The recent rants from Brutal about black athletes that ran fast 40 yd dash times got me thinking about what has to be the most overrated measure of athletic ability.
First of all, unlike in track events, there are no differentiations given to times run based on track conditions, wind conditions, altitude, or hand timed. So when someone says that Bo Jackson ran a 4.19, we have no idea if he was running on a track or grass, with or without starting blocks, hand or electronic time, with or without a tailwind, etc.
From my experience, a hand timed 40 is going to be 0.1-0.2 faster than an electronic timed 40. Given that, there are still ways to fudge an electronic 40 time. For example, when I was running 40s in college, we had an electronic timer that consisted of a starting pad to start the timer and a light beam at the finish to end the timer. Unlike in track where the timer is started by the starters pistol, the starting pad was a device that you put your hand on while in a starting stance and the clock started when you lifted your hand. Well it didn't take long for guys to figure out that if you put your front foot on the starting pad and start in a standing position, the timer wouldn't start until after you took your first step from the starting line. That was enough to shave 0.1 sec from your time. Remember we are talking about 0.1 sec, which seems like a lot, but it is the time it takes to blink your eyes. Same goes for the beam at the finish line. If the beam is set low, you could make a long stride at the finish, break the beam with your foot, and shave another 0.05-0.1 sec. My point is there are tricks out there to run fast times that have nothing to do with speed, so when you see a fast 40 time, take it with a grain of salt.
I prefer to judge speed by watching it on the field. When I watch Matt Jones' highlight film, I don't need to know his 40 time to know that the guy is incredibly fast. When I see Tim Dwight run past LaDainian Tomlinson in the open field to throw a downfield block, I don't need 40 times to tell me that Dwight is a lot faster than Tomlinson. When I see Brandon Stokley run past DBs and catch TD passes, I don't need to see a comparison of 40 times to know that Stokley is faster than the DBs.
Coaches, scouts, and fans worship the 40 yd dash as the only measure of speed. I tend to think that way too much emphasis is given to that one measurement.
First of all, unlike in track events, there are no differentiations given to times run based on track conditions, wind conditions, altitude, or hand timed. So when someone says that Bo Jackson ran a 4.19, we have no idea if he was running on a track or grass, with or without starting blocks, hand or electronic time, with or without a tailwind, etc.
From my experience, a hand timed 40 is going to be 0.1-0.2 faster than an electronic timed 40. Given that, there are still ways to fudge an electronic 40 time. For example, when I was running 40s in college, we had an electronic timer that consisted of a starting pad to start the timer and a light beam at the finish to end the timer. Unlike in track where the timer is started by the starters pistol, the starting pad was a device that you put your hand on while in a starting stance and the clock started when you lifted your hand. Well it didn't take long for guys to figure out that if you put your front foot on the starting pad and start in a standing position, the timer wouldn't start until after you took your first step from the starting line. That was enough to shave 0.1 sec from your time. Remember we are talking about 0.1 sec, which seems like a lot, but it is the time it takes to blink your eyes. Same goes for the beam at the finish line. If the beam is set low, you could make a long stride at the finish, break the beam with your foot, and shave another 0.05-0.1 sec. My point is there are tricks out there to run fast times that have nothing to do with speed, so when you see a fast 40 time, take it with a grain of salt.
I prefer to judge speed by watching it on the field. When I watch Matt Jones' highlight film, I don't need to know his 40 time to know that the guy is incredibly fast. When I see Tim Dwight run past LaDainian Tomlinson in the open field to throw a downfield block, I don't need 40 times to tell me that Dwight is a lot faster than Tomlinson. When I see Brandon Stokley run past DBs and catch TD passes, I don't need to see a comparison of 40 times to know that Stokley is faster than the DBs.
Coaches, scouts, and fans worship the 40 yd dash as the only measure of speed. I tend to think that way too much emphasis is given to that one measurement.
