by BJ Maack 07-25-2008 02:00 AM
For many years now, the 40-yard dash has been the "gold standard" of speed measurement. The times that athletes put up in this race against the clock are the stuff legends are made of. The legend of Deion Sanders running a 4.17 in high-tops. Former Razorback Matt Jones wowing scouts at the NFL Scouting Combine by running a 4.37 with his lanky 6'6" frame. College football players making millions of dollars more just because they "surprised" scouts by running 40 yards two-tenths of a second faster than anticipated. But, realistically, just how important is it? How many times during a game does a player ACTUALLY run 40 yards in a straight line? If so, either that player just broke a long one, or he just got burned!
So where did the notion of 40 yards being the ultimate measure of speed come from? Some say that Paul Brown, the legendary football coach, is credited with initially timing players at 40 yards because he believed that this was the distance run in order to cover a kickoff. Others say that it is the approximate amount of time a receiver can run before a quarterback is sacked. Whatever the reason, it is generally agreed that rarely does a football player actually run 40 yards in a straight line during a game. But there is a need for measuring overall top-end speed.
Let's talk about the timing methods first. There is the hand-held stopwatch, and the electronic, or laser, time. The laser time is considered to be more accurate because it starts timing when the athlete actually moves. A hand-held time requires a very good eye-to-hand reaction of the one doing the timing---really, no one is exactly the same.
One thing to keep in mind about the 40 times you read about is that most of them are hand-held times. Very few are electronically timed. And most of the hand-held times are reported by a coach---someone who might have some bias in that player's favor. So, while there may be no disputing that a certain athlete is fast, there should be a grain of salt taken when reading some 40-yard dash times. A good rule of thumb when comparing hand-held times to electronic times is to add .20-.24 to the time. So if you read that so-and-so ran a 4.54 40 the other day on a hand-held stopwatch, you can know that a realistic laser time for him is around a 4.75.
What's really important? There is a need to see what an athlete's overall top-end speed is, and the 40-yard dash is the most accurate measure of this. But, too often, athletes become overly consumed with this. They overtrain-- running 40 yards after 40 yards, placing their body at increased injury risk. Instead, the athlete can gain so much more by training for what is important in their sport: FIRST-STEP EXPLOSION & ACCELERATION. If improvements are made in this area, then 9 times out of 10 the 40 will improve as a result. Think about a football player: their game consists of short, intense bursts. Five yards here, 2 yards there, 10 yards here. Occasionally, they will break one for more distance. But why focus so much on making your 40 time better? Let's train FUNCTIONALLY! Work smarter, not harder.
BJ Maack, ATC,
Published 07-25-2008 © 2026 Access Athletes, LLC
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