If Sprinters ran from the starting line standing up would they have faster times ?
I'm a big fan of automatically timing my high school sprinters, and I've timed thousands of short sprints over the last decade or so in practice, everything from 10m to 60m, out of blocks, from 3 point starts and standing starts. I like to switch it up because sprinters spend so much time fussing with their blocks and it drags out the practice forever when we are timing, it's also good practice for starting relay legs. For the vast majority of high school sprinters the standing start is actually the fastest, the kids will consistently cover the first 10 meters faster from a standing start with their front foot right up against the line than any other way.
There's 2 reasons for this I think, starting in blocks essentially adds an extra step because your feet are about a half meter behind the line, when you watch even elite sprinters start out of blocks, their first step is usually just past the starting line. An extra step is always going to add more time, and the extra power a high school kid gets from pushing off the blocks isn't enough to make up for the extra time that step takes.
Secondly starting with a lower center of gravity means the sprinter has to use more strength to push their body weight upwards as they start sprinting. It kind of makes the sprint start like a little uphill run for the first few strides.
I've always assumed elite sprinters make up for these disadvantages by being able to push off the blocks so much more powerfully than most high school kids, but I've had a few high school boys under 11 seconds and a few girls in the 12 second range for the 100 and they were almost all faster over 10m from a standing start. I'm a bit skeptical that the vast majority of female sprinters actually gain anything from using the blocks, but I don't have any data on world class sprinters. Certainly when we watch the men's 4x100 at the Olympics and WC it doesn't seem to affect their ability to get up to speed starting from a standing start, and they have about 20m to match the incoming runner's speed before the handoff. Unfortunately with the requirement for false start sensors for the sprint races at the elite level I don't think we'll ever get to see a world class sprint race run from a standing start.
If I’ve run hand timed (minus ~0.15 sec) a time of 6.1 seconds for 50m and consistently hit 2.0x high or 2.1x over 10 meters starting my own clock before pushoff, and have SBJ 9.5 feet as a PR and can consistently hit 8’6” to 9’2”, do you think this is enough power to benefit from a block start, or would you say for me to look to get SBJ closer to mid-high 9’ as i edge towards low-mid 11s for 100m before blocks will really help?
If Sprinters ran from the starting line standing up would they have faster times ?
I'm a big fan of automatically timing my high school sprinters, and I've timed thousands of short sprints over the last decade or so in practice, everything from 10m to 60m, out of blocks, from 3 point starts and standing starts. I like to switch it up because sprinters spend so much time fussing with their blocks and it drags out the practice forever when we are timing, it's also good practice for starting relay legs. For the vast majority of high school sprinters the standing start is actually the fastest, the kids will consistently cover the first 10 meters faster from a standing start with their front foot right up against the line than any other way.
There's 2 reasons for this I think, starting in blocks essentially adds an extra step because your feet are about a half meter behind the line, when you watch even elite sprinters start out of blocks, their first step is usually just past the starting line. An extra step is always going to add more time, and the extra power a high school kid gets from pushing off the blocks isn't enough to make up for the extra time that step takes.
Secondly starting with a lower center of gravity means the sprinter has to use more strength to push their body weight upwards as they start sprinting. It kind of makes the sprint start like a little uphill run for the first few strides.
I've always assumed elite sprinters make up for these disadvantages by being able to push off the blocks so much more powerfully than most high school kids, but I've had a few high school boys under 11 seconds and a few girls in the 12 second range for the 100 and they were almost all faster over 10m from a standing start. I'm a bit skeptical that the vast majority of female sprinters actually gain anything from using the blocks, but I don't have any data on world class sprinters. Certainly when we watch the men's 4x100 at the Olympics and WC it doesn't seem to affect their ability to get up to speed starting from a standing start, and they have about 20m to match the incoming runner's speed before the handoff. Unfortunately with the requirement for false start sensors for the sprint races at the elite level I don't think we'll ever get to see a world class sprint race run from a standing start.
awesome post. ive always thought that about HS girls, especially the ones ive coached.
My favorite is when those coaching out of blocks tell the runners they need to stay low, and the kids are just bending over at the waist to stay low.
I honestly don't understand how to coach blocks, but i know enough to understand being low is a result of the horizontal force gained from proper use of blocks, not from purposely bending over. lol
The first thing my admittedly 'inexperienced in the intricacies of sprinting' brain did was put this in a swimming pool. You would absolutely get a better start pushing off the wall than you would standing upright in chest deep water. But if that analogy doesn't cross over to moving through other basic elements of nature well, by all means crush my theory.
The second thing it did was wonder if using blocks was a rule (I honestly don't know), because if it's not, and 'no blocks' was faster, athletes would be doing it.
I apologize if I've added nothing of substance to this conversation. 😄
If I’ve run hand timed (minus ~0.15 sec) a time of 6.1 seconds for 50m and consistently hit 2.0x high or 2.1x over 10 meters starting my own clock before pushoff, and have SBJ 9.5 feet as a PR and can consistently hit 8’6” to 9’2”, do you think this is enough power to benefit from a block start, or would you say for me to look to get SBJ closer to mid-high 9’ as i edge towards low-mid 11s for 100m before blocks will really help?
There's no way to really know without seeing your start. If you are self coached if you have a smart phone I highly suggest you get a little tripod for it and film your own starts, you can even lean your phone on a chair or something if you need too. You can time yourself with your phone as well using the video and get really accurate times for 10m. With video you can even time your first step or two out of the blocks and try to get that time down. In the end if you are actually racing you're going to be starting out of blocks, so it's probably to your benefit to get better at doing that.
Overall your SBJ is pretty good, you might not see huge benefits from improving that more in your sprint times. If you can handle bounding focusing on the distance you can cover over 5 or 10 bounds will correlate more strongly to your sprint times. Being able to cover 3m per bound is fairly elite territory, virtually all the boys I've had that ran under 11 seconds for the 100 could cover about 30m in 10 bounds.
A 3-point or falling start is faster for those lacking power and technique, especially for the first few meters. An elite sprinter carries the start into the drive phase and this would not happen ideally if they stand up too quickly. An athlete with insufficient power, simply stooping over is worst of all.
If Sprinters ran from the starting line standing up would they have faster times ?
Tommie Smith had the worst start ever seen for a great sprinter, if he had had just a good start he's breaking the 100m world record. He might have fared better with a standing start but don't see that for anyone else.
Saw Tommie get out behind Larry Quetad he spent the nture race gaining on him oly to just miss nipping him at the tape. The same Larry Questad he ran down n a 4x1 anchor,
As a running back I needed to et in a stance standing upright.....nay!