Powerlifting USA Article on ICON Performance
Full Biography
Charles Poliquin is a native of Ottawa, Canada. While completing graduate studies in Exercise Physiology in Canada, Charles began coaching athletes, a career move that has resulted in hundreds of medals, wins and personal bests of many elite athletes. He is known worldwide for producing faster athletes. When a country wants a Gold medal, [...]
Speed is often defined as a combination of stride length (how much ground can one cover in each stride) and stride frequency (number of leg cycles does it take to cover the distance at hand). That is basic speed mechanics. The shear physics of linear speed development is a matter of how much force can [...]
Press Release: The NFL Combine and the NFL Pro Days Class of 2010 is Right Around the Corner. Are You Ready for the Biggest Opportunity of Your Life?
Starting strength is the ability to instantly apply lots of force at the very beginning of a movement. Try this. Sit back in a chair in a “ready to jump” position. Make sure your butt is touching the chair. Now without rocking backward simply jump up from this dead stop position. This is an example [...]
I know that you going to scream Duh! when I say this, but trust me when I say that it does bear repeating… if you are overweight you WILL be slower…PERIOD! There are always exception to the rule and when push comes to shove everyone can remember that one athlete who, even though they were [...]
I have been working with athletes for the better part of 20 years, both privately and on campus, and I know the frustrations that all coaches go through when it comes to strength and conditioning. The growth of the high school strength and conditioning coach as an industry is very encouraging. The days of calling [...]
- 99% of lacrosse is change of direction. Like most of your field based sports (lacrosse, soccer, rugby, field hockey, etc), the main skill would have to be repeat sprint ability or RSA. Defined as “the ability to perform high intensity sprints after a short, as well as a ‘challenged’ recovery period”, RSA is all about [...]
Dan Wohlfarth, one of our log standing ICON Performance members / clients did us very proud last weekend at the Southern Regional Waterskiing. Here’s how it went down…
“Just got back from the Southern Regional Water Ski Tournament where I tied for second with my skiing partner. A run-off determines the 2nd and 3rd place medal. [...]
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I thought I would post some answers to one of the email questions that I have been getting lately.
This one is from Michael in Georgia,
” I was wondering if you could clear up something for me. I am still slow besides doing all the weightlifting that my team requires me to do as well as [...]
Nothing gets the hair on the back of my neck up FASTER than someone telling me that they can’t do something. I don’t care if I’m coaching a power clean, a box jump, a 10 yard dash under a certain time limit, a big deadlift, that last 10 pounds, putting down chocolate, cutting out their [...]
This is a video of one of my athletes at Homewood High School in Birmingham, Alabama. We are in transition to more of the Olympic Lifts than the Power Lifts in our off-season strength work. This is one of the flow progressions that I teach to get the athletes to start putting the progressions together [...]
Two coaches that I respect greatly, Mike Boyle & Nick Tumminello, wrote this great article on 40 yard dash speed times. Enjoy!
The Truth About Speed, NFL Combines and the 40 Yard Dash!
By: Mike Boyle & Nick Tumminello at nicktumminello.com
Speed is the stuff of urban legend. Deion Sanders supposedly showed up at the NFL Combine, ran a 4.2 and went home. We routinely hear of high school kids who purportedly run 4.3’s and 4.4’s. The stories of “reported” speed have gotten out of control. This would not be a problem in and of itself. Most of us could look at it and say “so what” people lie or people embellish. The real problem is that the lies seem to be setting the standard. One of the reasons that I no longer train athletes for the NFL Combine is the unrealistic expectations of athletes and agents based on these “urban legends” or the occasional freakish performance like Vernon Davis this year.
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1- Electronic start- electronic finish. This should be the standard but, unfortunately is not. The start is done with a touch pad and the finish with a photocell. This is the most accurate and as a result yields the slowest times. An electronic start/ electronic finish time has been shown to be .22 seconds slower than a hand held 40 yard dash. ( Brown, 2004)
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2- Hand Start- electronic finish. This is a system used uniquely at the NFL Combine. A hand start-electronic finish will be approximately .1 seconds slower than a hand held 40 yard dash. In the combine the use of hand start will be particularly evident in the faster ten yard dash times. Athletes will run 10 yard times much closer to a hand held but, times at each following split will be closer to the electronic time.
