This makes the athlete very elusive. A defensive back trying to cover Largent would find himself left in the dust as Largent would make his move to get free to catch a pass. An athlete with great acceleration can change direction or speed quickly. In our new language, the change of either direction or speed is just the change in velocity. To illustrate this, describe the outcome of most attempted tackles on the open field.
Acceleration is the slope of the velocity-time curve.
An object falling to the floor from a height of one meter takes about 0.5 seconds. It starts with zero velocity and ends up with velocity pointing downwards. Examine a displacement-time curve for a falling body. Convert this to a velocity-time curve and then to an acceleration time curve. When a major league pitcher pitches, the ball takes about 0.5 seconds to reach the plate.