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Force–velocity · Resisted sprint

Load–velocity profile (sled)

From your free and resisted sprints, the tool builds the athlete's load–velocity line and derives their individual training zones. Loads are personal: they have to be profiled athlete by athlete, not applied uniformly to everyone.

Results
Vmax (free sprint)
velocity at zero load
V at the optimal load
50% of Vmax · peak power
Optimal load (Lopt · Vdec 50%)
the load that maximises horizontal power
Enter the body mass and at least 3 sprints (free + two loads) to build the profile. To see what a complete profile looks like, load the example below.
Athlete
kg — needed to convert the loads into kg
Sprint — gates every 5 m (cumulative times from the start, in seconds)
applies to the free sprint and to the resisted ones — leave any gate you did not record empty

The example is a 78 kg athlete with four trials — free, 20, 40 and 60% BM — and fills in every field, so you see a complete profile straight away. Overwrite it with your own data or use «Reset» to start from scratch.

Profile & zones
Loads by velocity decrement
ZoneVdecVelocityLoad %BMLoad kg
Waiting for data…
How to use it
  1. Enter the body mass of the athlete (so the loads come out in kg as well).
  2. Run one free sprint and the resisted sprints. At least three trials are needed: one free (0%), one loaded at 20–30% BM and one at 50–70% BM; more trials = a more solid profile.
  3. Choose how far the gates go (30, 40, 50 or 60 m): it applies both to the free sprint and to the resisted ones. Under load the athlete gets less far, so the gates you did not record are simply left empty.
  4. For each sprint enter the cumulative times at the gates (5, 10, 15, 20 m…). The tool computes the mean velocity of every 5 m section and takes the highest as the velocity of that sprint.
  5. The tool builds the load–velocity line and derives Vmax, the optimal load and the loads for the four zones.

Method & source

With resisted sprinting, velocity falls linearly as load increases (r > 0.95). From the line you get the load that produces a given velocity decrement (Vdec): zones of technique (~10%), speed-strength (~25%), power (~50%, the optimal load) and strength-speed (~75%). A 50% decrement corresponds to peak horizontal power. The table gives the load every 10% of decrement, from 10% to 70%, so you can prescribe in between zones as well.

The key point: the load that produces a given Vdec is highly variable between athletes and cannot be predicted from body mass or Vmax — which is why it has to be profiled individually, instead of giving everyone the same %BM.

Method based on Cahill, Oliver, Cronin, Clark, Cross & Lloyd (2019), Sports 7(5):119 — validated on young male team-sport athletes (≈16–17 years); the absolute load values should be read with that context in mind.

A load–velocity profile pays off when it actually drives the loads. We build the protocol around your squad and read the results with the coach.

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