Profiling elite male 100-m sprint performance: The role of maximum velocity and relative acceleration

Sprint Mechanical Characteristics of Female Soccer Players: A Retrospective Pilot Study to Examine a Novel Approach for Correction of Timing Gate Starts

“…However, when taken in context of the duration taken to cover equivalent distances, then the differences in performance over a short sprint becomes evident between the current cohort (20 m = 3.39 s) and male sprinters (20 m = 2.82 s) (Healy et al, 2019). Indeed, it has been shown that smaller TAU values only occurred for faster sprinters after controlling for maximum velocity and is the reason these parameters need to be considered together (Healy et al, 2019). Therefore, maximal acceleration (Equation 1.2) is a better estimate for this sprint quality and should be used instead of TAU.…”

“…Upon first inspection, this might be perceived as female soccer players having similar acceleration qualities as 100 m Olympic/World Championship male sprinters. However, when taken in context of the duration taken to cover equivalent distances, then the differences in performance over a short sprint becomes evident between the current cohort (20 m = 3.39 s) and male sprinters (20 m = 2.82 s) (Healy et al, 2019). Indeed, it has been shown that smaller TAU values only occurred for faster sprinters after controlling for maximum velocity and is the reason these parameters need to be considered together (Healy et al, 2019).…”

“…TAU has been thought of as a useful indicator of acceleration with smaller values representing the achievement of maximum sprint speed more quickly and vice versa (Healy et al, 2019). Previous studies with NFL players (Clark et al, 2019) and elite female sprinters (Greene, 1986) reported TAU values between 0.77 and 0.91 s, whereas elite male sprinters have consistently shown values between 1.0 and 1.2 s (Greene, 1986;Healy et al, 2019;Morin et al, 2019). Upon first inspection, this might be perceived as female soccer players having similar acceleration qualities as 100 m Olympic/World Championship male sprinters.…”

Hip Torque Is a Mechanistic Link Between Sprint Acceleration and Maximum Velocity Performance: A Theoretical Perspective

“…As shown in Figure 1B , since maximum horizontal acceleration (m/s 2 ) is equivalent to the maximum horizontal force relative to body mass (N/kg), the resultant acceleration-velocity curve can be defined by the limits a 0 and v 0 with a negative linear slope ( S fv = - a 0 / v 0 = −1/τ). Mean values for τ and S fv , either directly reported or calculated from published maximum velocity and maximum force data, consistently have a magnitude of around one (τ ≈ 1 s or S fv ≈−1 s −1 ) even for athletes from a variety of sports with vastly different sprinting abilities (Cross et al, 2015 ; Rabita et al, 2015 ; Slawinski et al, 2017a ; Jiménez-Reyes et al, 2018 ; Haugen et al, 2019 ; Healy et al, 2019 ; Morin et al, 2019 ; Watkins et al, 2021 ; Edwards et al, 2022 ). This indicates that the acceleration and velocity performance limits are related and generally proportional.…”

Assessment of Sprint Parameters in Top Speed Interval in 100 m Sprint—A Pilot Study Under Field Conditions

“…The reason for the focus on this phase in sprint research may be found in the demanding methods of assessment employed (Mero, 1988 ; Nagahara et al, 2014a , 2019 , 2020 ; Willwacher et al, 2016 ; Bezodis et al, 2019 ), which are typically, with only few exceptions (Nagahara et al, 2018a ; Mattes et al, 2021 ), available only in laboratory settings. As it is a well-established fact that top speed is reached in 100 m-sprint only after around 40 m of maximum acceleration effort (Krzysztof and Mero, 2013 ; Healy et al, 2019 ), it is comprehensible that comparatively fewer studies exist which examined the maximum velocity phase or the final part of the acceleration phase. On the other hand, there is clear evidence that the maximum velocity phase is decisive for sprinting performance.…”