The Acceleration Theory

The accel­er­a­tion the­ory can help you crush your competition.

At times in life, it might seem like every­one is ahead.

At such times, you might exper­i­ence stress, self-doubt, and per­form­ance anxi­ety — espe­cially if you have a com­pet­it­ive personality. 

Struggling to stay ahead at all times might be drain­ing men­tally and phys­ic­ally. Just keep­ing up becomes a chore.

Turns out that stay­ing ahead might also be over­rated. I came to this con­clu­sion when research­ing how to become a bet­ter sprinter. 

Here we go:

My Sprint Experiment in Greenwich Park

In 2004, I lived in Greenwich, London. My girl­friend and I ren­ted a run­down apart­ment near Cutty Sark above a loc­al post office.

Broke and rest­less, we spent much time exer­cising in Greenwich Park, home of the GMT date line. The park was an excel­lent place to play around with a stop­watch and some sprints. 

Why not? We were both strong sprint­ers in high school and wanted to see if we could still hit some decent times.

I quickly learned I was­n’t even close to my high school records. As dis­ap­point­ing as this was, I added some inter­val train­ing to my regi­men. I pushed myself hard but could not slow down my new, slow times. 

Whatever speed I had as a teen­ager now seemed to be gone.

Still, I was­n’t ready to give up.
I turned to research.

Inspired by World Champions

Data Points from Maurice Green 

In his paper, A Mathematical Model of the 100M and What It Means, Kevin Prendergast out­lines a for­mula for describ­ing what hap­pens dur­ing a 100-meter dash. Prendergast tests his proof on the res­ults from the 1999 World Championships, where data from the eight final­ists were ana­lysed. Seven sprint­ers were then grouped and com­pared to the win­ner, Maurice Greene. ¹Prendergast, K. (2018, January 21). A math­em­at­ic­al mod­el of the 100m and what it means. Silo. https://silo.tips/download/a‑mathematical-model-of-the-100m-and-what-it-means

Data points from the sprint­ers (exclud­ing Maurice Greene) in that race showed:

And here are the same data points, but for Maurice Greene alone:

The sev­en final­ists reached their points of max­im­um speed at an aver­age of 59.79 meters into the race, at which point Maurice Green was still accel­er­at­ing, reach­ing his max­im­um speed at 86.84 meters! It shows in the dur­a­tion of accel­er­a­tion, which for Greene was 8,68 seconds (almost the entire race!) and 6,44 seconds for the rest.

Greene’s max speed was­n’t much high­er than the oth­ers, but the oth­ers decel­er­ated for 3.38 seconds while Greene only slowed down for 0.99 seconds. 

Prendergast con­cludes:

“The prac­tic­al les­son from this mod­el for sprint­ers and coaches would seem to be the bene­fit of extend­ing the time of accel­er­a­tion. This, rather than raw power out of the blocks, will res­ult in faster times. It is prob­ably a mat­ter of con­trol. […] It is pos­sible to derive a math­em­at­ic­al mod­el that mod­els a 100m per­form­ance very well. It provides valu­able inform­a­tion on the makeup of the per­form­ance, regard­ing accel­er­a­tion, velo­city, and dis­tance at any stage in the race. It enables us to see the vital ingredi­ents of suc­cess in 100m run­ning, and that the most vital is to accel­er­ate as long as possible.”

Data Points from Usain Bolt

Assuming that the fric­tion between our feet and the ground is con­stant and that run­ning on two feet is giv­en, a the­or­et­ic­al super­hu­man can run 100 meters between 4,5 to 5 seconds. 

Going any faster is impossible without alter­ing phys­ics.

But here’s the excit­ing part:

Look at the velo­city curve for the world’s fast­est sprint­er, Usain Bolt.

When I looked at break­downs for fam­ous 100-meter sprint­ers over the last 40 years, their aver­age top speeds had­n’t increased much, but Usain Bolt stands out with his max­im­um speed of 12,2 meters per second.

We can see that Bolt’s speed var­ies dur­ing a 100-meter dash. So, what can we dis­cern from his data points? I looked closely at sev­er­al 100-meter dash finals.

The accel­er­a­tion phase: To accel­er­ate, you must be at an angle with the ground (lean­ing for­ward, push­ing with legs) to be able to push hard against grav­ity.

The top speed phase: Once upright (run­ning tall with as little con­tact with the ground as pos­sible), you can only main­tain speed or decelerate.

Turns out I’ve been wrong about sprint­ing. I always tried to reach my top speed as fast as pos­sible in my sprints. 

The world’s best 100-meter dash sprint­ers can only main­tain their top speeds for 20 – 25 meters. Maurice Green accel­er­ated for an incred­ible 8,69 seconds and kept his top speed for 0,99 seconds.

And what was I doing? I cruised eas­ily at my “top speed” for 75 – 80 meters.

Huh.

How fast would I have to run at a top speed that I could only sus­tain for no more than 20 – 25 meters? I real­ised that I should try to extend my accel­er­a­tion phase.

Time for a new experiment.

Back to Greenwich Park: New Experiment!

