The Effect of First-Step Techniques from the Staggered Stance in American Football

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate 3 different starting techniques from the staggered stance with regards to sprint time, reaction time, linear impulse and power. 11 male amateur American football players volunteered to participate in a testing session consisting of twelve 5 m sprints, 4 in each technique (normal (NORM), backwards false step (BFS) and forwards false step (FFS)) in random order. Sprint starts were performed on force plates to investigate ground reaction forces, reaction time and total sprint time. Analysis showed significant differences in sprint times, with NORM (1.77±0.10 s) being faster than FFS (1.81±0.12 s) and BFS (2.01±0.13 s), and FFS being faster than BFS, although no differences were found in reaction time. In terms of mean force and power, NORM (331.1±39.2N, 542.2±72.3W) and FFS (320.8±43.2N, 550.9±81.4W) were significantly larger than BFS (256.9±36.2N, 443.5±61.1W). This indicates that when starting from a staggered stance, the BFS is inferior to the others and should be avoided. However, since the force profiles of the NORM and the FFS were similar, the differences in sprint time could arise from a technique bias towards the NORM start.