That's it. Sometimes that takes a while; sometimes it doesn't take very long.

You won't be able to "time" a good starter--not necessarily because s/he deliberately mixes up the lengths of holds, but just because different fields take different times to settle into being still.

whatanabee wrote:

but why wrote:

note the video review almost always showed there was no foul by any athlete, at least none that could be visually detected

Its reaction time tripping the block electronics in those cases. The difference between .10 and .09 for example is not discernible to the naked eye.

The blocks also showed nobody jumped in most cases.

Bad starter.

kmaclam wrote:

Early on in the meet someone commented on the fact the starter was "terrible". Then never expounded, but am guessing as mention, it was the length of time he was holding them.

The starter was a she.

Didn't anyone pull a Schippers to get reinstated?

Sorry but I can't. It's very simple, the gun goes off and you run. Unacceptable, no discipline. Wait, sorry, maybe crowd noise, some sprint ran are taught to react to the first sound they hear and the first sound they hear may be a camera flash or a fan screaming or any other noise. Also runners may be applying too much pressure to their hands and if you are held too long you false start. This is why you need to watch earlier races and get a feel for the starter and their rhythm.

wejo wrote:

I haven't seen this many false starts since they implemented the false start rule. Reminds me of what the sport was like before we had it.

Do you think it's happening because a) the starter is holding them too long?

b) crowd noise or some sort of echo in the stadium (the DL meet has never been at this stadium before)

c) random chance?

d) Other

I thought there was some sort of new technology being used for blocks these days, as of European Indoor Championships 2017.

TEAM GB Trials this weekend was plagued by false starts,

Yeah, about that... wrote:

They all wanna be her. wrote:

Supposed to be held for maximum 2 seconds.

I know of no rule book, at any level, that says that. If you can point me to one that does say that, I'd appreciate it.

The starter should hold them until the field is still. That's it. Sometimes that takes a while; sometimes it doesn't take very long.

You won't be able to "time" a good starter--not necessarily because s/he deliberately mixes up the lengths of holds, but just because different fields take different times to settle into being still.

adding

A good starter will call the runners out of their blocks if one or more athletes is slow responding to the SET command.

Runners can only remain 'motionless' for a finite time in the final starting position. An athlete should not be disadvantaged because they complied quickly to the command. Biggest mistake I see in starters today is they do not take charge of the tempo of the starting procedure,

At the pro level it's tough for a starter.

Meet Director pays Sprintmadonna thirty grand appearance fee and some guy working for a thank you, and a bologna sandwich throws her out for jumping.

Do people actually watch the sprints?

Will some of you be sad to see Bolt retire?