Duthie, G.M., D.B. Pyne, A.A. Ross, S.G. Livingstone,and S.L. Hooper. The reliability of ten-meter sprint timeusing different starting techniques. J. Strength Cond. Res.
20(2)246:–251. 2006.—Acceleration is an important factor forsuccess in team-sport athletes. The purpose of this investigationwas to compare the reliability of 10-m sprint times when usingdifferent starting techniques. Junior male rugby players (n 515) were tested for speed over 10 m on 2 different testing sessions.Three trials of 3 different starting techniques (standing,foot, and thumb starts) were assessed. Despite large differences in the time taken to perform 10-m sprints from different starts,there was minimal difference in the typical error (;0.02 seconds,
or ,1%) between the 3 different starts. There was a small, 0.026 0.02 second, decrease (p 5 0.05) in sprint time between sessionsfor the foot start. For all starting techniques, the magnitude
of error (typical error) was greater than the smallest worthwhilechange (,0.01 second), indicating that acceleration over10 m measured by photocells only has a marginal chance of reliably detecting a change of sufficient magnitude to be worthwhilein practical terms. However, by accounting for the smallestworthwhile change and typical error, it is possible to establish
the probability an individual has had a worthwhile changein sprint performance. Coaching and sports-science practitionerscan use a variety of sprint-start techniques shown to have small typical errors (,1%); however, the results from the different starting technique are not interchangeable.