Here is the breakdown of a 100m dash.
1% of the 100m is the reaction time
5% of the 100m is clearing the blocks
64% of the 100m is acceleration
18% of the 100m is maintaining speed
12% of the 100m is deceleration
Looking at the breakdown above, it is easy to see where athletes should focus their energy. Acceleration begins at the point you leave the blocks and lasts until you have reached maximum speed. In the 100m athletes should reach their maximum speed at about the 60m mark. In other words, you are going from a speed of 0 at the blocks to maximum speed at 60m down the track. Once you have reached maximum speed you will then try maintain your speed as long as possible. This is often described as running down hill. You want to keep your speed, but stay relaxed. If you attempt to “reaccelerate” you just burn more energy, fatigue sooner and decelerate faster resulting in a poor performance. A great deal of success in track (and for that matter field) depends on who decelerates the slowest. Contrary to what most young athletes think, an athlete who reaches top speed at the 60 meter mark and maintains his speed as long as possible (essentially the remaining 40m) will fare better than the athlete who comes out hard and tries to coast the middle of the race and speed up again. Primarily, because they tighten up and can’t accelerate like they thought they would be able to.
The second mistake young runners make is getting out even harder out of the blocks and therefore hitting max speed at the 45m mark instead of the 60m. When this happens they now have to maintain their top speed for 55 m instead of 40m. Therefore, resulting in a faster deceleration at the end of the race.
Finally, form is of utmost importance in the 100m. Form in the blocks, form coming out of the blocks, form getting to max acceleration, but especially form is important during maintenance. The tendency is for young athletes to grind it out at the end. They get the ugly face going, the tight neck and shoulders. Their arms are tight and fist clenched making their whole upper body rigid. The arms dictate what your legs do and thus athletes tend to take short choppy steps and never get their knees up and rotate through with their legs. You aren’t going to win a state championship that way.
We will work on blocks and form throughout the season. Good luck in time trials this week.
Coach P
