About the 40-Yard Dash Speed Calculator
This 40-yard dash calculator converts a sprint time into average speed in miles per hour, kilometres per hour, metres per second and feet per second. It works for the classic 40-yard dash used at the NFL Combine and in high-school and college testing, and for any other sprint distance you enter in yards.
Add your 10-yard split to see how fast you accelerated over the first 10 yards versus the remaining distance — the part of the run where top speed shows up. Coaches use the split to tell whether an athlete needs work on starts or on maximum velocity, and athletes use the mph figure to compare their 40 with GPS-tracked game speeds.
Hand-timed sprints are usually faster than electronic times because the stopwatch starts late and stops early. If your time was hand-timed you can add the commonly used 0.24-second correction to estimate a fully automatic (electronic) time. Remember that this is average speed; your peak speed late in the run is higher.
With the default inputs, the average speed is 18.18 mph. Change any value above to recalculate instantly.
How to use the 40-yard dash speed calculator
- 1Enter your sprint time in seconds.
- 2Keep the distance at 40 yards or change it for another sprint.
- 3Choose hand-timed if a coach used a stopwatch, to add the 0.24 s correction.
- 4Optionally enter your 10-yard split to see acceleration versus top-end speed.
- 5Read your average speed in mph, km/h and m/s, and compare with the table.
Formula and method
Average speed is distance divided by time. The distance in yards is converted to metres (1 yard = 0.9144 m exactly), divided by the time in seconds to get metres per second, then converted to miles per hour (× 3600 ÷ 1609.344) and kilometres per hour (× 3.6).
With a 10-yard split, the first 10 yards and the remaining distance are treated as two separate segments, each with its own average speed. Hand-timed results get 0.24 seconds added to both the total and the split, the correction most coaches use to compare hand times with electronic laser or fully automatic timing.
- yards
- Sprint distance in yards (40 for the standard dash)
- time
- Sprint time in seconds (plus 0.24 s if hand-timed)
Worked examples
4.50 electronic 40 with a 1.60 split
40 yards is 36.576 m. Covering it in 4.50 s is 8.13 m/s, or 18.18 mph. The first 10 yards in 1.60 s average only 12.78 mph, while the last 30 yards in 2.90 s average 21.16 mph — much closer to top speed.
NFL Combine-style 4.30 40
A 4.30 40 averages 36.576 m ÷ 4.30 s = 8.51 m/s, which is 19.03 mph or 30.62 km/h. Peak speed late in the run is usually 2–3 mph higher than this average.
Hand-timed 4.8 40
Adding the 0.24 s hand-timing correction turns 4.8 into an electronic equivalent of 5.04 s. That is 36.576 ÷ 5.04 = 7.26 m/s, or about 16.23 mph average.
Frequently asked questions
How fast is a 4.4 40-yard dash in mph?+
A 4.40-second 40 averages about 18.6 mph (29.9 km/h). Because the athlete starts from a standstill, their top speed during the run is noticeably higher — often 21–22 mph.
Why are hand times faster than electronic times?+
A person with a stopwatch reacts to the athlete’s first movement late and anticipates the finish, so the recorded interval is shorter. Coaches typically add about 0.2–0.24 s to hand times to compare them with laser or fully automatic timing.
What is a good 40-yard dash time?+
At the NFL Combine, sub-4.4 is elite for skill positions and around 5.0 is typical for offensive linemen. Good high-school varsity times are roughly 4.6–5.0 for skill players. The fastest recorded Combine times are in the 4.2s.
What does the 10-yard split tell you?+
The 10-yard split measures acceleration out of the stance. Comparing it with the rest of the run shows whether an athlete loses time at the start or lacks top-end speed, which guides whether to train starts or maximum-velocity sprinting.
Is average speed the same as top speed?+
No. Average speed over 40 yards includes the slow acceleration phase, so it is well below peak speed. GPS game-speed figures usually report the peak, which is why they look higher than 40-yard averages.