1. This is a commercial advertisement and as such is expessely forbidden by this list charter. Mr Entine has sailed near the wind and been roundly condemned by many on this list (while Mr Scott Davis has clearly infringed and continues to get away with it.) But this is blatant touting for business - if members do nothing, raise no objection, the list can look forward to being swamped with what can only be described in that grisly expression, "infomercials".
2. It's also pseudo-techno-crap. Reaction time has no correlation with a sprinter's final time - unless it is a negative one. When reaction-time systems began to be used in the early 90s the first artifact they showed up was two or three New Zealand 100m runners having easily the fastest RTs at world junior champs - and finishing last - while the US sprinters - who placed highest in the fields - typically had the slowest RTs. So much so that some coaches and bio-mechanics experts suggested this supported the old maxim, "More haste, less speed" and showed that control, not quick reacting, was the key to fast overall sprint times. Some sprinters were impressed enough with the comparisons as to "slow down" the early stages of their races in favour of control, and found their final times improved accordingly. Of course these were not controlled experiments, which would be necessary to prove any correlation or otherwise. But the athletes themselves were convinced enough to reject the sort of claims made in this advertising. The greatest sprinter of all time (in terms of records as well as world and Olympic titles) was Carl Lewis - consistently a far slower starter than his opponents. Did he worry about that failing (if it was a failing?). Has anyone ever speculated on what his times might have been had he worked on his start? Did his coaches complain loudly? Was he a great sprinter in spite of his slow start, or a great sprinter because of his slow start? We need answers. We don't need press releases - this list is not the press, anyway - certainly not badly-written spam put about by people whose only concern is to make a fast buck. < PRESS RELEASE <February 19, 2003 <Just How FAST Is Your Start? <------------------ offers athletes an opportunity to <learn how quick they are out of the blocks. <They <announced they will devote approximately an hour to <testing the reaction time of <clinic participants! <In making the announcement, Clinic Coordinator, Cedric <Walker, said "The sprint start makes or breaks the <race," he said. "How often have you seen athletes lose <because they were left in the blocks? It's the first <thing we look for when there is an unexpected result <at the finish line. Over the shorter distances, <especially indoors, getting out can mean the <difference between first and second." <After the initial demonstration, Norton and <assistants will put as many sprint athletes through <the system as possible producing a graph showing their <reaction time. "They'll be able to see the drive off <of both legs and learn whether they're driving <straight out with a single push or two," Norton <continued. "This one push or two is referred to as <having one hump or two based on the graph drawn by the <computer attached to the blocks." <But does this data actually help <an athlete produce the ideal fast start? Norton says <it can. It can record and <display an athlete's gun-to-motion times to an <accuracy of 1/1000th of a second." < He defines FAST as: <* Fast initial reaction time. <* Acceleration that is explosive. <* Short time in contact with the blocks <* Transitioning rapidly into running phase
