Understanding Gameplay Acceleration Ability, Using Static Start Assessments: Have We Got It Right?
Date
Authors
Pryer, Mark E
Cronin, John
Neville, Jonathon
Mascioli, Nick
Slocum, Chris
Barger, Sean
Uthoff, Aaron
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
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Publisher
MDPI AG
Abstract
Background/Objectives: Despite athletes initiating sprints from dynamic starts during gameplay, sprint performance is traditionally measured from a static position. This article aimed to determine whether static start or “pickup” acceleration are related or relatively independent motor qualities by assessing their relationship and examining how athletes’ rank order changes between static and pickup conditions. Methods: Thirty-one male athletes (20.3 ± 5.3 years) completed two 30 m sprints from a static start and two 30 m pickup accelerations following 20 m paced entries at 1.5 and 3.0 m/s−1, regulated by an LED system. Peak acceleration (amax) was measured via a horizontal linear position encoder (LPE; 1080 Sprint). Results: The shared variance between amax from the static and pickup starts was R2 = 11.6–39.6%, indicating, for the most part, a great amount of unexplained variance. The shared variance between pickup acceleration entry velocities was R2 = 16.8%. A visual analysis of an individualized rank-order table confirmed that, for the most part, the fastest static-start athletes differed from the fastest pickup athletes. Conclusions: In summary, static and pickup acceleration appear to be distinct motor abilities, most likely requiring a paradigm shift in strength and conditioning practices for acceleration assessment and development.Description
Keywords
sprinting, running, speed, team-sports, training
Source
Biomechanics, ISSN: 2673-7078 (Online), MDPI AG, 6(1), 4-4. doi: 10.3390/biomechanics6010004
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© 2026 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.