Height & Sprint Performance

Unit 5 Research Project
Worthing College Sports Science
[Rob Fogerty ]
2015

Investigate the relationship between
height and PB performance of 100m
sprinters who competed in London
2012?
P2: Carry out / P4: Produce

Abstract
Write your own abstract for your research project here. Use the experience from the literacy
review task as the basis for writing your own abstract. This should be the last part of the write-up
that you complete.
The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between height and PB performance of
100m sprinters who competed in London 2012? A sample of 73 elite male sprinters who
competed in London 2012 were all analysed in terms of there heights and there personal best
times the study compared to set variables height and personal best performance. The data was
collected by using the IAAF and London 2012 website as well as other secondary sources for
those athletes who’s data was difficult to collect. Using the data that had been collected , the
elite sprinters heights and personal bests were all entered into Microsoft excel and the data was
then used to produce a scatter graph to see if a correlation existed, initially results from the
scatter graph started to indicate that taller athletes in fact had better personal bests but the data
was not significant, further investigation Using spearman's rank correlation coefficient showed
the level of correlation was 0.582716 concluding that there was a moderate positive correlation
in terms of height and personal best performance.

Contents: General
In this section you need to write a page by page contents page (correctly numbered for pages 3-26)
Slide 3 – Abstract
Slide 4 –
Slide 4general
Slide 5 – appendices
Slide 6- figures and tables
Slide 7– acknowledgements
Slide 8 – introduction
Slide 9 - literature review and references
Slide 10 – project hypothesis
Slide 11 – method
Slide 12 – data collection
Slide 13 – data analysis
Slide 14– results
Slide 15– discussion
Slide 16 conclusion
Slide17– review 1/3
Slide 18– review 2/3
Slide 19 – review 3/3
Slide 20 – future recommendations 1/5
Slide 21 – future recommendation 2/5
Slide 22- future recommendation 3/5
Slide 25-research project appendices
Slide 26- Appendix 1

Contents: Appendices
In this section you need to write a page by page contents page (correctly numbered for pages 27-32)
Page 27- Appendix 2.
Page 28-Research project figures and tables.
Page 29- Figures and tables 1.
Page 30-Figures and tables 2.
Page 31-Figures and tables 3.
Page 32- Figures and tables 4.

Contents: Figures and Tables
Page 31- Figures and tables 1 screenshot of spearman correlation coefficient
for my individual research as well as Spearman’s ranking scale.
Page 32- Figures and table 2. screenshot of my sample size on Microsoft
excel showing the sample size of my participants involved within the
research.
Page 33- Figures and tables 3. Screenshot of my scatter graph representing
to variables within my sample size showing height in correlation to personal
best time.
Page 34- Figures and tables 4. screenshot showing the central tendency
within my sample eg mean, median, mode.

Acknowledgements
On this page you need to thank everyone who contributed to making your project a
success. Think about the subjects, classmates and others that have helped you and
how they helped you.
Without the secondary information I gathered from the IAAF, London 2012 Olympics
website and other secondary sources I would not have been able to carry out my
research project.
Without the help and guidance from Andy Strickland in my research project in terms
of data analysis I would not have been able to get a clear distinction between my two
variables.

Introduction
Here you need to introduce your project.
What is the aim? To investigate the relationship between height and PB
performance of 100m athletes who competed in London 2012.
Why did you choose the aim?
I chose this aim because I have a keen interest into elite sprinting it has
always fascinated me as to the mechanics of what makes an elite sprinter and
whether a elite sprinter has been nurtured or nature. I also chose this aim
because I felt that this field or research had a lot of potential and I could draw
out many different topics with my conclusions after I had conducted my
research.
What was the project timescale? 2 months.

Literature Review and References
Add a hyperlink to your WordPress literacy review here.
http://alturl.com/x4qq3

Project Hypothesis
What is your project hypothesis (or hypotheses)?
I expect to find that in fact that height does have an affect on PB
performance in 100m athletes who competed in London 2012.
Remember your hypothesis is an educated guess about how things
work and what you expect to find. Your hypothesis should be what you
test in your project and is therefore a testable hypothesis.
A hypothesis is often written like: "If _____[I do this] _____, then
_____[this]_____ will happen."

