What makes sprinters fast

They are able to apply more force to the ground than slower runners. This is one aspect of strength that includes two different types of strength. Now researchers have confirmed that these 2 components of the Speed Formula are a big difference between faster and slower sprinters. Sprinting has been studied for decades. However, most of this was done using video to analyze how sprinters moved. Using video gives you a picture of the kinematics.

This is how we measure and describe motion through body position, joint angles, and movement velocity. This kinematic research has given us a lot of useful information.

These are the forces that are used to create that motion and body position. To propel your body forward, and to keep you upright, your leg has to produce a lot of force into the ground on each step. You create that big force, by first getting your leg up into the right position on each stride. Picture a sprinter with their front thigh up high, about parallel with the ground. Then you use the explosive strength in your glutes, quadriceps, and hamstrings to generate power and drive your foot down into the ground.

Other runners do not do so. Driving the leg down and back into the ground is going to create a big impact on each step. The peak force during that ground contact is going to be times bodyweight when sprinting. Your linear speed dictates why the big force you generated has to be applied in a small-time. The faster you sprint, the faster you need to apply that big force. Think about it. However, the sprinter also comes in a wide variety of sizes. A number of authors note that size has no influence on running at a constant speed [2].

This tells us that endurance athletes can be either short or tall, and really size is inconsequential in terms of endurance performance. Being tall is however a disadvantage when it comes to running uphill. Also tall athletes may be a disadvantage when it comes to acceleration. In other words, the shorter athlete or player will be better able to accelerate and control their own body weight compared to a taller individual. We can also see practical support for this in Gymnastics where the athletes are relatively small compared to the field sports and court sports players.

Certainly, where sports such as basketball and volleyball are concerned then stature is an important physical characteristic. Also, when it comes to flying or top speed, taller athletes may have an advantage. So when it comes to looking at the stature of sprint athletes in an Olympic m final, do not be surprised that the athletes lining up at the start might very well be tall, medium and short in stature.

A bigger athlete in terms of overall size and body mass or weight will have advantages in several physical areas over a lighter smaller one. For example, large athletes are commonly found in the throwing events.

The ability to accelerate an external object is proportional to height squared. In general, the heaviest weightlifters lift the most weight and this is simply because they have so much mass, and consequently strength, that they can effectively overcome the inertia the tendency of a body to stay at rest of the load.

This is why we see so many small but powerful and mobile gymnasts. In other sports though, it is not that simple. Being tall facilitates a higher reach height at take off and this is a distinct advantage for the pole-vaulter. When it comes to heat dissipation, small stature individuals tend to be better at off loading heat due to the smaller body surface area.

This is actually an advantage in endurance events where the cardiac output is preserved as heat is unloaded easier. In contrast there is better heat conservation in large individuals. This is obviously an advantage in activities where cold is a problem. We have already highlighted the key structural differences in terms of muscle fibre type between the endurance athlete and the sprinter.

As you will recall, the sprinter is the one endowed with a dominance of the fast-twitch fibre. The accompanying table compares some of the key physiological differences between slow and fast twitch fibres. Understanding these differences, believe it or not, does help us in choosing and designing training for the sprint and endurance athlete.

Table 1 identifies some key functional characteristics that are indeed giving the sprinter an advantage in terms of speed. But this idea doesn't stand up - in fact, it falls flat on its face. Instead, the difference is that a top sprinter takes longer and more powerful strides. Research shows that an amateur runner often takes between 50 and 55 steps to complete m, while an elite sprinter takes in the region of These elite athletes therefore spend a lot less time on the ground which results in them being propelled forward much quicker," says Allen.

Studies led by the American based researcher Peter Weyand have found that at top speed an elite sprinter's foot will typically spend 0. But even among top sprinters, Bolt stands out, and this is partly because of his height.