Linear sprints: how fast are you, actually?

One sprint, two qualities

A short sprint is really two tests stacked together. The first steps measure acceleration — how quickly you build speed from a standstill. The later metres measure maximal velocity — the top speed you eventually hit. That's why the standard protocol takes splits at 10, 20, and 40 metres (or 10/20/30 in many football setups): the 0–10 m split isolates acceleration, and the flying last segment isolates top-end speed.

Two players with identical 40 m times can be completely different athletes — one explosive off the mark and flat up top, the other slow to build and fastest late. In football, where most sprints are under 20 metres, the first number usually matters more.

How the pros test it

Clubs use electronic timing gates: photocell pairs at each split, standing start 30–50 cm behind the first gate, two or three trials with full recovery, best time kept. Typical elite football numbers: ~1.7 s over 10 m and ~5.0 s or under over 40 m. Combine-style testing (the NFL 40-yard dash) is the same idea with different distances.

Time yourself without gates

1. Measure the course precisely and put a cone at each split — 10, 20, 40 m. A pitch, track, or any flat 50 m works.
2. Film from the side at the highest frame rate your phone offers, far enough back to see start line and finish cones; count frames from first movement to each cone crossing.
3. Warm up like it's a match: easy jog, dynamic drills, then 2–3 progressively faster build-up runs before anything maximal.
4. Run 2–3 maximal trials with at least 3 minutes of full rest between. Speed testing on incomplete rest tests fatigue, not speed.
5. Keep the best time per split, and log the conditions — surface, shoes, wind. Re-test every 6–10 weeks.

Phone timing won't match photocells on absolute accuracy — but done the same way every time, it's more than consistent enough to trend your own splits, which is the number that matters.