Every year, at the end of February there is an interesting event that get sensationalized in the sports world and on social media... the NFL Combine.  Lets step back and look at the bigger picture.  The Super Bowl is over, the helmets and pads have been turned in to be reconditioned for next year, and the players are just returning from exotic locations where they spent a few weeks of well deserved relaxation.  We are about as far away from actual football as we can get.  So the obvious alternative is to trade full contact, smashmouth 11 on 11 football with the goal of gaining a few yard for one potential football player running 40 yards, by himself, wearing spandex and track shoes.  

I realize that may sound slightly sarcastic, and you're right, but don't be fooled... I love the Combine.  I love coaching athletes through this process, but I don't particularly like watching it.  It is fairly boring as far as the testing goes compared to actual football, but the real reason I find it hard to watch is it could be conducted with much higher accuracy.  Let me elaborate...

For the past 5 years the NFL has conducted the 40 yard dash with a fully automated timing system which removes all human error.  This is similar to the process that Track & Field uses for their track events with the only exception being the NFL doesn't start using a gun.  The problem is the NFL hasn't implemented this timing system.  They are still using it as part of a "trial period".  They currently use a hybrid system with a hand held start (a person actually starts the time on the athlete's movement) and an electronic finish (sensor stops the clock when the athlete crosses the finish line).  Most likely, this process is still used because it allows current times to be compared to times from previous years.  But not before 2008 when the current hybrid timing system was implemented.  Chris Johnson has the official combine record for the 40 yard dash at 4.24s, which he set in the 2008 NFL Combine.  But many will claim that Dion Sanders, Bo Jackson, Darrell Green have the fastest 40s ever.  Sanders has the only "official" time (I'll use the term loosely)  as his was recorded at the 1989 combine, but it was hand timed on both ends and is not considered a combine record because of how the timing was conducted.  He was recorded as running a 4.20.   

And as far as accuracy is concerned it is still a flawed system.  Now that the NFL Network is broadcasting the Combine they provide plenty of examples.  Below is a video from the 2013 NFL Combine.  In the video Marquise Goodwin and Tavon Austin both run 4.25s 40's, "unofficially".  The interesting point is since 2013 the NFL Network has created a "Simulcast" where they superimpose the video of two different athletes running the 40 simultaneously.  In the video it is safe to say that Goodwin finishes "inches" ahead of Austin.  The interesting fact is their recorded "official" combine results were: Goodwin 4.27 & Austin 4.34.  
   

 This is why I don't enjoy watching the combine... this video proves the system is flawed.  Let us bring in some math... I knew my teachers said this would come in handy.  It has been stated that to run a 4.3 40 yard dash an athlete needs to running at 23mph at the end of the race.  With some simple mathematics you can break that down to inches/.01 sec... let me save you some time, 23mph is 4.05 in/.01sec.  So with the .07 difference between the "official" times between Goodwin and Austin there should be over a 2 foot (28.35 inches) separation between the two.  I don't see anything close to that in the video.  Now I want to give full disclosure... Tavon Austin went to West Virginia University and obviously played football there, and so did I.  I don't know Tavon personally but I'm sure he is a top notch human being simply because he is a Mountaineer... he got a raw deal.  

Now lets get a background of Track & Field.  The best sprinters in the world have an uncanny ability to accelerate until the 60 meter mark, and Usain Bolt and Tyson Gay, until almost 70m!  Most combine athletes will reach top speed by 30-35 yards.  This puts the track guys at a disadvantage, sort of, when it comes to the 40 yard dash.  The question should be not who would win, but who would win if they were both training for the same thing?

So lets break it down.  We will have to make some exceptions during this comparison.  Lets list them out and determine who has the advantage:
- Shoes- Track spikes vs. football cleats (slight advantage track)
- Surface- Rubberized or Mondo track vs. field turf (advantage track) 
- Starting blocks- Track has them, combine does not (advantage track)
- Training program- Track trains for a longer race, Football trains for the 40 (advantage football)
- Timing System- F.A.T (fully automated timing) track vs. Hand Timed (Pro Days) or Hybrid (NFL Combine) (advantage football)

So in order to extrapolate the 100m times using a F.A.T. system to an estimated 40 yard time we need to do three things: 
1) not count the Reaction Time (RT); FAT starts on the gun
2) estimate the 6.57m split from the 30-40m split (40 yards = 36.57m)
3) Use research from the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) when comparing FAT vs. Hand timed (HT)  

Those first two are pretty self-explanatory, but the third one often generates some debate.  There have been countless studies done on the comparison between F.A.T timing and Hand timing and the general consensus is hand times are .20 to .26 less than those using a F.A.T system.  In the table below I subtracted .20 when completing the table.  

