2005 Volume 9 Issue 4 Pages 196-204
This study was intended to clarify the relationship between features of change velocity and performance of elite athletes in men's 400-m hurdles (400 mH). Races of 400 mH were videotaped with several video cameras panning from start to goal at 60 fields/s. After a time indication was superimposed on each field of the VTR images, the time at touchdown immediately after hurdling was recorded. Using the flash of the starter's gun recorded on the VTR image, each hurdle touchdown time from the start and each section (hurdle to hurdle) time was obtained. Each section was defined as follows: S1 was from the start to 2nd hurdle; S2 was from the 2nd to 5th hurdle, S3 was the 5th to 8th hurdle, and S4 was from the 8th hurdle to finish. Results of the regression analysis showed significant correlations between the 400 mH race time and the total number of steps from hurdle to hurdle (TNS; r=0.397, p<0.05), S2 time (0.673, p<0.001), and S3 time (r=0.865, p<0.001), and the rate of deceleration from S1 to S2 (r=0.367, p<0.05), and from S2 to S3 (r=0.421, p<0.01), and the rate of S3 time in the race time (r=0.463, p<0.01). These results indicate that it is important to decrease TNS and to prevent decreasing velocity in S2 and S3, to attain a high performance.
