Abstract des Autors

Sprinters adjust the arrangement of their starting blocks prior to a race, but there is no standard approach to doing this. At present, it is unclear as to how the block arrangement affects the forces applied to the blocks and consequent performance during sprint start. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the starting block arrangement on the forces applied to them. For 18 different arrangements of block spacing, forces applied by a sprinter to the front and rear starting blocks, as well as to the ground on the first step, were measured using three force plates. The results indicate that when in the starting posture, the magnitude of the impulse applied to both blocks changes little between the 18 arrangements. Likewise, no substantial change occurs in the forces applied to the ground upon the first step. However, as the distance between the front and rear blocks was changed, the ratio of the impulses applied to the front and rear blocks did change: as the block spacing was increased, the impulse applied to the front block while in the starting posture decreased, while that applied to the rear block increased. In addition, changing the distance from the starting line to the front block influenced the relation between the block spacing distance and the forces applied to the two starting blocks.