Standing start 40 yard dashes – why we utilize this method and how to look at results.
At OC Sports performance we run 40 yards sprints the last Wednesday of each month. All of the sprints are video recorded, logged in a “sprint book” and tracked. We use this data to prove without a doubt that the athletes we are training are seeing progress.
Basics of our information:
The standing start 40 videos are published on our OC Sprint instagram account. When publishing this information we include the athletes 40 yard sprint time, 10 yard flying time and 20 yard flying time. The 10 and 20 yard flying times are the fastest times the athlete runs in that 40 yard sprint. Typically, the athletes run their fastest 10 yards -in the last 10 yards in the sprint – between 30 – 40 yards and the fastest 20 yard segment from 20-40 yards.
Every athlete that trains at OC Sports Performance, in Bend, Oregon has every sprint tracked – and compared to the athletes times the month previously. We can then show athletes are in fact getting faster month over month.
Why Standing Start?
We utilize the standing start with the start box on the athletes front foot – as soon as the athletes foot moves the time starts. The “starting box” is very sensitive, an athlete pulling their big toe up inside their shoe/track spikes can start time.
We use the Brower Timing system. The image below shows the TCI Smart Start
The standing start allows us to have accurate times with lots of athletes, time over time. We have 100 athletes that train in the OC Sports Performance program and typically have 50-80 athletes run each month.
Also OC Sports Performance does timing for events/tryouts for local high school and club sports. At some of these tryouts we will time 200+ athletes.
The standing start allows us to cycle athletes faster – and have the same exact timing standards that we utilize in the gym. This gives both the athletes/parents as well as the staff at OC an equal comparison between athletes and sports.
Why no 3 point stance?
The 3 point stance is utilized in the NFL combine. The videos are famous, but what athletes really start in a 3 point stance for their sport? Almost no football players start in a 3 point stance, baseball never does, soccer never does, track athletes start with a 4 point stance.
We don’t believe that just doing something because someone else does something is the way to go. The NFL starts in a 3 point stance but they don’t publish any of the data besides the first 10 yard time and the finishing time.
A majority of the athletes we train do not use a 3 point stance in their sport – so we didn’t think it was necessary or beneficial to have athletes starting in a 3 point stance just for a 40 yard sprint.
How to look at the data
We get a lot of comments on instagram and facebook – people comment, direct messaging us, etc that don’t like how we start standing. But the fact of the matter is that it is more sport specific than starting in a 3 point stance.
The data a person should look at is the athletes top speed, the athletes flying 10 times, and the athletes flying 20 yard time – as those are really more important than the published 40 time. But 40 times popularized by the NFL is what people look at.
To convert flying 10 yard times to miles per hour, just take the athletes 10 yard time and divide it by 20.45. This will provide a MPH conversion.
Here is an example: 20.45 /.95(10 yard time) = 21.52 mph.
In the example above the athlete hit a top speed of 21.52 mph in a brief period of time(10 yards) inside of their 40 yard sprint.
What does this data mean?
Athletes that get faster, run fast 10 yard times, 20 yard times and faster 40 yard times, are FASTER. Building speed and explosiveness is one of the best things a coach can do for an athlete that immediately shows up on the field/court/track.
How should you compare NFL Times to OC Sports Performance times?
Athletes that run out of a 3 point stance are going to be .15 – to .40 slower than a standing start(depending on the athlete). But a 3 point stance doesn’t make sense for most athletes as it is not specific to their sport at all.
We can’t control what people put out on social media, we want to compare apples to apples, which is our athletes sprinting and their progress. Due to the NFL not publishing flying 10 and flying 20 data there is no real good way to compare our times to theirs.
Also, it is worth noting that the NFL combine starts off of first motion, so that start is a reaction off of first motion. The average reaction time for a human is .25 (250 milliseconds). Obviously, because it is the NFL, and all sprints are recorded they can go back and adjust the times. But there is a human element to their timing.
The most accurate timing would be Fully automatic time (abbreviated FAT) is a form of race timing in which the clock is automatically activated by the starting device, and the finish time is either automatically recorded, or timed by analysis of a photo finish.
Published data
Since we record and publish all of the data we can prove without a doubt athletes we are working with are getting faster month over month and year over year. This is ultimately what athletes and parents are looking for is a return on their time and investment.
Below are images of current high school Standing start 40 yard dashes updated as of 7/1/2024.
OC Sports Performance is a metrics based, results driven gym in Bend, Oregon. We have been training middle school, high school and college athletes since 2012.
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