Fast twitch?: I can kick a football 65 yards, yet I can't break 30 in the 200m.

Hard to say. If you could find someone who could do 200's with you starting at around 32 and slowly work their way down during the reps they could carry you to a faster time.

Are you doing 14x200 at 29? Because that's a pretty damn good workout.

how much do you practice sprinting?

just 'cause you might be fast-twitch doesnt mean that you dont have to practice in order to be fast!

Yup, in HS I could run in the 23s for 200. Now it would be tough to break 28 since all I do is jog. No way you can only run 29 if you can also run 4.8 in the 40. Practice sprinting and it'll come back.

At peak kicking shape I was able to cover the 40 in 4.8. I did have a couple 5.0 and 4.9's leading into my senior year. However, 40 yards translates to 36 meters. 5 years ago I doubt I could maintain that speed over a 200 meter distance.

I am able to do 14x200 (w/200 meter jog) in 30-32 most of the time - I've hit 29 on the first rep on a couple occasions.

Further exploring this subject, is it possible for fast twitch athletes to become really good 5K guys? What is stopping a world-class sprinter from becoming a 14:XX 5K if that speed already exists? I'd venture to guess that a fast-twitch athlete has a poor aerobic capacity?

I'm curious as to what results converted sprinters acheived when making the move to distance events...

why would a world class sprinter want to be a 14:xx guy?

Anybody who knows anything about sprinting can answer this quickly. This is not really fast-twitch performance and you are not as fast as you think you are.

By coaching manuals (for example, the USA Track And Field Coaching Manual), 4.8 for 40 yards is equivalent to 13.4 for 100 meters. The 30 meter and 50 yard equivalents would be 4.3 and 6.0. I'll put at this way: At Dana Hills High School, which is a national class distance oriented program, 13.4 would not be fast enough to make the varsity high school team in 100 meters.

Also, 14X200 with a 200 meter jog? Not only is the workout wrong as a sprint speed/speed endurance workout, but real sprinters don't even talk that way. A sprinter might do 10X200 at 70% with a 100 meter walk, and THIS is a recovery workout. It's not even close to being speed for a sprinter.

If you really want to boost 200 meter speed endurance as a sprinter, the real thing would be more like 3-4 X 200 at 95% with 15 minute rest. Or maybe 300+200+100 with 10 minutes, and that's a hard workout. That's right, not 200 meters jog, 15 MINUTES. Because as a sprinter, it takes that long for your glycolytic and CNS systems to recover from the effort. Sprinters would also be doing 60s with 6-10 min rest for speed.

If you want sprinter results, train like a sprinter, not a road racer.

coach d wrote:

Anybody who knows anything about sprinting can answer this quickly. This is not really fast-twitch performance and you are not as fast as you think you are.

By coaching manuals (for example, the USA Track And Field Coaching Manual), 4.8 for 40 yards is equivalent to 13.4 for 100 meters. The 30 meter and 50 yard equivalents would be 4.3 and 6.0. I'll put at this way: At Dana Hills High School, which is a national class distance oriented program, 13.4 would not be fast enough to make the varsity high school team in 100 meters.

coach d is right. I had a 14 year old girl consistently run run 13.10 to 13.20 (photofinish timing) this year and while she was the best in our region, she was still losing to a few girls at the provincial meets.

Thanks for the input, but I have no interest in becoming a sprinter.

Also, you must consider that the 4.8 was run on field turf, not a track, in a pair of soccer cleats. Get me on the track with the right pair of spikes and the results might be different. It's just apparent that I cannot maintain that speed for more than 100m.

I'm not sure kicking a touchback indicates you are some type of freak fast twitch athlete. Watch an NFL place kicker try and tackle a kick returner (a true fast twitch freak) if you have any doubts about that statement. Many lifelong soccer players who aren't overly fast would be capable of adequate place kicking with the right training.

tom tupa is that you?

long kicking wrote:

I'm not sure kicking a touchback indicates you are some type of freak fast twitch athlete. Watch an NFL place kicker try and tackle a kick returner (a true fast twitch freak) if you have any doubts about that statement. Many lifelong soccer players who aren't overly fast would be capable of adequate place kicking with the right training.

Most NFL kick returners were sub 11 guys in high school or college. A kicker could be a 12.5/25.5 kind of runner and still get absolutely embarrassed in the open field by a kick returner.

I don't think there's much correlation.

I was a decent HS punter and defensive back and I also played soccer for 12 years as a midfielder/sweeper. The only sprint time I remember was a timed 50 yd dash at 5.5s. I'm not sure why we ran timed 50s, maybe my coach was Amish.

I couldn't ever place kick to the end zone in my youth and so I was the 3rd option for kickoffs. I could boom long punts and last I knew I held my hs record still at 72 yards, but I never mastered the hang time height.

At age 44 in the middle of marathon training I entered a 200m all-comers race on a lark and ran a legit 29.x in trainers. This was about 20 minutes after running a hard mile in 5:31.

If you are like me then you are probably built like a wrestler or soccer player and are a mix of fast/slow twitch.