Method
Use your unit 4 work to help you write your detailed method. A useful reminder of the Unit 4 content is
linked on page 2 here.
Your method should include detailed instructions. What you are going to do, how are you going to do it,
who is going to do it and when key actions will be completed.
You should add relevant diagrams for any testing you do In the research project figures and tables
section.
26
At the start of my research project I initially had to identify the athletes who were involved in the
London 2012 100m qualifying rounds, to do this I had to go on the London 2012 website and gather the
information of the athletes name and the sample size involved. After gathering the information I then
had to identify the 74 athletes individuals heights and weights, to do this I typed in on google search
engine IAAF where using the names of the athletes I gathered from my initial collection I had to gather
information on the athletes individual heights as well as there personal best times, for some athletes
not as well established such as Timi Garstang his information was not accessible on the IAAF website
therefore I had to type his name in on google search engine which directed me to his national website
as opposed to the IAAF website. After I collected the athletes heights and weights I then used Microsoft
excel where I put the athletes heights in no specific order in one cell column and in the other cell
column I put the athletes personal best times. After completing the athletes heights and personal bests
I then selected all of the data and put the data in a scatter graph.
P3: Collect and record / M2: Correctly analyse & describe techniques / D1: Correctly analyse & explain techniques

Data Collection
Use your unit 4 work to help you write your detailed method.
A useful reminder of data collection techniques is linked in section 2 on page 2 here.
I carried out desk based research as part of my data collection, the data that I collected
was secondary quantitative data from sources such as the IAAF and some athletes personal
profiles, the way in which I collected the personal bests of the athletes were to search the
athletes on sources such as the IAAF. Desk based research was the best type of data
collection method for my individual research as opposed lab based or field based test. The
benefits of choosing desk based research is that the data I needed to collect was relatively
easy to gather from the secondary sources however I did have some difficulty finding data
for some athletes personal bests. Another benefit of desk based research is that there was
no cost involved in collecting the data. One of the disadvantages of desk based research is
the quality of research, the reliability of data I gathered from secondary sources such as
Wikipedia may not be 100% accurate and up to date. Another disadvantage of desk based
research is that the data I collected was not in the specific form that I needed it in. for
example I had to collect the personal bests from the secondary sources and then put the
data into my own needs for my project. The type of data I gathered was ordinal data be
ranked and put in place depending on the values that each subject has for example I was
ranking height of my sample against personal best times.

Data Analysis
Use your unit 4 work to help you write your detailed method.
A useful reminder of data collection techniques is linked in section 3 and 4 on page 2
here.
For my research I had to analyse the data that I had collected from my secondary
sources. I used Microsoft excel in order to analyse my data by creating a scatter graph
the benefits of using a scatter graph is that it can be used to create the relationship
between two variables for a set of paired data for example for my research project my
set paired of data was height and PB performance. One of the main advantages of a
scatter graph is that it demonstrates a typical relationship, which is generally not so
clear in various graphing methods normally used a bar graph would not have been
suitable as a data analysis technique for my specific work. Another technique of data
analysis was central tendency, mean mode and median the advantage of this was to
distinguish the mean height of athletes involved within my research, the ,mean
personal best times of the athletes involved within my research etc.

Results
.
After collection and analysis, I was able to look at my results and my data to find out the
relationship between height and personal best performance of 100m sprinters who competed
in the London 2012 Olympics. When analysing my results I had gathered from my data it has
left me with no clear distinction as to whether my hypothesise is 100% true. Initially I just had
my graph that I had constructed on Microsoft excel to make conclusions on my results when
looking into detail at my scatter graph it didn’t exactly fit my hypothesis. The scatter graph had
two variables height and personal best time, the graph showed that there was not a clear
distinction that taller athletes had better personal best times, the data points were scattered
in many different areas on the graph which started to suggest that there is not a definitive
answer as to whether height has a positive affect on personal best performance., I concluded
that there wasn’t a strong correlation in favour of height and personal best performance
however the correlation was a moderate positive correlation using spearman's rank
correlation coefficient as the correlation was 0.582716. There were a few outliers within my
graph and some data started to suggest that my hypothesis was true but I soon found that
there was data to suggest otherwise, for example Usain Bolt was by far the tallest athlete and
also the athlete who recorded the quickest personal best time, however 50th tallest athlete
ran the 14th quickest personal best time. Therefore my conclusion was that there was no clear
answer as to whether taller athletes would have quicker personal best times. My findings
weren’t exactly what I expected to find I though prior to carrying out the research project that
I would be able to find a definitive answer.
9.5
9.7
9.9
10.1
10.3
10.5
10.7
10.9
11.1
11.3
11.5
11.7
11.9
12.1
12.3
12.5
12.7
12.9
1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95
100m PB
100m PB
Linear (100m PB)
d squared= 27050
6x d squared 162300
n= 73
n squared - 1 5328
n(nsquared -1) 388944
spearman 0.582716
.00 > .19 Very Weak
.20 > .39 Weak
.40 > .59 Moderate
.60 > .79 Strong
.80 > 1.0 Very Strong