My girl­friend and I went back to Greenwich Park, marked every 10 meters along a 100-meter track, and I made a few test sprints. 

First, I ran as usu­al. I reached my top speed (run­ning tall with as little con­tact with the ground as pos­sible) after about 25 – 30 meters, and I man­aged to keep my speed reas­on­ably well for the remainder of the distance. 

Now, I wanted to extend my accel­er­a­tion time. But for how long? I decided to go for the 60-meter mark. 

I pre­pared myself, and as my girl­friend star­ted the stop­watch, I got off to a good start. As I kept accel­er­at­ing, the strain on my body was immense. At the 30-meter mark, I felt like I was car­ry­ing an ele­phant. At the 40-meter mark, I could not keep accel­er­at­ing for longer.

And as I began clos­ing in on the fin­ish line, my legs and upper body were spent. At 80 – 90 meters, I could feel myself decelerating.

Reaching the fin­ish­ing line felt like an etern­ity. Also, I felt a lot more drag through­out the sprint, almost as if someone had attached a para­chute to my waist, slow­ing me down even further. 

Discouraged, I asked my girl­friend about my time.

“Well, Jerry, that was your fast­est 100-meter dash ever,” she said while star­ing at the stop­watch like she could­n’t believe it. “By a wide margin.”

The Acceleration Theory

“Do today what oth­ers won’t, so tomor­row you can do what oth­ers can’t.”

According to Prendergast’s math­em­at­ic­al mod­el for élite sprint­ers, get­ting an early lead can harm your fin­ish­ing time. ²Prendergast, K. (2018, January 21). A math­em­at­ic­al mod­el of the 100m and what it means. Silo. https://silo.tips/download/a‑mathematical-model-of-the-100m-and-what-it-means

Can you apply an “accel­er­a­tion the­ory” out­side sprinting?

Well, it seems to me that you can some­times ensure a win by stay­ing in a zone that many find uncom­fort­able for longer.

My accel­er­a­tion phase philo­sophy is as fol­lows: At the begin­ning of a new and chal­len­ging endeav­our, you work hard on improv­ing, not mind­ing that oth­ers reap more of the ini­tial benefits.

Acceleration the­ory (men­tal mod­el). This concept indic­ates that the win­ner mustn’t lead the race from start to fin­ish. Mathematically, delay­ing max­im­um “speed” by pro­long­ing the slower accel­er­a­tion phase will get you across the fin­ish line faster. ³Silfwer, J. (2012, October 31). The Acceleration Theory: Use Momentum To Finish First. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​a​c​c​e​l​e​r​a​t​i​o​n​-​t​h​e​o​ry/

Instead, you ignore your com­pet­i­tion at first, striv­ing to keep accel­er­at­ing well past the halfway point of the endeav­our. At the 60% mark, you put everything you learnt and built up into play — and you go!

The Intriguing 60% Mark

Based on the math­em­at­ic­al mod­el for sprint­ers, I often con­tem­plate the switch from the accel­er­a­tion to the top speed phase. According to the equa­tion, the switch should hap­pen at around 60% of the race.⁴Prendergast, K. (2018, January 21). A math­em­at­ic­al mod­el of the 100m and what it means. Silo. https://silo.tips/download/a‑mathematical-model-of-the-100m-and-what-it-means

If we play around with this idea:

It’s anec­dot­al and not a “the­ory,” sure.

However, the approach of pro­long­ing the accel­er­a­tion phase has served me well.

Example: When work­ing with a PR cli­ent, I typ­ic­ally spend 60% of the ini­tial pro­ject scope doing neces­sary ground­work, ask­ing uncom­fort­able ques­tions, doing deep research, pre­par­ing, run­ning tests, com­pil­ing mater­i­als, etc.

Key Takeaways: What To Know

Please remem­ber: Your com­pet­it­ors are not neces­sar­ily “ahead.” Lots of people are impa­tient and peak too soon.

Here are the key takeaways from this mindset:

Know what done (100%) looks like. Always know the dis­tance for a par­tic­u­lar under­tak­ing (i.e. the equi­val­ent of know­ing where the fin­ish line will be).

Know what accel­er­a­tion (<60%) looks like. Hunker down and accel­er­ate con­tinu­ously. Never mind about your com­pet­i­tion; focus on the hard work of gain­ing momentum.

Know what top speed (>60%) looks like. Get up straight and main­tain your hard-earned top speed. Be mind­ful of main­tain­ing good form, and don’t try to get back into accel­er­at­ing again.

Learn more: The Acceleration Theory

PR Resource: Life Design

Spin Academy | Online PR Courses

Personal Projects: Life Design Ideas

In addi­tion to being a PR pro­fes­sion­al, I strive to live smarter, and I some­times stumble upon ideas worth writ­ing down when I con­sider these matters.

Life Design Ideas

• Image Streaming
• The Acceleration Theory
• Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast
• The Epic Year Approach
• The Every Day Rule
• Mental Models: Think Better
• My Phone Policy

Learn more: Lifestyle Design

💡 Subscribe and get a free ebook on how to get bet­ter PR.