Here’s my unofficial results. I don’t have the ‘official’ results yet, because they won’t post them until Wednesday at noon. Overall (if I got their tables right) Certainly all of my scores were above the 8.0 threshold. I think my rating will be about a 8.5. That is about half a point lower than what I expected, but given the slippery conditions it was pretty respectable. I was told that it was the top number for any running back there.
First the setup: Overall, the combines were fairly poorly run. We were supposed to start checking in at around noon so we could get started at 12:30 but they were running so late that we didn’t get out to the field until almost 3:00. This gave me ample time to watch everyone in the first session and note that even though it wasn’t raining, the field was quite wet and slippery. The turf was dry on top, but the padding they had under it acted like a sponge and the water would come through when you pressed on it. You couldn’t sit on the field unless you wanted wet shorts!
I did a 4.5 40, 4.2 short shuttle, 9 bench presses (I know pretty pathetic) and a 35.5" vertical jump. OK, now for the excuses…
In the 40, I was expecting something in the 4.4 range but the field was wet, so I didn’t feel like I got any spring back from it. It was like running on sand or something. I had recently been clocking 4.5 automatic times on the track, largely based on my improved top speed (thanks Charlie!) but I never felt like I got there at the combines. So I though given my auto times, the hand times would be much better (dreaming of 4.3’s!)
The other problem was that the 40 was our first station and I was one of the first people to run so I didn’t really have enough time for a proper warmup.
That leads me to another complaint about the whole set up. You weren’t allowed down on the field until you were registered (makes sense) but then you had to do their warmup which had a bunch of static stretches (which I don’t like to do prior to competition) After their warmup, we had to head right over to the 40. I had to run back to the stands to try to find some appropriate shoes (since you couldn’t bring your bags on the field) and by the time I got back it was time to run. Usually my 6th or 8th 40 is the fastest (with 2 -3 min rest between reps). Here my first one was for a time and I could only get in one other practice rep between that and my second run. It didn’t matter because both my times were about the same.
Even so, I was near the fastest in my group. I think one guy got a 4.4. You wouldn’t believe all of the guys (who looked fast) that were running 5.x times!
Next was the bench press. In bench, the bar had the knurling at a different place from my usual bar and so I took a grip that was too wide. I didn’t realize it until too late. I probably could have gotten a couple more if I had gotten it right but this was not going to be the strong point of my combine anyway. I’m thinking that I will need to add some more upper body mass in the off season if I want this to improve. Even though I added 25# to my bench over the course of this program, my 225 reps stayed about the same.
I was most worried about the shuttle and that is the event I did best in . It was the fastest shuttle of the day. I had bought some good turf shoes but even with those, I was stil slipping in practice. I got some pointers from one of the coaches there and focused on really keeping my technique clean so that my feet stayed under me. It worked pretty well. One of the timers even clocked one of my runs at 3.9 but they said that nobody could run a 3.9 on that field, so gave me the slower score (which is the opposite of what I think they are supposed to do!)
The vertical jump was last and I think I was a bit flat from all of the waiting around, plus it is tiring (mentally and physically) being there all day and not getting proper food etc. I was expecting something around 37" based on my jumps in practice.
Overall, I learned a lot. I think if I do it again, I will perform much better because I will know what to expect and have a better feel for how much time I need to warmup, etc. Also, I can hope that the order of events would work out better for me. I think the ideal order would be VJ first, then the Short shuttle, then the 40, then the bench.