the title for the fastest man or woman
on earth belongs to whoever owns the 100
meter sprint time
why
because it is the benchmark for all out
running speed and off and running a
cyber power gets a good start you send
birth to the middle east jamaican
sprinter usain bolt is the fastest man
on earth with an official world record
time of
9.58 seconds in the 100 meter dash at
his fastest he's running more than 27
miles per hour
elite sprinters look like they leave it
all on the track
but could they eke out just a little bit
more somehow today we're gonna look at
why running a hundred meter dash in nine
seconds flat
is almost impossible
to find out what it takes i towed the
line with two of america's top sprinters
ran on an absurd treadmill
and talked physiological limits with a
biomechanist the determinants of how
fast you can complete a 100 meters are
you know how quickly you get up to speed
and then how fast you can run once you
get there basically yeah make sure
they're all the way on the phone
i got a lesson in getting up to speed
from two of the fastest runners on earth
mike rogers and bryce robinson and then
for the setup obviously you want your
fingers behind the line
rogers an olympian has clocked a 9.85
second hundred meter time robinson a
rising track star is also one of the few
sprinters to have run the 100 meter dash
in under 10 seconds
they showed me how to set up the blocks
for a good start
it was only so much help go
[Laughter]
okay what do they do right you came out
the blocks he did that got in correctly
pushed out but the release from the
pedals you got to work on that part
i was basically falling forward
when you got out you look straight up
see so he's dragging his back foot that
foot drag forces robinson to keep his
rear foot planted on the block longer
and that gives him a more explosive
start
he also swings his arms for maximum
power the drag comes in because you're
trying to push off this thing as long as
you can you don't want to you don't want
to step off this thing without pushing
this time i'm going to set up exactly
how i did the first time
i'll get set and then i'm going to focus
on two things one is going to be this
toe drag
coming off on my
left foot
right because i want to be on that block
for as long as possible yeah and that
kind of forces me to do that yeah that
also has a secondary effect of keeping
me lower right yes
and the third thing i'm going to focus
on is moving my arms
better
after the lesson i asked them to race
but it was early in the season and these
guys weren't about to blow out a
hamstring going full tilt for 100 meters
against a guy like me
but as you can see
they really didn't have to they had me
beat the moment we left the blocks
they weren't even trying which is
obvious they're two of the fastest
people on earth but why are they so fast
a really great position
to find out i talked to this guy front
side the heel recovery issues are almost
irrelevant i'm peter wayne i'm the
director of the locomotor performance
lab here at smu where we study the
mechanical and physiological basis of
human performance
he invites world-class athletes like
robinson and rogers and not so
world-class athletes like me to run and
be studied at his lab in dallas
how
with a lot of really cool
and really expensive equipment have some
high-tech custom toys a force
instrumented treadmill and ultra high
speed cameras
with
motion detection capabilities that are
very precise his research shows that the
key to elite sprinting is how much force
you can put into the ground and how
fast usain bolt or another elite male
sprinter at top speed will put down five
times their body weight typically in .09
seconds or nine hundredths of a second
if a person can put out those kinds of
forces they have a shot at earning a
place on the lab's record board these
are the records so 11.72 for a guy
that's that's cooking it's smoking yeah
do you know do you know about what that
translates to in miles per hour just
under 27.
that's amazing what's a respectable
what's
what's like
i would say you're not being polite or i
would say anything you know eight eight
and a half would be pretty respectable
yeah we're gonna we're gonna shoot for
respectable got my socks speaking of
respectability
a ridiculously tight outfit let's go do
it then i got marked up with infrared
dots
and strapped into a safety harness to
run on the lab's force-sensing treadmill
why the harness
just listen to this thing
it sounds like a jet taking off
it can go 90 miles per hour
wayne had me warm up first with a jog
then he had me run at four meters per
second it's about an eight minute mile
five meters per second about a five and
a half minute mile
and then
so this treadmill is moving at 6.7
meters per second
that translates to exactly 15 miles per
hour
which translates exactly to
a four minute mile pace
i got to feel like roger bannister for
about two seconds
whenever you're ready robbie
finally i topped out at eight meters per
second which is just shy of 18 miles per
hour good
that's right at the threshold
we had the treadmill set to 8.1 meters
per second i was doing my best to keep
up with it but i was drifting back a
little bit drifted i think we said 20
centimeters which means i was actually
running it around eight flat right about
right okay so how does that compare to a
world-class sprinter so
not bad not bad it's it's a respectable
speed and
an elite sprinter a male will hit you
know somewhere around 11 and a half or
so
fastest ever recorded speed is 12 4 from
usain bolt 12.4 meters per second that
kind of speed is what propelled bolt to
his world record time of 9.58 seconds
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but 50 years ago the great barrier for
sprinting was a 10 second hundred meter
deck sprinters to win equalling the
world record of 10 seconds flat in 1968
american jim heinz burst across the line
in 9.95 seconds
his record stood for 15 years
since then sprinters have been whittling
away hundreds of a second at a time
track surfaces have improved training's
gotten better and sprinters these days
wear these really tight outfits that
helps with wind resistance as athletes
seek every advantage timing and
verification technology have also gotten
more sophisticated any record set with a
tailwind greater than two meters per
second
doesn't count but weian says there
aren't many ways for athletes to get
faster
and that's because of basic physics
sort of in big picture science how fast
humans can run 100 meters is really
it's it's a it's all force in relation
to body mass so we use use the analogy
of athletes as being force application
machines and force in relation to mass