Discussion
Here you should discuss your results.
When analysing my results I had gathered from my data it has left me with no clear distinction as
to whether my hypothesise is 100% true. Initially I just had my graph that I had constructed on
Microsoft excel to make conclusions on my results when looking into detail at my scatter graph it
didn’t exactly fit my hypothesis. The scatter graph had two variables height and personal best
time, the graph showed that there was not a clear distinction that taller athletes had better
personal best times, the data points were scattered in many different areas on the graph which
started to suggest that there is not a definitive answer as to whether height has a positive affect
on personal best performance., I concluded that there was a moderate positive correlation in
terms of height and personal best performance 0.582716. There were a few outliers within my
graph and some data started to suggest that my hypothesis was true but I soon found that there
was data to suggest otherwise, for example Usain Bolt was by far the tallest athlete and also the
athlete who recorded the quickest personal best time, however 50 th tallest athlete ran the 14th
quickest personal best time. Therefore my conclusion was that there was no clear answer as to
whether taller athletes would have quicker personal best times. My findings weren’t exactly what
I expected to find I though prior to carrying out the research project that I would be able to find a
definitive answer.

Conclusion
. Is there a relationship between height and PB performance of 100m sprinters who competed in London 2012?
There were many trends and similarities between my sources as my 5 abstracts all involved specifically
male athletes with 7/10 of my sources were had a scope of specifically elite performers such as
weightlifting and elite 100m sprinters. A very key trend that I identified within my sources were the fact
that the studies that were carried out involved a large sample size for example Paruzel 2006 had a
sample size of 189 sprinters this is also linked to Berthelot study between anthropometric
characteristics and performance in all track and field running events where the sample size was 700
athletes. Another key trend between my sources is linked to scope and what the study’s and research
did not include females 7/10 of my sources focused on males, for example Kumagai et al studying the
relationship between muscle fascicle length and sprint running performance in 37 male 100-m sprinters
did not have a scope that took into account female sprinters this is similar to Adayemi Do (2009) who’s
study was purely focusing on elite male weightlifters. The main difference between the my sources
were the sample size of the individual research study’s for example the study carried out by Taylor
MJD(2012) involved an extremely small sample size of 3 elite sprinters as opposed to the study carried
out by Paruzel (2006) had a sample size of 188 athletes.
Do your results and discussion support your hypothesis or hypotheses? If they do why and not suggest
the reasons.
When analysing my results I had gathered from my data it has left me with no clear distinction as to
whether my hypothesise is 100% true. Initially I just had my graph that I had constructed on Microsoft
excel to make conclusions on my results when looking into detail at my scatter graph it didn’t exactly
fit my hypothesis. The scatter graph had two variables height and personal best time, the graph
showed that there was not a clear distinction that taller athletes had better personal best times, the
data points were scattered in many different areas on the graph which started to suggest that there is
not a definitive answer as to whether height has a positive affect on personal best performance., I
concluded that there wasn’t a strong correlation in favour of height and personal best performance
however the correlation was leaning towards stronger as opposed to a weak correlation. There were a
few outliers within my graph and some data started to suggest that my hypothesis was true but I soon
found that there was data to suggest otherwise, for example Usain Bolt was by far the tallest athlete
and also the athlete who recorded the quickest personal best time, however 50 th tallest athlete ran the
14th quickest personal best time. Therefore my conclusion was that there was no clear answer as to
whether taller athletes would have quicker personal best times.

Review (1/3)
How well did project conclusions meet project aims? (include evidence and specific
examples)
Project conclusions linking to project aims were important to identify to assess overall
how effective my research project was, it is also satisfying to look at my results to see
if my initial aims were accurate. My project conclusions in hindsight did not meet my
project aims as to what I initially expected my research project to find. My project
conclusions show that there was a moderate positive correlation between height and
personal best performance of 100m sprinters. I feel that my data collection and
analysis went really well and gave me extremely valid and reliable results. Although
there was no clear link between height and personal best performance using the
spearman rank correlation coefficient showed that there was a moderate positive
correlation. A reason for my project conclusions to directly meeting my project aims
could be due to me being optimistic I felt that at the start of the project I only looked
at research into taller athletes such as Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell, I didn’t take into
account other research that involved average sized and smaller athletes therefore I
was naïve and was certain that my research would prove that taller athletes had
quicker personal best times.
P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

