Is not the ultimate test of a player’s ability their ability to play the game? You can do all the fancy and involved combine type tests and fool yourself into thinking that there is direct transfer to the game, but there is not.
The cones don’t move and the big bags don’t hit back. We now have a parlor industry that has developed called “combine prep” where players are essentially training like trained seals to perform a very narrow range of movements that appear in the various combine tests. Some of the movements may help prepare them for the game, but most are very specific to the tests.
Don’t get me wrong I believe that it is necessary to have a very specific battery of performance indicator tests to determine baseline athletic qualities like acceleration, top speed, explosive power, Agility (whatever that is) and functional flexibility. These should be administered in strictly controlled environments with well-defined protocols that are valid, reliable and repeatable. This information can be used to determine an athlete’s baseline measures, determine progress toward specific goals and above all used to define a training program.This is part of a sound training program with day to day coaching to prepare the player for their game.
However with the combine phenomena we have a bunch of random tests that do not meet the criteria of validity and reliability. They are done under vastly different conditions, on different surfaces with varied random people administering the tests, some times are hand times, some are electronic, there is no consistency. All of this makes comparison of scores very suspect at best. I even question some of the scores, times and radar gun readings of velocity I see from some of these combines. Do you know how fast 4.3 something really is? How about 92 on a radar gun?
The bottom line here is we have another big con game going here to take money from kids and naïve parents. If you want to get faster and more powerful go out for track, the cool thing about that is will also learn how to compete. Somewhere you have train for the game; combine training is not preparation for the game
Vern Gambetta
Latest posts by Vern Gambetta (see all)
- Speed 101 – The Essence of It - February 5, 2024
- An “Aha!” Moment – The Javelin Dance - September 2, 2022
- Training Dos & Don’ts #5: Thoughts on Tapering & Peaking for Swimming - August 31, 2022
- Training Dos & Don’ts #4: More Work or Less Work - August 30, 2022
- Training Dos & Don’ts #3: Warm-up (Preparation) & Cool-down (Reset) - August 15, 2022