The false-start rule assumes nobody can react to the gun in under a hundred milliseconds. That assumption had never been checked properly. Seven national-level Finnish sprinters were put on the blocks with force sensors and muscle recordings, and as fast as eighty milliseconds turned up, below the legal floor. The recommendation was to lower the limit to eighty or eighty-five.
Their second recommendation was larger. Rather than inferring a from how early force appears, they urged the federation to detect it kinematically, from the first visible movement of any body part. A system of covering every athlete on the line would do it. With that in place, the rule could change so that no false starts are permitted at all.
The false-start rule in sprinting rests on an assumption rather than a measurement. If an athlete moves sooner than a hundred milliseconds after the start signal, they are deemed to have false-started, on the grounds that nobody can react to a sound that fast. The federation commissioned a study to ask whether the number was right.
The approach was deliberately broad. Seven national-level Finnish sprinters took part, and the researchers recorded force reaction on the blocks, the movements of the arms, and the of several muscles. Looking at all three together gives a better view of when the body starts responding than block force alone.
What they found was variety. Individual reaction times varied greatly between athletes, and the study confirmed previous reports of simple auditory reactions as fast as eighty milliseconds. If that is possible, the current threshold sits above the fastest honest human response, and the rule will occasionally punish a very good start.
Their recommendations went in two directions. The first was modest: lower the limit to eighty or eighty-five milliseconds. The second was structural. They urged the federation to examine detecting false starts kinematically, using high-speed cameras that show every athlete on the line, so that a judge rules on the first visible movement regardless of body part. With such a system the rule could become absolute, with no false starts permitted. One caution: this is a news summary of a study of seven athletes, which is thin ground for a universal threshold.
wat. The line between a brilliant start and a disqualification was drawn at a number nobody had checked.
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A threshold meant to catch cheating can disqualify an honest fast reaction. If some athletes genuinely respond in eighty milliseconds, the current limit treats their best starts as fouls.
How do we know?
Seven national-level Finnish sprinters were studied comprehensively, with force reaction on the blocks, arm movements and the activation profiles of several muscles recorded together to see how the body responds to the starting signal.
What is still unknown
Seven athletes is a very small sample for setting a rule that applies to every sprinter, and the figure recommended is a lower bound drawn from the fastest individuals rather than a typical reaction time.
Learn something?
Where to next
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