I am currently participating in spring football for a D1 university. I have always wondered what tests would correlate with other training tests. So I figured i would share a few observations. Recently the team was tested in the typical combine tests with the exception of the 225 bench press. Also, we were all tested in max squat, bench press, and power clean.
The following observations concern linebackers, DBs, RBs, and recievers:
-every player with a 30 plus inch vertical had run at least a 4.72 or under but the speed and the jumps do not relate inversely or as the vertical increased the 40 would decrease, as there were 2 players who coudlnt break 4.55 but still had a 38 and 39.5 inch vertical. And the fastest 40 (4.37) jumped 34"
-every player who broad jumped greater than 9’10" ran in the 4.5s or under. with the exception of 2 players it appeared that there was a stronger inverse relation in that the bigger the jump the lower the 40.
-the top 2 fastest 40 yard times, did not finish in the top 5 ‘L’ cone drill.
Conclusions:
-broad jump correlates more with running speed than vertical jump. I would also suspect that broad jump is more associated with max V, whereas vertical jump might be the first 10 yards.
-the slower athletes had advantages in the agility drills that require a change in multiple directions rather than back and forth, as the 5-10-5 drill had usually the fasted kids winning as one could expect.
-I would also like to share the results of a specific player as i feel his results could provide interesting insights into the transfer of training.
Player 1: weight 190 height 6 ft
40 yard dash- 4.65
vertical-37.5
broad jump-10’4"
max squat-500
He entered as freshman running 4.6s but could only squat around 300 pounds (this is what he told me). His vertical was in the low 30’s and broad jump was high 9 ft. What i find intersting as that after 3 years of training and somehow getting his squat to 500 the only things that improved were the jumps. Now im not sure exactly of his squat depth and details like that but he is a very strong kid for sure.
what i have noticed about his running style is that his frequency appears to be lower than what it should be. To my knowledge and what ive learned here, is that short gct is mostly a matter of how much power one can apply. He obviously possesses great power but for some reason cant transfer it to running???
He also contradicts my original observation that a broad jump mostly correlates with higher speeds.
Anyway, these are just a few observations, and there were some exceptions to each test, but i was hoping that maybe we could discuss the transfer of training and correlation between certain athletic activities.