Two of my athletes strained a hamstring during their NFL pro day earlier this past week.
Both on their 2nd of two 40yd dashes and, coincidentally, the pulls followed personal record efforts.
All my pro day guys followed a 10 day taper and the volumes of sprint work were very low during those final 10 days.
All athletes concluded the taper and entered the event day feeling very good with no indication of hyper tonus, etcetera.
Pre-40 warm up was more than sufficient and, as far as I can estimate all athletes were sufficiently hydrated.
Vitamin/mineral/nutrient deficiencies I’m not certain of, however.
At any rate, both of the athletes who sustained the pulls set personal records on their 40yd.
Of all the scouts who timed the event the fastest recorded time for my fastest guy was a 4.39 and he had been running, at his fastest, low/mid 4.4s during training while my other athlete who pulled, a 300 pounder, recorded a fastest time of 4.9high and, believe it or not, the fastest I timed him near the beginning of the training cycle was a 5.4mid.
All this is hand timing so take it for what it’s worth.
At any rate, in my guys case, I’ve concluded that the intensities reached during their 40yd efforts, which far exceeded any of their efforts during the previous 10 days (ala the 95% rule), were the overloads themselves that lead to the pulls.
Fortunately, the 4.39 guy, while having to withdraw from most of the remaining drills, was, after a healthy dose of ibuprofen, able to perform his position drills very well and the 4.9 guy’s pull wasn’t bad enough to keep him out of any of the subsequent drills (of which he set personal records on nearly every one)