When it comes to very short sprints, speed is largely a function of strength and skill. Since sprinters’ legs work sort of like hammers that forcefully and rapidly hit the ground, and (as Newton showed) for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, the harder the legs push downward and backward against the ground, the harder the ground pushes the body upward and forward. For this reason, maximum speeds for hundred- and two-hundred-meter sprints are largely limited by how effectively a runner’s leg muscles can produce force during the fleeting period of time—as little as a tenth of
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