Title: How much do track spikes improve times in the sprints? - Freelap USA
Headings: How much do track spikes improve times in the sprints?
How much do track spikes improve times in the sprints?
Anatomy of a Track Spike
Measuring Spikes and Sprinting Speed
What Sport Science Discovered with Track Spikes and Speed
The Spike Test Results
How to pick the right pair of spikes
References

Content: Cushioning is good perhaps for training with distance runners, but when it comes to speed, hard options rule, but to a limit. The Spike Test Results
In the study Increased Shoe Bending Stiffness Increases Sprint Performance, the researchers concluded that a hard plate is necessary to improving spike performance, but not all athletes respond the same to increasing the stiffness of the spike plate. Some barely got better and some got slower, but most improved their speed. What the researchers did was timed the athletes in a 40 meter sprint and analyzed the 20-40 m segment. What they found was some athletes improved by a few hundredths when wearing harder track spikes, specifically the soles that were made of carbon fiber [2]. Figure 1. Relative improvement of track spike with stiff plate. The main lesson learned is that each athlete is very individual and sport scientists don’t know all there is to designing the perfect spike shoe. With many athletes wondering what the right shape and size of the removable spikes themselves are the right ones, it’s better to focus on how the entire spike works in practice with timing and using different models that are not creating any specific soreness int the foot besides the usual aches of training. It is true that barefoot sprinting is different mechanically than wearing spikes, but one is giving up s statistical significance if one decides to go barefoot or minimalist shoe.