and elite field sports typically
characterize a sprint effort as
any movement above a threshold
sprinting velocity (ranging
between 6 and 7 ms21). Given
that a large proportion of
field sport sprints involve maximal
efforts of a short duration
(;1–2 seconds) (9,16,17),
a limitation of this definition
is that it fails to capture these
short-duration, effortful movements
that start at low velocities
but do not achieve the
sprinting velocity threshold.
Therefore, the purpose of
this study was twofold: First,
we investigated the velocity
distribution of elite field sport
athletes from 5 sports to statistically
generate velocity
ranges that could be consistently
used for these sports. Second, we describe the
process undertaken to develop a new definition of a sprint
from GPS data that take into account both high
acceleration and high velocity efforts.
METHODS
Experimental Approach to the Problem
Data for this study were collected by trained sport scientists
from universities and sport institutes across Australia, for