is what determines how quickly a
sprinter can accelerate it's what
determines their top speed and there are
intrinsic constraints on force remember
it's all about maximizing your force in
as little time as possible let's look at
how that concept applies over the course
of a race starting in the blocks so
there's the initial push out of the
blocks which is really dependent upon
athlete's muscular force or strength
capabilities and they they get up to
almost one third of their top speed
before their foot initially hits the
ground
so by far that's the greatest portion of
acceleration i saw this happen first
hand as robinson and rogers blasted away
from the start line
and for me and then there's a transition
phase where what they do step to step
changes a little bit in terms of how
much force they can apply they can apply
progressively more as they as they go
step by step further into the race but
they're typically by step 12 or so
they're 85 90 percent of their max speed
it doesn't take very long that max speed
is what weind examines in short bursts
at his lap and there the mechanical
determinant is no longer sort of their
intrinsic strength but but rather it's
the motion it's that their mechanics or
technique of sprinting to drive the limb
down into the ground forcefully they
essentially throw a quick sharp punch at
the ground and that that maximizes their
force capabilities and then the last 30
meters of the race they typically slow
down and they do so because muscle
fatigues very rapidly and the period of
time that they can sustain their top
speed is very short it's less than a
couple of seconds weigh-in looks at the
forces an athlete applies during their
run
and it's in these numbers you can really
see why an elite sprinter is so much
faster
once they get rolling the force on the
ground and again what they're better
doing than everyone else is applying
force in the time available
the force on the ground becomes a
motion-based mechanism where they use
their limbs to throw a punch at the
ground let's look at how much more of a
punch a pro can give the ground
on the left is me running at 7.82 meters
per second on the right is robinson
doing 10.85 meters per second
i'm hitting the ground as hard as i can
to keep up with the treadmill with a
force roughly three times my body weight
robinson weighs about as much as i do
but he's throwing almost five times his
body weight at the ground and he's doing
it way faster than i can
and that weight is key
look what happens when you take away
gravity this is usain bolt running in a
microgravity airplane and even he can't
generate any push
back on earth that raw strength has to
be precisely applied to the track and
that's form
look at how much higher robinson brings
his heels and his knees on each stride
those mechanics are what allow him to
maximize the force his legs delivered to
the ground and clock hundred meter times
just under 10 seconds
of course he'd like to get even faster
when you're training this season is
there a benchmark you're shooting for or
are you just kind of trying to get the
best you can man i i i really want to
run 98 this year this upcoming year if
uh god's willing it's faster than that
i'll be i'll be happy but i really want
to run
really nine eight if i if i get that
which um
the the main goal is to run nine nines
consistently i run nine nines
consistently then that nine eight will
pop out there everyone
at some point it will but what if a
sprinter wanted to go a lot faster say
nine seconds flat
wayans research shows that the human
body would have to exert forces greater
than have ever been recorded
at speeds that probably aren't possible
so typically at top speed they'll put
they'll put a force into the ground that
peaks at five times their body weight
and they'll have a foot ground contact
time or period of force application
that's typically 0.09 seconds or 900 of
a second
on the very short end 0.085 seconds
to get to what would be required for
nine flat they would have to approach
six times body weight and a foot ground
contact time of just over seven
hundredths of a second so we're not
going to see anyone blast across the
line in nine seconds in the 100 meter
dash
but that doesn't mean a sprinter
couldn't cover that distance
that fast in fact
some of them already have
so if you remove the acceleration
requirement from a stationary start from
the race and you allow flying start
coming in uh humans are comfortably
under the nine second barrier already
world record for four by hundred meter
relay held by the jamaicans is about
36.7 or 8 seconds so
essentially each person after the one
that ran the opening leg had to average
you know nine flat for their 100 meter
segments for them to run that fast
but the start is part of what makes the
100 meter dash so thrilling like on that
last run you were first out of the
blocks by a mile yeah and then you you
were ahead of me and then i was bringing
up the rear yeah
so yeah he's right out of the box you
guys are both beating me really fast
that's nuts now some of that has to do
with their raw strength but it also has
to do with their incredible reaction
times
so do you practice on reaction time
stuff at all we do under current rules
if a sprinter moves before the starting
gun they're automatically disqualified
this actually happened to usain bolt at
the world championships in 2011. what i
like to do is close my eyes and first
thing i hear i move
basically that that'll help you
alleviate
fall start and stuff like that you don't
hear nothing you don't move but here's
the thing
an athlete can also be disqualified for
leaving the blocks less than a tenth of
a second after the gun goes off the
reasoning is that a reaction time of
less than .1 seconds is physiologically
impossible but research shows some
sprinters may actually be capable of
reaction times as quick as .08 seconds i
close my eyes cause i used to keep them
open and people people flinch and do all
that all the weird stuff and i'm i feel
like i'm a pretty aware person so i kind
of noticed that stuff and i'll go i'll
be hesitant to go because of it
so what is actually possible for the 100
meter dash
and does anybody stand a chance at
breaking bolt's record i would say if if
you put together a perfect human being
who's you know exceptional and a perfect
race you know i think certainly
something in the 940 range low 940s
maybe a little bit faster than that
under currently legal conditions should
be possible so keep watching
we're probably never going to see a 9
second 100 meter dash
but remember that what these athletes
are doing is already almost impossible
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you