The flying 30 m test
The flying 30 times 30 m that you enter at speed after a run-in. It's longer than a flying 10, so timing errors matter less, which makes it a good number to track over a season.
Protocol
A common setup is a 60 m sprint timed from 30 to 60 m, as described by BrianMac Sports Coach. You accelerate over the first 30 m and hold top speed through the timed zone. Warm up fully and use the same start every time, with enough rest between reps that each one is a full effort.
Norms
| Rating | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Excellent | Under 2.6 s | Under 3.0 s |
| Average | 2.9-3.1 s | 3.3-3.5 s |
| Poor | Over 3.3 s | Over 3.7 s |
From Chu (1996), Explosive Power and Strength, as published by BrianMac. Norms of this kind are for trained athletes.
A 2.6 s flying 30 is 11.5 m/s, or 25.8 mph. A 3.0 s is 10 m/s, or 22.4 mph. The top speed calculator converts any time.
Flying 30 or flying 10
The flying 30 averages your speed over three times the distance, so a 0.02 s timing error moves the result by under 1%, against 2% for a 1-second flying 10. The trade-off is that a 30 m zone includes some acceleration at the start and some fade at the end, so the average sits a little under your true peak. Getting both from one rep with gates takes gates at 30, 40 and 60 m, and the 10 m zone only catches your peak if you guessed its position right.
Flying 10 and 30 from one rep
Sprintbrick gets both from one rep by default. A receiver behind the start measures the distance to a sensor on your lower back 100 times a second, and after a 60 m rep the app shows your splits every 10 m, your peak speed and your fastest 10, 20 and 30 m anywhere in the run. When we ran it next to OVR gates, every segment after the first 10 m came within 50 ms of the gate time. Full results.