Optimal mechanical force‐velocity profile for sprint acceleration performance

The aim was to determine the respective influences of sprinting maximal power output ( ) and mechanical Force‐velocity (F‐v) profile (ie, ratio between horizontal force production capacities at low and high velocities) on sprint acceleration performance. A macroscopic biomechanical model using an inverse dynamics approach applied to the athlete's center of mass during running acceleration was developed to express the time to cover a given distance as a mathematical function of and F‐v profile. Simulations showed that sprint acceleration performance depends mainly on , but also on the F‐v profile, with the existence of an individual optimal F‐v profile corresponding, for a given , to the best balance between force production capacities at low and high velocities. This individual optimal profile depends on and sprint distance: the lower the sprint distance, the more the optimal F‐v profile is oriented to force capabilities and vice versa. When applying this model to the data of 231 athletes from very different sports, differences between optimal and actual F‐v profile were observed and depend more on the variability in the optimal F‐v profile between sprint distances than on the interindividual variability in F‐v profiles. For a given sprint distance, acceleration performance (<30 m) mainly depends on and slightly on the difference between optimal and actual F‐v profile, the weight of each variable changing with sprint distance. Sprint acceleration performance is determined by both maximization of the horizontal power output capabilities and the optimization of the mechanical F‐v profile of sprint propulsion.