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3- Hand Start- hand finish- this is the fastest and least accurate. Handheld times tend to be faster but are clearly more prone to human error. Many of the legendary times I believe were hand-held timing combined with human error or human expectation.
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At the NFL Combine in 1996, 97, 98, 2001 and 2003 and 2006 no one ran a 4.2. No one. Not one person. In 2001 Ladainian Tomlinson ran one 4.36, five in the 4.4’s and vertical jumped 40.5. 2003 was a fast year, yet still produced no 4.2’s. Ten athletes ran 4.3’s in 2003. The heaviest was a 223 pound running back. The Combine track is always said to be slow but the truth is it is simply accurate. All of these supposed fast times seem to be run at times when no independent verification is available. Seems a bit curious doesn’t it.
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Here’s another angle on the whole “speed” thing. Ben Johnson and Carl Lewis ran split times of 4.67 for 40 meters ( Bryan, Rose-Hulman) The split times are below.
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1.84 10 yd
2.86 20 (1.02 split)
3.8 30 (.94 split)
4.67 40 (.87 split)
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40 meters is 43.74 yards. This would make the distance approximately ten percent further. This means we could reduce the time by approximately .36 seconds to account for the additional 3.7 yards. This would mean that in constant acceleration mode the best sprinters in the history of the world, using blocks, ran 4.31 for 40 yards. Does it seem plausible that high school football players can run faster times without blocks.
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The table below shows some of the athletes who ran below 4.4 at the NFL Combine. Obviously the athletes are getting faster but, we still don’t see the dreaded 4.2’s we hear so much about. In 2005 I believe one athlete actually ran a 4.2 although I did not have those stats available. One athlete in a decade.
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In 2006 of nineteen running backs listed in the internet report (unofficial) Maurice Drew of UCLA was the only 4.3 and he ran a 4.39. In other words one running back ran under 4.4 and, he did it by one one-hundreth. Four wide receivers out of thirty-one ran under 4.4. In fact five ran over 4.6. This means more wide receivers ran over 4.6 than under 4.4. 2006 was an exceptional year for defensive backs with nine sub 4.4’s. The key, again in 2006 was that there were no 4.2’s in the results I saw.
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As coaches, we need to stop perpetuating the myths. We need to tell our athletes what the average at the NFL Combine was and not what the best “freak” times were. We need to further explain to them that it is unrealistic to expect to even meet the NFL averages. As with everything in our society, we have raised the bar unrealistically high. Let’s be honest with ourselves and with our athletes.
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Bibliography
Modeling World Class Sprinters in 100 Meter Dash
Kurt Bryan, Department of Mathematics,
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute IN 47803 USA.
Brian J. Winkel, Department of Mathematics,
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, Terre Haute IN 47803 USA.
Assessment of Linear Sprinting Performance: A Theoretical Paradigm
Todd Brown, Jason Vescovi, Jaci VanHeest
Journal of Science and SportsMedicine (2004) 3, 203-210
NFL Combine Results- compiled from various sources.
Founder & CEO, Institute of Eating Management
History
Trained in Clinical Nutrition at the Institute of Specialized Medicine during the early 1980s, Keith Klein spent five years at the Institute working along side some of Houston’s most prestigious physicians. In 1986, Keith began working with psychiatrist Dr. John H. Simms, where he became the Dietetic Director. Keith [...]
The pre-game or pre-workout meal can be a great help or hindrance to your athlete based on a few simple but critical guidelines:
1. As a rule… carbohydrates before and protein after. This ensures that your athlete doesn’t see his dinner…again.
a. What are good sources of carbs? Gatorade, fruit, pasta, rice, oatmeal, potatoes, granola are some of the [...]
In this day and age of energy bars, protein powders and weight gain shakes, many athletes forget about “real” foods, such as peanut butter. Peanut butter, in my opinion, is one of the best sports foods around. It’s tasty, inexpensive, satisfying, nourishing and even good for our health. But all too often, I hear [...]
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