[Al Skierkiewicz]

You are interpreting the +/-300 degree/sec correctly. However, turning a robot 360 degrees in one second is very fast even for moderately sized robots. Stability and control become issues at that turn rate.

Remember that the output of the chip is a DC voltage proportional to the rate of turn. The 40 Hz filter is a low pass filter designed to take out the high frequency noise generated by the chip when in use. You can sample at whatever frequency you need for accuracy and feedback in your application. The optimum sample rate is determined by your application, software and rate of turn for the robot you are working on.