So in the above chart you have the last 8 world record setting races in the 100m.  And I have included Ben Johnson '88 and Tim Montgomery '02 even though their records have been removed due to performance enhancing drugs.  As you can see after running through the extrapolation criteria only Carl Lewis '88 would have been behind Chris Johnson's record setting 40 of 4.24 seconds.  And who knows what these elite sprinters could do if they in fact trained to optimize their 40 yard dash time!

So I know what the naysayers are thinking, the NFL combine is not completely hand timed.  And that is a true statement, but one only has to scroll up and re watch the Goodwin/Austin video to realize that there is a large amount of human error.  In 2003 I watched the majority of the NFL Network Combine footage as I had an athlete , Blidi Wreh-Wilson, competing in Indianapolis that year and there were a few instances where the simulcast showed athletes with slower "official"  times in front of athletes with faster "official" times.  When it comes down to it if you have human error as part of your timing system you will always leave room for debate.

And next I have a table that will take that to the next level... what if that human error comes from a high school football coach?

Below is a list of top 200 athletes from the 2014 NFL Combine comparing their 40 yard dash times to the 40 times that were recorded from top recruiting sites for the same athletes coming out of high school.  At first glance one could assume that college football makes you slower, as 150 of the 200 got slower after college.  You could say that they all got bigger in college and that could account for slower times.  Although that is not necessarily true as a large majority of these athletes went to big time college programs and they come out of high school physical freaks.  My own case was that I graduated high school weighing 305 and five years later I finished my playing career at 303.  My personal opinion on this issue is that all recruiting combines and camps use hand times, some were probably hand timed 40s that were timed by the athlete's high school football coach.  

So what does all this information mean for an athlete or a parent of an athlete that needs to improve their 40 to increase their recruiting potential?  The answer is simple... you have to train for it.  The first thing that need to be done is a full movement assessment which I covered in my previous post titled, The #1 Thing to Increase an Athlete's Speed.  Next is to learn the intricate techniques to executing the 40 yard dash.  Our Combine Prep program at LEWIS Fitness & Performance uses top notch coaching, drills and video analysis to help our athletes preparing for this process fast track their learning and execution of not only the 40, but all the other drills tested during these combines and camps.  Our goal is your goal... we want to bring out the best in every athlete that enters our doors.  This is where preparation meets opportunity.

Let’s look at it from a movement perspective.  As someone who assesses movement everyday with each athlete I work with; who formally assesses each athlete upon entry in to the program with a standardized movement assessment system (Functional Movement Screen), I can say most athletes do not possess the movement competency to be successful in these types of training programs.  Earlier I spoke of the buy in for this type of training from coaches as being worst off.  I am absolutely certain, without one shred of doubt, that putting a team through these types of workouts will result in poor training results or injury during the training process.  Athletes just don’t move well enough to safely complete these types of programs.  

And even if they could, should they? 

Here is another resounding NO!  In general, all of these circuit-style, beat the snot out of you programs only move in one plane of motion, the sagittal plane.  Simply, you only move forwards or backwards, you rarely move to the side (frontal plane) and almost never rotate (transverse plane) your body.  One could argue that movement in the transverse plane is the most important plane of movement for an athlete to optimize/enhance.  

Let’s finish up this section with a cornerstone of this type of training: randomness. 

Most sports are random? So we again should logically assume that our training should be random as well, correct?

NO! & NO!

