I ran the same 40 time as this guy....but they said mine was wind assisted..

#51
#51
Years ago, a reporter in the Greensboro area asked my HS Coach about our team's 40 times. He wanted to play up the athletic difference between our opponent and us. We were about to play the state's top ranked 2A team that included some D-1 prospects (none of us were). When asked how fast his players were.... coach simply responded, "as fast as they need to be". IIRC, we beat them 23-0 and allowed them less than 150 yards of offense.

You need to be "fast"... football fast. Jennings wasn't track fast... but it didn't keep him from getting behind secondaries or getting YAC's.
 
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#53
#53
The Original Fade said:
True story, I’m a former college baseball player in my late 40s and about 10 years ago I was at one of my kid’s friend’s birthday parties at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. I was in shorts and running shoes and decided I would see if I still had it. I was fully confident I would run about a 4.7 to 4.8 40. I got a great jump, wind at my back, arms pumping, and I thought I was burning gassss...............I ran a 5-freaking 2. I pretty much gave up on life on that day.
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At nearly 50yrs old a 5.2 is pretty good dude. I know teenagers that cant run 5.2 in the 40
 
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#54
#54
sjt18 said:
Years ago, a reporter in the Greensboro area asked my HS Coach about our team's 40 times. He wanted to play up the athletic difference between our opponent and us. We were about to play the state's top ranked 2A team that included some D-1 prospects (none of us were). When asked how fast his players were.... coach simply responded, "as fast as they need to be". IIRC, we beat them 23-0 and allowed them less than 150 yards of offense.

You need to be "fast"... football fast. Jennings wasn't track fast... but it didn't keep him from getting behind secondaries or getting YAC's.
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Your coach was dead ass right. Its one thing to run a 40 but its entirely different when someone is chasing u or you are chasing them. I ran 4.46 in high school but I always thought I had another gear that I could only get to during a game. When judging football players speed u should always go by the 10yrd split. Usain Bolt was fast but he aint at top speed in the 1st 10 yards so he can be caught.
 
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#55
#55
901 Orange said:
Your coach was dead ass right. Its one thing to run a 40 but its entirely different when someone is chasing u or you are chasing them. I ran 4.46 in high school but I always thought I had another gear that I could only get to during a game. When judging football players speed u should always go by the 10yrd split. Usain Bolt was fast but he aint at top speed in the 1st 10 yards so he can be caught.
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You might find this surprising but while I don't know a 10m time (I've only seen 20m splits) when he set the record Bolt was already in the lead at the 20m mark and that's with the 3rd slowest reaction time in the field.

Of course let's be real...Bolt at his best was simply otherworldly.
 
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#57
#57
LB-FB -6'2'- 210 lb - 4.6 hand timed 40 in 1978. Had offer's from several schools including the VOL's and due to stupidity and that day and time never played anywhere, I have always wished I could have fun through the T just one time. Hind sight is always 20/20 but things have a way of working out the way they were suppose to but I still would have liked to run through that T. That is a privilege a special few can say they have done.
 
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#63
#63
hndog609 said:
You might find this surprising but while I don't know a 10m time (I've only seen 20m splits) when he set the record Bolt was already in the lead at the 20m mark and that's with the 3rd slowest reaction time in the field.

Of course let's be real...Bolt at his best was simply otherworldly.
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He was something to watch.....sometimes the last 10 meters he was looking back and not even trying. I don't recall him ever running flat out the full distance. He was gifted.
 
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#64
#64
The Original Fade said:
True story, I’m a former college baseball player in my late 40s and about 10 years ago I was at one of my kid’s friend’s birthday parties at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. I was in shorts and running shoes and decided I would see if I still had it. I was fully confident I would run about a 4.7 to 4.8 40. I got a great jump, wind at my back, arms pumping, and I thought I was burning gassss...............I ran a 5-freaking 2. I pretty much gave up on life on that day.
Click to expand...

Lol I ran a 4.49 back in the day during college sports, if I tried to run a 40 right now I’d probably pop both quads and both hamstrings 😂😂😂
 
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#65
#65
hndog609 said:
You might find this surprising but while I don't know a 10m time (I've only seen 20m splits) when he set the record Bolt was already in the lead at the 20m mark and that's with the 3rd slowest reaction time in the field.

Of course let's be real...Bolt at his best was simply otherworldly.
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Of course. The Bolt example was to say u can be the fastest guy in the world but that can be negated on a football field. Bolt might have had a lead at 20m but im talking about the 1st 10 yards. There are 300lb dlineman that can catch him in the 1st 10 yards. Bolt was the fastest man on the planet but he wouldnt score everytime he touched the ball on a football field. 9 times out of 10 he wouldnt even get to his top end speed. The 10 yard split is the best way to measure a football players speed & explosion. Not the 40 bc most plays happen within 10 yards of the los. Metcalf had a 1.45 second 10 yard split which is an NFL combine record and it translates directly to how fast he plays on the field.
 
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#67
#67
901 Orange said:
Of course. The Bolt example was to say u can be the fastest guy in the world but that can be negated on a football field. Bolt might have had a lead at 20m but im talking about the 1st 10 yards. There are 300lb dlineman that can catch him in the 1st 10 yards. Bolt was the fastest man on the planet but he wouldnt score everytime he touched the ball on a football field. 9 times out of 10 he wouldnt even get to his top end speed. The 10 yard split is the best way to measure a football players speed & explosion. Not the 40 bc most plays happen within 10 yards of the los. Metcalf had a 1.45 second 10 yard split which is an NFL combine record and it translates directly to how fast he plays on the field.
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Your observation of the usefulness of "burst" is well taken but you get a little loose with things beyond that valid point. Being genuinely "fast" can absolutely matter as well. Bob Hayes, Darrell Green, Deion Sanders or our own Willie Gault (among many, many others we could all cite) made more of a name for themselves off raw speed than any other aspect of their game.

Now setting that aside be prepared to be surprised (if not amazed) at the following.

ScreenHunter_4629 Jul. 08 09.25.jpg

Note that once the reaction time is taken out (that's a measure of reaction to the starting pistol, not actually the time spent running) Bolt has the fastest 10m split of all those WR times. In fact if you take Gay's wind aided (over twice the legal limit, that time was added by the compiler on a lark) Bolt has the fastest splits for every distance of any of them, including right out of the gate.

Now this is older and not all inclusive. This isn't some proof that nobody has ever run a faster first 10m at any time. What it does show is that in his prime Bolt was uber-elite fast from right out of the gate. He also did it at 6'5" and over 200lb. Absolute genetic freak.
 
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#71
#71
Back in my senior year of high school I was a big track guy. Played slot receiver in football and my fastest 40 was 4.8. I thought I was a world beater with that time. The difference between that and 4.1 is absolutely insane.
 
#72
#72
The Original Fade said:
True story, I’m a former college baseball player in my late 40s and about 10 years ago I was at one of my kid’s friend’s birthday parties at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. I was in shorts and running shoes and decided I would see if I still had it. I was fully confident I would run about a 4.7 to 4.8 40. I got a great jump, wind at my back, arms pumping, and I thought I was burning gassss...............I ran a 5-freaking 2. I pretty much gave up on life on that day.
Click to expand...

5.2 seems very respectable for late 40s.

According to this article, some slower NFL combine times:

Tony Romo 5.01
Phillip Rivers 5.08
Tom Brady 5.28

And they were all around age 22 at the time.
 
#73
#73
I couldn’t sniff a respectable 40 time running downhill in a hurricane. Couldn’t have when I was an athlete either.
 
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