Review (2/3)
What were the strengths of the research project? (include evidence and specific
examples)
The main strength of my research project was that my research was closely linked to a topic that
is of keen interest in the world of science at the moment, due to the rise of Usain Bolt research
into the mechanics of not only Usain Bolt but other taller elite sprinters are becoming
increasingly popular many researchers are keen to find out reasons to Usain bolt’s success and
justify the reasons why he is a league of his own in 100m sprinting. I felt that this was a strength
of my research as I could find other similar sources of research to support my work in terms of
methods and results using other similar research and articles would support my work also as I
would be able to make clear links in my write-up using quotes and results from articles and
research study’s for example in my project conclusion I made reference to Paruzel (2006) as well
as Berthelot study between anthropometric characteristics and performance in all track and field
running events . Another strength of my research was that it was extremely valid and straight to
the point I wanted to investigate the affect of height on performance, both these variables height
and personal best performance were relatively easy to collect from secondary sources . The last
strength from my research project was that my data that I needed to gather for my research
project was very easily accessible and therefore I could collect my data and get on with my
research quickly for example the secondary data I collected was from reliable websites such as
the IAAF and the athletes personal websites.

Review (3/3)
What were the areas for improvement of the research project? (include evidence and
specific examples)
One main weaknesses of my research project is that I didn’t allow my self enough time to
complete tasks and some tasks were rushed or not done to the highest standard. This
meant that tasks were rushed, I did not set myself targets of when tasks should be
completed and my planning took a long time . Another weakness of my research study was
that I only looked at sprinters from the London 2012 Olympics and not taken into account
previous competitors in previous years Olympics this would have allowed me to find
similarities as well as differences and make comparisons between these timescales.
Another area for improvement for my research project was my project planning template
linked to unit 5 task 1, I received a referral on my first submission due to the reliability and
validity issues and the ethical and legal considerations, they were in question as I initially
couldn’t clearly justify how much research would meet these issues and considerations, this
meant my research was in question. The last area for improvement of my research project
would be that I only based my research on the London 2012 Olympics I feel that it would
have benefitted my research massively if I did a comparative studies between London 2012
and previous Olympic games for example the 1984 Los Angeleas Olympics to see if and
trends exist between the winners of 100m

Future Recommendations (1/5)
If the project was to be completed again what would you change and why? (include evidence and
specific examples)
If I was to carry out this research project again I would definitely plan my project better in terms
of time, I would delegate specific times and deadlines of when certain tasks needed to be
completed for example I would say that my data collection needed to be completed by week 1,
my analysis of the data would need to be completed by week 3 etc. this would allow me to work
specifically to one target as opposed to completing small sections on different parts of the
research project it would allow me to work systematically and deal with tasks that required
sufficient time first and then focus on the tasks that were not so time consuming last. For
example during my research project I did not focus on one specific aspect of my research for
example I didn’t focus on collecting the heights and personal bests all in one go I was completing
other work instead of focusing on my data collection. Another change would be to take into
account other Olympics in previous years to see if trends have changed for example taller
athletes over the years have in fact had similar results to my findings, the advantage of looking at
previous years Olympics would be that I would be able to see if in fact in the last twenty/thirty
years taller athletes have been subject to success, Another change I would make if I was to
complete this project again would be to spend more time on similar research looking more in
depth at articles, books and research studies that were more closely linked to mine, even though
I thought I found research studies that support my research I felt that if I had more time I could
have found research that linked to more than just one of the population, measure and variable
this would have allowed me to make more links in my write-up.
P4: Produce / P5: Describe / M3: Explain / D2: Justify

What would be the benefits of the proposed changes stated on the previous page? (include
evidence and specific examples)
The benefits of the proposed changes mentioned on the previous slide would be that I would have
been able to gather my findings much faster than I did, this would have allowed me to meet
deadlines and not rush work, I feel that I could have looked into the field of 100m sprinting more
however because at the start I didn’t plan my research project well enough tasks were rushed and
my data collection took a lot of time. Due to the fact that my data collection in terms of my 74
athletes and there heights and personal bests there statistics may have been wrong and therefore
unreliable. For some athletes who are not as well known there heights and personal bests were
difficult to find therefore I had to use unreliable sources such as Wikipedia. If someone else was
to carry this research further and use the exact method that I used in my research I would advise
them to plan there research thoroughly and set deadline for when tasks in the research needed to
be completed, this would allow there research to be deemed more valid and reliable. If I had the
time and was to look into the Olympics from previous years , it would allow me to see a trend
over 30/40 years it would allow me to determine (providing I use the exact same method I used
for this research project) to find if trends exist between Olympic games 100m winners and see if
the athletes who have achieved medals have been athletes of a taller stature.

