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Thursday, 24 February 2011

Speedendurance.com

100 Meters Elastic Power and Strength Test Correlation

Posted: 24 Feb 2011 01:00 AM PST

Recently, we had some testing done, and I just wanted to point out the correlation between 100 meters times and Elastic Power and Strength.

I think it's pretty obvious why we do weight training, explosive Olympic lifts, and plyometrics as part of our routine. If you want to ran a faster 40 yard dash or 100 meter sprint, your legs better be strong and explosive. It's all about force application and ground contact. Plus a million other factors.

It is also just a coincidence that this is the 2011 NFL Combine week.

After a full warm up and a series of at least 10×100m tempo runs, I like to do a series of 5 jumps, all starting from a standing position, then call it the day with some core work just for fitness. I see no benefit from testing how many sit-ups one can do in 60 seconds. (Do people still do that test?)

I try to keep the field conditions consistent and in my case, I prefer to use Astroturf for my bounding tests.

The 5 tests are:

Standing Long Jump (landing in sand, not like the NFL Combine where you must land like a gymnast)
Standing Vertical Jump
3 bounds from a standing start
5 bounds from a standing start
10 bounds from a standing start

The bounds can be single arm or double arm.

NOTE: I misplaced the reference for this chart above. It is not my chart.

Beware of Numbers

Just a word of warning. Consider these 2 statements:

If it is a horse, then it has four legs.

If it has four legs, then it is a horse.

What I am trying to say is, if you can vertical jump 33 inches (as we will see at this year's 2011 NFL Combine), it doesn't automatically mean you will be a 10.20 to 10.65 second 100 meter sprinter. (Though it would be nice, eh?)

It doesn't work the other way around.

I am simply looking for correlations and improvements over time.

I know from my stats, when I ran 10.92, my standing vertical jump was 29 inches, and I could bound 10 steps in 35 meters (from a standing start). My standing long jump was over 10 feet or 3.05 meters.

How do your numbers add up?