I can dunk and kick a football a long ways. Why is my sprint speed terrible?

even on just a track level, plenty of sprinters can't jump, and plenty of jumpers can't sprint

athletic physiology goes a lot lot deeper than "fast twitch"

I was just watching a podcast on this(I'll) see if i can find it. But one sprints require proper mechanics and a high amount of cordination.Two spring is about horizontal force and jumping is about generating vertical. Their are other reasons that include physiology and just how you train a 500lb squat will help jump more than sprints because jumping make take 3 times longer than ground contact.

I was surprised to see pro drunkers falling to break 12 with near 50 inch verts.Their 40yard dashes where good but their form was terrible and they don't train reactive strength.

This is interesting. Kick power, especially kicking a ball nearly 70 yards in air, requires tremendous leg speed, so I’m surprised the 100m time is not faster.

What is your 40 time? You may be good at fast, explosive movements like a pitcher in baseball.

It's all about leg speed velocity. Increase your leg speed velocity and the rest will follow.

yes, i got in an argument here once and looked up like 8 draft classes of nba players on athletic.net

there were many hits, and ZERO guys broke 11. the median was honestly like 12 low and 24 high for the 2.

the high jumping results were most impressive. plenty of 6'2"+ jumpers

Maybe your muscles are too tight.

Captain Leg Speed Velocity wrote:

It's all about leg speed velocity. Increase your leg speed velocity and the rest will follow.

It's more likely to be Critical Leg Speed Velocity than just plain ol Leg Speed Velocity.

impossible to answer without knowing what your training during the track season is like. Another thing, and I don't mean this in a mean way, but I feel like I knew a lot of kids like you who had anecdotal evidence of athletic ability, and then thought they would be able to step on the track and run circles around everyone basically right away. Those are pretty good times for a generally athletic person but I think you are overestimating your abilities a little bit by using activities that are highly unrelated to running for comparison.

Juice Springsteen wrote:

impossible to answer without knowing what your training during the track season is like. Another thing, and I don't mean this in a mean way, but I feel like I knew a lot of kids like you who had anecdotal evidence of athletic ability, and then thought they would be able to step on the track and run circles around everyone basically right away. Those are pretty good times for a generally athletic person but I think you are overestimating your abilities a little bit by using activities that are highly unrelated to running for comparison.

Exactly. Reminds me of kids that would come out for track from the football team with tons of hype about how fast they were on the field from their coaches and teammates. They would usually end up being pretty average contributors. Major difference between football speed and track speed.

If you can kick 55 field goals with no issues who cares? You are going to be the greatest field goal kicker in history and very rich.

faster than 14.10 wrote:

If you can kick 55 field goals with no issues who cares? You are going to be the greatest field goal kicker in history and very rich.

Thats a good point. A high schooler who truly nails 55 yard field goals all day is on track to be an NFL prospect. Consistently hitting field goals at that distance is already at the level of an average NFL place kicker, so just a little improvement makes him better than the average NFL kicker.

holterskolter2 wrote:

faster than 14.10 wrote:

If you can kick 55 field goals with no issues who cares? You are going to be the greatest field goal kicker in history and very rich.

Thats a good point. A high schooler who truly nails 55 yard field goals all day is on track to be an NFL prospect. Consistently hitting field goals at that distance is already at the level of an average NFL place kicker, so just a little improvement makes him better than the average NFL kicker.

Yeah, if you can kick 55 yard field goals then you should get in the NFL as soon as the rules allow. A fair amount of people that could never dream of kicking in the NFL could put the ball 55 yards out and kick it through the uprights if they kick it at a low trajectory that would doink the offensive line in the back of the head and certainly never clear the hands of the D-line, but if you're really kicking 55 yarders, then you're good to go.

Dude, do NOT pull a hammy doing something you're not meant to do. Use the talent God gave you and go with it.

Weird Skills wrote:

Can someone explain?

Seems normal to me. You’ve only got so many muscles and ability to train, be entrained and recover. Jumping ability, especially basketball for instance, can sap you of leg power for, say, boxing (Nate Robinson) or sprinting. Kicking, such as in foot sports and combat sports, for instance, will have the same consideration. If you focused on sprinting you would improve but at some point at the expense of other abilities

I’m a lot like you, but switching the sprinting with the jumping.

I can kick very far, run low 11s in the hundred, but can’t jump for shiz. My vertical is embarrassingly bad, yet I can squat and deadlift much more than most people my size, I can slam a football pretty far, and sprint very fast for a mid-d guy. I was also considered very shifty back when I played football, which is an indication of a strong fast twitch muscle component.

My theory is that I’ve trained my body to move horizontally, not vertically, and maybe it could be a similar issue for you? Maybe you are built in a way that you have very strong/powerful legs but not necessarily fast legs

flvmmox wrote:

yes, i got in an argument here once and looked up like 8 draft classes of nba players on athletic.net

there were many hits, and ZERO guys broke 11. the median was honestly like 12 low and 24 high for the 2.

the high jumping results were most impressive. plenty of 6'2"+ jumpers

The average guy in the NBA is like 6'7" and 235lbs. Not really the kind of guy that's gonna throw down a smoking 100m time.

And a 6'2" high jump is really unimpressive.

oh sure i agree that most nba guys are too big. but even 6'2" guards were not breaking 12

funnily enough though, jarrett allen who's a damn center was one of the fastest at 11.8

https://www.athletic.net/TrackAndField/Athlete.aspx?AID=6386648

high jump wise i said 6'2"+, i recall the plumlees jumping higher than that.

some guys were kinda really unimpressive compared to what you'd think

damian lillard was like a 12.5 5'10" high jumper

oladipo might've been just 6'nothing

I alays got stuck in the outfield because of my speed, I couldn;t catch, when up to bat, i couldn't hit. On a basketball court I could dribble, couldn;t shoot, could play some D becuse I was quick but kept fouling, so.....not my sports.

What I could do was run with a football, and sprint, so ya just accept the cards you were deatth,