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 10x100m 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?
Thx for article, we gonna try it next week. And I will publish our results.