How Much Can You Improve After High School?

In my previous article Why Usain Bolt is so Dominant (and Tyson Gay, too), I outlined how Usain Bolt’s top speed at 60-80m is over 3 percent faster than Ben Johnson or Mo Greene. That’s quite a bit considering less than 1 percent makes a difference between 1st and 4th.

The other article How Long Does it Take to be a World Class Sprinter? outlined how you can reach World Class anywhere from 1 to 6 years after you demonstrate sprint speed at a younger age.

So we know when but how much better can you perform?

Sure, there are Outliers, but I am trying to get a general average.

If you have time, read You can’t teach speed: sprinters falsify the deliberate practice model of expertise by Michael P. Lombardo and Robert O. Deaner.

As you can see from the chart below, the percentage increase varies from 1 to 5 percent, with about three percent being the norm.

Conclusion?

Unless your kids have a disposition to endurance or aerobic sports, make sure your they are involved in a program that involves speed, power and strength. Then those attributes can be translated to any sport, be it Track & Field, or any other high paid team sport.

Histories of the 20 fastest male American 100m sprinters.

Ranking of sprinters and fastest 100 m times at age 19 and older obtained from U.S.A. Track and Field (http://www.usatf.org) and I.A.A.F. (http://www.iaaf.org) performance data.

Rank	Name	Year of Birth	Age when superior sprinting speed first recog-nized	Age at start of DP^c	Fastest time at age 19	Fastest time	Percent improve- ment^a	Years from start of DP to world class status^b	Reference
1	T. Gay	1982	13	13	10.27	9.69	5.64	9	Maloney (2007), Hendershott (2007)
2	M. Greene	1974	8	8	10.19	9.79	3.93	13	Layden (1997), Hendershott (2000), Deford (2001)
3	L. Burrell	1967	14	14	10.46	9.85	5.83	7	Hollobaugh (1991), Nooden (1991)
4	J. Gatlin	1982	14	14	10.08	9.85	2.28	6	Hendershott (2005), Layden (2004)
5	C. Lewis^d	1961	NA^e	NA	10.00	9.86	1.40	NA	Lewis & Marx (1990), Hurst (1994), Gleason (1980), Hendershott (1989)
6	S. Crawford	1978	12	12	10.51	9.88	5.99	11	Denman (2006)
7	W. Dix	1986	9	14	10.06	9.88	1.79	4	Landman (2008)
8	R. Bailey	1989	15	15	10.28	9.88	3.89	5	Binder (2012)
9	T. Padgett	1986	NA	NA	10.00	9.89	1.10	NA	Clemson University (2014)
10	D. Patton	1977	NA	NA	NA	9.89	NA	NA	Patton (2014)
11	D. Mitchell	1966	6	6	10.21	9.91	2.94	15	Hendershott (1994a), USATF (2000)
12	L. Scott	1980	NA	NA	10.29	9.91	3.69	NA	USATF (2008)
13	A. Cason	1969	NA	NA	10.08	9.92	1.59	NA	Hendershott (1994b), IAAF (2014)
14	J. Drummond	1968	9	9	10.25	9.92	3.22	14	Weiss (1991), Reid (1999)
15	T. Montgomery	1975	NA	NA	10.11	9.92	1.88	NA	Hendershott (2002), Abrahamson (2003), Fish (2009)
16	T. Harden	1974	NA	NA	10.32	9.92	3.88	NA	USATF (2001)
17	C. Smith	1961	NA	NA	10.17	9.93	2.36	NA	Martin (1980), Lee (1987)
18	M. Marsh	1967	11	11	10.22	9.93	2.84	8	Hendershott (1993), USATF (1997)
19	I. Williams	1985	16	16	10.29	9.93	3.50	7	Ainsworth (2012)
20	B. Williams	1978	16	16	10.45	9.94	4.88	4	Satterfield (1997), Korth (2000)

READ 400 meter splits - 2009 Berlin World Championships

Source: 10.7717/peerj.445/table-2

Notes:

a-Percent improvement = 1 ? (fastest 100 m–100 m time at age 19) × 100.

b-World class status defined as either (1) representing the U.S.A. at international championships (e.g., Pan American Games, World Championships, Olympic Games) in an individual sprint event or as a member of a relay team or (2) participating in the U.S. Olympic Trials which requires the athlete to meet Olympic A or B standards to qualify to compete at the Trials.

c-DP = deliberate practice.

d-C. Lewis was the 5th ranked long jumper in the world and 2nd ranked long jumper in the U.S.A. by the age of 18.

e-NA = no data/information available.