State a proposal for further research (in total three proposals are needed and this is number two
of three)
I would like some sort of research to be done into how sprinters have evolved from previous
years of sprinting as I feel that other research studies have only touched the surface with regards
to sprinters stature and genetic makeup, I did a little bit of research into this area to see if any
research has been done in this area and it is difficult to find, I found pie charts which represented
nationalities and where 100m sprinters have come from but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. but
little research has been carried out. Initially when looking into the field of sprinting many
researches have only briefly touched on the adaptation of sprinters specifically looking at the
anthropometric factors that can affect an athletes performance in 100m sprinting. It is a popular
topic and has been of a keen interest to many athletes past and present as well as researches as
to whether records in the 100m are going to quicker and the factors that contribute to personal
best performance. Looking at nationalities of where 100m winners have come from will mean
that it will give me a further avenue between variables if I was to do this research again but
purely focusing on nationalities I would be able to make another distinction as to where over
years has the majority of 100m sprinters evolved from, this would allow me to make more links
and further research into genetic makeup of athletes from different countries, facilities available
coaching available etc.

State a proposal for further research (in total three proposals are needed and
this is number one of three)
I would like my research to be carried on and taken further as I feel that this field of research
would definitely benefit talent identification scouts picking up talent at a young age, I feel that my
research is very interesting and someone with a skill set and knowledge within this field would
definitely enjoy and relish the opportunity to take this research on further. However I haven’t got
the required skills and knowledge in this field, I would like this research to me taken on further to
conclude whether there is a strong correlation between height and performance of 100m
sprinters as in previous studies scientists have only touched on this fact and not come up with a
strong conclusion with strong enough evidence the only way that this would be possible would
be to carry out a longitudinal study unfortunately I don’t have the skills or time required to carry
out a study of this magnitude however I feel in the world of sprinting at the moment as athletes
are getting faster and continuously recording quicker times people will want a definitive answer
as to the impact that height has on personal best performance, I feel that this would be a good
study to take further in order to benefit scouts and coaches of 100m sprinters, I feel that for this
research to be taken further they must look at other Olympics games to identify key trends also
looking at female athletes to give a much larger sample size to investigate.

State a proposal for further research (in total three proposals are needed and this is number
three of three)
The last proposal for further research would be to look at height and a variety of sports not only sprinting
this would benefit talent ID scouts in terms of selecting athletes/players at a young age if research was
carried out and a definitive answer as to whether taller athletes had a significant advantage over smaller
athletes. I would also like research to be carried out looking into female sprinting obviously woman and
men are different in terms of there physical makeup typically woman sprinters having less body fat than
male sprinters and normally shorter than there male counterparts. The benefits of looking into female
sprinters to see if a trend exists between males and females I can make links between males and females
and see again make links between gender and height to see if there is a trend for example taller male and
female athlete over the years have been subject so success at the Olympics. The last proposal for future
research would be to look at the 200m as this would give me more avenues to explore within the world of
sprinting It would allow me to make links between 100m and 200m performers, the data collected from
the 200m providing I use the exact same method would help me make links and conclusions with my
research project.

Appendix 1
Supporting material, hyperlinks, links to testing videos, photos of tests etc (each appendix needs
to be ‘citation referenced’ within your project pages 3-26). For example in brackets you should
write (see Appendix 1) where you need to evidence something.
You can add more appendices if you need to. Just ensure you update your contents pages.
http://www.iaaf.org/home

Appendix 2
Supporting material, hyperlinks, links to testing videos, photos of tests etc (each appendix needs to be ‘citation
referenced’ within your project pages 3-26). For example in brackets you should write (see Appendix 1) where
you need to evidence something.
You can add more appendices if you need to. Just ensure you update your contents pages.
http://alturl.com/mwhvd

Research Project Figures
and Tables

Figures and Tables 1
d squared= 27050
6x d squared 162300
n= 73
n squared - 1 5328
n(nsquared -1) 388944
spearman 0.582716
.00 > .19 Very Weak
.20 > .39 Weak
.40 > .59 Moderate
.60 > .79 Strong
.80 > 1.0 Very Strong

Figures and table 3
9.5
9.7
9.9
10.1
10.3
10.5
10.7
10.9
11.1
11.3
11.5
11.7
11.9
12.1
12.3
12.5
12.7
12.9
1.5 1.55 1.6 1.65 1.7 1.75 1.8 1.85 1.9 1.95
100m PB
100m PB
Linear (100m PB)
Height of athlete (m)
Time(sec)

Figures and tables 4
• Mean PB time – 10.38
• Mean height – 1.76m
• Mode PB Time – 9.91
• Mode Height 1.80m

Height & Sprint Performance

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Viewers also liked

Viewers also liked (13)

Similar to Height & Sprint Performance

Similar to Height & Sprint Performance (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Height & Sprint Performance