Definition: Reaction time is the speed at which the brain responds to a stimulus and formulates a response. This is vital in most sports. The most obvious example is responding to the gun at the start of a race, but another example is a goalkeeper saving a penalty.
Importance: Sprinters need a fast reaction time so that they can react to the gun at the start of the race and begin moving as soon as they hear it. This gives them a better start and for such a short race every fraction of a second you lose is important. The start can alter the final outcome of the race, making reaction time a vital component of the sport.
Speed
Definition: Speed is moving any body part extremely fast. Speed isn't only the pace at which you move …show more content…
Having speed as a skill for sprinting is vital as the sport involves all the parts of your body moving as quickly as they can. Your arms and legs in particular are pushed to move at an extremely fast pace to allow best performance for sprinting.
Power
Definition: Power is the combination of strength and speed. When performing exercises as swiftly and forcefully as we can, we generate maximum power. Power is using all the relevant muscles together to formulate an explosive movement. For example, a sprint start, a shot-put or javelin throw or a long-jump.
Importance: Power is important throughout the entire sprint, from the generation of power in the explosive start, to the ongoing acceleration of the athlete by pumping of the arms and legs. Also vital power is generated as the spikes anchor to the ground and then push off at the start of each …show more content…
that makes up our bodies. The amount of fat and muscle are considered the most important elements of our body composition when performing sport. The relative amount of fat or muscle that one should have varies depending on the sport, eg. Sumo wrestlers should have an excess of fat whereas boxers need the muscle to generate short, sharp bursts.
Importance: body composition is important in any sport and is different for every sport. A sprinter's body composition is important to allow them to perform at their best with no disadvantages. A sprinter should have minimum fat and maximum muscle to allow the body to generate enough power to push off the blocks and continue a sprint to to finish. Excess body fat can hinder a sprinter's performance and force them to carry more weight, therefore slowing them down. In terms of body type mesomorphs are best suited to sprinting, because they have long limbs similar to an ectomorph, however also the muscular power of the endomorph which allows them to run fast over short