Is there anything in high school football more bogus than 40 times?

You read or hear all the time about kids running 4.5's or 4.4's and even 4.3's. Some teams have entire starting O-Lines running 4.6's. I'm not talking about 4 or 5 Star players either, just the kids that seem to fill every high school roster in the state.

Just saw a team post their top 40 times from the spring and Malik Cunningham's NFL combine time would barely keep him in the top 3 at this high school. ? 

I have a feeling that the real speed in high school football is in the thumb of the guy with the stopwatch. 

1 hour ago, Jumper_Dad said:

Is there anything in high school football more bogus than 40 times?

You read or hear all the time about kids running 4.5's or 4.4's and even 4.3's. Some teams have entire starting O-Lines running 4.6's. I'm not talking about 4 or 5 Star players either, just the kids that seem to fill every high school roster in the state.

Just saw a team post their top 40 times from the spring and Malik Cunningham's NFL combine time would barely keep him in the top 3 at this high school. ? 

I have a feeling that the real speed in high school football is in the thumb of the guy with the stopwatch. 

If you saw the same one I did from out your way with those 40 times.. I guess Bowling Green must have kids in the 4.2's and 4.1's. ?

That's why unless it's laser timed, like they do at the NFL combine, the Adidas camps (and, others, but their circuit immediately comes to mind), etc.? Take 40 times more times than not with a large grain of salt.

Most studies show that the difference between the two is that hand held is usually anywhere from .1-.2 difference (+/- a hundredth of a second or two). Advantage? Hand held.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but you can more or less equate .1= one full step/stride at said athlete(s) max speed. To put that in a football scenario? That's the difference between a 6-8 yard first down run compared to breaking away and putting 6 points on the board (obvious variable in that is the speed of those you're playing, too).

My SR year I ran the forty in 2.1   2 Minutes one second.

20 minutes ago, Tranquility Base said:

My SR year I ran the forty in 2.1   2 Minutes one second.

I hear ya!  My SR year they used a sun dial instead of a stopwatch to clock my time.

Laser times can be misleading as is the stop watch. If your athlete has not practice the proper technique they can lose time simply by moving the hand before the back foot moves with the laser.  

24 minutes ago, tackle trap said:

Laser times can be misleading as is the stop watch. If your athlete has not practice the proper technique they can lose time simply by moving the hand before the back foot moves with the laser.  

This is also true. I guess I'm speaking in terms of the athlete(s) being relatively familiar with them both. 

Two things you can't trust in football; 40 times and listed roster heights

Social media has made this worse. Kids can post any time on their twitter accounts.

I've recently watched a hand timed "4.5" video on twitter that appeared to be closer to a 5 flat. One thing to post a time, but when there is video evidence supporting that it's not, I can't imagine that is a good look in the eyes of a recruiter. 

I don't care what your Daddy or Uncle says you run, your 4.5 is more like 5.2 for the majority of kids anything in the 4's is moving pretty good.  Almost every team acts like they have 10 4.6 or under kids when they really will be lucky to have 10 kids in the 4's at all. 

Good point to remember -- in the state of Kentucky for track -- when they moved to FAT (fully automatic timing) the standard deviation for stopwatch sprint times = .24 (then you would still officially round up to the next tenth. So 4.5 = 4.74 -- then rounded up to 4.8). 

So -- anytime you see a hand time -- add a .24 to it and you are a lot closer to reality. 

I did also just see a dust up from a big camp -- where the laser wasn't calibrated correctly -- and 40 times were approximately .3 slower than what it technically should have been. First time I have ever seen that happen in the real world. 

I’d only take a 40 time from a rivals or equal camp. People who say there time any other wise may tell you they shot at a 23 at Valhalla! It’s about as believable.

Edited April 26, 20233 yr by theguru

40's are easily to most overrated thing in sports. Turn on the film, see how fast the guy is with pads on. There is maybe half the players (at best) who have to run 40 yards at one time during a football game. 

I believe the story goes Paul Brown started the whole 40 thing because that was the average distance of a punt in the NFL at the time. So he started it to find guys that could cover punts as well as play positions. 
 

New England looked at the pro agility/ 3 cone drill as more of a KPI for players. More recently you’ve started to see the 90 degree turn used a lot also. 

40s are a relative factor but certainly not the be all end all on if a young man is a football PLAYER! There are plenty of cases where players did not run blazing 40s but turned out to EXCELLENT college and even professional football players. 
 

Important, yes.  Be all end all, absolutely not! 
Bottom line is you have to be able to demonstrate “football” speed and be able to be a consistent playmaker on the field.