Rookie 100m sprint

yupyup7up

Hi all,

I play rugby and indoor soccer but season has ended so i want to keep fit by doing 100m sprints. It's my first time ever being timed so I don't really have any formal technique and my launch is atrocious!

I was timed at 13.18 for my 2nd sprint - no training, just got tmed to gauge where im at right now.
I'm 23, 6' tall and weigh about 175 lbs.

Would it be realistic to get this down to sub 11 seconds if i train properly?

also, it might be worth nothing that i had a pretty heavy session the night before too...:o

thanks for any input/advice!

ecoli

yupyup7up wrote: »

Hi all,

I play rugby and indoor soccer but season has ended so i want to keep fit by doing 100m sprints. It's my first time ever being timed so I don't really have any formal technique and my launch is atrocious!

I was timed at 13.18 for my 2nd sprint - no training, just got tmed to gauge where im at right now.
I'm 23, 6' tall and weigh about 175 lbs.

Would it be realistic to get this down to sub 11 seconds if i train properly?

also, it might be worth nothing that i had a pretty heavy session the night before too...:o

thanks for any input/advice!

I do think you can improve and get your time down. I know many rugby players who focus on sprinting during their off season and have found it to be very beneficial when they come back into their season.

The question of going from 13.18 to sub 11 though? This is a huge margin and sub 11 would have ranked you top 15 in the country last year.

I wouldnt say its impossible as the last time i said that to a sprinter was someone who took up the sport talking of making ireland team straight away. I told him to just focus on getting his times down and not worry about the Ireland team for a year or two at the very least. Two months later was representing Ireland and now is one of the top 3 sprinters in the country. Impossible no but very unlikely

Pisco Sour

ecoli wrote: »

Two months later was representing Ireland and now is one of the top 3 sprinters in the country. Impossible no but very unlikely

Who was that? Quite amazing. Though he obviously had a lot of untapped potential and probably wasn't starting off at 13.2 seconds.

To the OP, somebody correct me if I am mistaken, but my understanding is that the 100m would be one of the hardest events to make significant gains in. This is because everybody has a certain amount of natural speed over such a short distance, while over 200m and 400m your shortcomings would be found out more if you hadn't trained. With 100m on the otherhand you can run a quick time off no training, while after training for months your time wont improve anywhere as much as it would over 200m and 400m. Maybe I'm wrong but thats the way I understand it.

With training you could possibly get below 12.5 if you are starting from 13.2. How much faster you can go is probably dependant on how much talent you have.

Shoot for sub 12 over the long term, but sub 11 is crazy thinking to be honest.

RoyMcC

Agree with both of the above. But in addition BEWARE of anyone that's given you a hand time of 13.18 secs. If it's a trained timekeeper then they would have rounded up to 13.2. If untrained then you can probably add 0.2 or 0.3 onto that time to get the actual time. No disrespect to the timekeeper but that's usually the case.

ecoli

04072511 wrote: »

Who was that? Quite amazing. Though he obviously had a lot of untapped potential and probably wasn't starting off at 13.2 seconds.

A certain Crusaders sprinter;) granted it was after 6 months of training when i met him initially but I wont be using the term impossible any time soon as a result:D

Have to agree with RoymcC here also handtiming in a sprint is a major factor not to mention block start v crouch as this can have a negative impact in an untrained athlete and takes time to develop this technique

yupyup7up

yeah i wasnt too sure about whats possible or acheiveable in certain timeframes as i am unfamiliar with the sports of now.

My brother did the time keeping this time. he is a long distance runner and always looks to give worse times rather than try lower them which is good.

i reckon using a set of spikes and blocks would help a bit anyway.

i think ill go out sometime this week or next and get another set up times when im not after a night out and hopefully it will improve. I can post these here then thanks guys!

Pisco Sour

yupyup7up wrote: »

yeah i wasnt too sure about whats possible or acheiveable in certain timeframes as i am unfamiliar with the sports of now.

I mean this in the nicest way possible, but looking to go sub 11 from a 13.2 hand timed run would be like me going onto the golf forum and asking how can I get my best round down from 110 to 72.

Best of luck with it all though. Always great to see something different on here. Maybe start a training log if you plan on taking it seriously? Definetely let us know how you get on anyway.

thirtyfoot

Of course this is possible. You would need probably a clear 2-4 years of training without setbacks. You would also need a great coach who would refine your mechanics to the best that they can be. You would need perfect strength and conditioning. It is possible. The fact you only ran 13.2 even in flats doesn't bode well though. I would imagine you'd get into the elevenses quickly enough but as the wedge gets sharper gains are more difficult to achieve. The person ecoli speaks of is no punter, he is a natural athlete so what applied to him would not apply to 99.999% of the population.

Maars

I know of one guy who came over from hockey and went sub 11 in about 6 months. I think the first race he ran was low 11s, with no blocks experience. He scraped under 11 in the National Finals then went back to hockey for good. However in the hockey world he was well known for his speed; no-one was even close to him.

TrackFan123

If i was you i would be thinking aout breaking 13 first. Sub 11 is not easy to do, all these quick soccer and rugby players think they can just get on a track and mix it with the countries best athletes but it just doesn't work like that.

Steven Colvert went sub 11 very quickly, but I'd guess his first time trial would've been low 11 seconds

Pisco Sour

TrackFan123 wrote: »

all these quick soccer and rugby players think they can just get on a track and mix it with the countries best athletes but it just doesn't work like that.

Agreed, and its a little disrespectful to the sport at an elite level to be honest, rather like that punter who thought he could take up running and run a mile sub 4 minutes over the age of 40 (despite the fact it has been done by just one man over 40 in history!!).