Sports are a lot of things, but they are not random.  Chaotic, maybe (if you’re unprepared), dynamic, yes, but not random.  I played football for West Virginia University in the early 2000’s and we did everything possible to take the randomness out of the game.  Film study, regimented practices, constant drills (it would be an underestimation to say that I’ve taken a million zone steps in my life) were all incorporated to prepare ourselves for the opportunity to go out and execute the game plan in front of 70,000 screaming fans.  Oh you think the crowd noise could filter in some randomness into the game? Nope, we would practice in doors with crowd noise pumped in before road games with louder stadiums.  If the center or the quarterback got hurt the training staff was instructed to spend extra time with the injured player to allow for the new center/quarterback to take practice snaps before entering the game.  Nothing was left to chance.  Neither should your training program. 

So where do WE stand in an industry with two drastically different training norms?

The answer is where ever our systems tell us to stand.  Regardless of your athletic accomplishments or level at which you participate in sports, you start with the Functional Movement Screen.  It is the same screen whether you are a middle school athlete looking to participate in a sport for the first time or a professional athlete preparing for training camp.  It gives us a firm starting point to develop our programs and it more importantly tells us what movements an athlete cannot complete safely so they can be removed from the program until corrected.  After assessing and correcting movement, are goal is to optimize all the qualities that enhance the performance of an athlete, i.e. Speed, agility/change of direction, power (lower/upper), core strength, flexibility, maximal strength, conditioning, etc.  These are the typical goals that athlete and/or their parents have coming in, but they are not the foundation, movement is.

The biggest argument against the type of program that assesses and corrects movement is that we never get strong, or lift heavy, or work very hard enough to create true results for athletes.  This could not be further from the truth as we know that is what makes athletes better, it also happens to be what makes the general population lose fat, be healthy and look the way they want to.  It also gives the program a true progression.  Here is a tweet from Ian Wild, who recently signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Ian’s workouts are designed to challenge him as his livelihood is dependent on preparing his body for the rigors of the National Football League.  If I didn’t know where to start with him I could not adequately and effectively progress his program to challenge him on a daily basis and also ensure that his recovery was adequate to continue the progression.             

As with any good training program, it starts with a baseline assessment to determine where an athlete’s biggest needs are and then progresses to a designed program.  But once a program has been developed it needs to be effectively executed with the help of a coach to fast track results.  And our coaches follow these five principles of effective training. 

5 Principles to Insure Safer and Effective Sports Performance Training
 
1.  Technique should not be sacrificed for intensity
 
No matter how hard you think you are working, there is no excuse to use terrible form.  If the goal is to burn fat or build muscle, there is nothing to support the risk of injury as a result of the wrong dosage of exercise that results in horrendous technique.  Make sure technique stays tight. 
 
2.  Fatigue or soreness should not be confused with being productive
 
Just because you are wiped out doesn’t mean you are doing the right thing. Concepts like “No Pain, No Gain” have been so ingrained into us that a common goal in training is complete exhaustion.  I say this is “No Pain, No Brain.”  Instead of the search of fatigue, using the right dosage reminds us that we should be on a search for results.  Yes, training may produce soreness and fatigue, but that is not your goal.   
 
3.  Recovery should be the first thing built into any program
 
You do not get better during training, you get better when you are recovering from it.  During that recovery from metabolic training, muscles are built and fat is lost.  Recovery, therefore, is not sitting there doing nothing; it is doing the most important thing: making gains.  You must plan the proper amount of recovery in between sets and circuits as well as in between training sessions.  See overtraining as nothing more than an overdose.
 
4.  Proficiency in exercise technique is paramount
 
People like to do new exercises.  The trouble is that most people have not spent the repetitions on that exercise to earn the right to place it into their training.  Just because an exercise is added to a circuit is not an excuse to have never practiced it or terrible at performing it.  Actually, a good rule of thumb is that exercises added to a circuit should be ones you are the best at, not the worst.
 
5.  Select appropriate exercises and correct weights
 
Adding too much weight or unrealistic exercises does not make you tougher, it makes you careless.  Too much weight can also make you slower and remove the whole purpose behind some of our training methods, which is to use speed and power movements to create a demand similar to those found in sports.  Make sure you select the correct exercises and weights.  This will insure good, safe training.

 

Our staff’s dedication towards continuing education is second to none.  We pride ourselves on being open to change.  If something makes what we do better, delivers better or faster results we do it… but these 5 points will never change.

Methods are many, principles are few; Methods may change, but principles never do.