Given our success with the NFL Draft Preparation, one of our most common requests is preparation for football combines. Obviously speed is a premium for any type of testing – as the 40yd dash has become the ultimate standard of speed in this country, specifically for football players.
The BPS philosophy has always been very simple – build a solid foundation of general strength and power, transfer it to more specific forms of dynamic strength and power and rate of force development. This in itself is the best form of “speed training” there is. In a sense, we’ve always had success in “training muscles, not motions.” Build a foundation of muscle strength and power, transfer it, and then utilize it.
Building the foundation of strength and power is all of the work in the weight room. The “transfer” is the drills that are found throughout the movement training database – like A-Skip Series, Moving claw series, wall drills, etc. These drills are not so much form running, as they are taking the strength and power base of the muscles that was built in the weight room and overloading the threshold of the muscles at various dynamic speeds. The utilization is obviously the sprinting and agility drills at full speed.
Building a solid foundation of Strength and Power in the Weight Room
Taking an athlete at a standard of 8 weeks of development to prepare for a testing day or combine requires very specific forms of periodization. This will obviously change for each athlete depending on the individual situation – injury history, injury status, all-star game status, strengths, weaknesses, neurological deficiencies, asymmetries, etc. Keep in mind that these will obviously directly correlate to the bench press rep test and the jumps. But this is one of the MOST IMPORTANT aspects of getting athletes faster and more agile. The following general periodization plan is a good place to start, with an understanding that modifications must be made:
WEEK 1: GPP (General Preparation Phase)
WEEK 2: Intensification
WEEK 3: Conjugate Dynamic 1
WEEK 4: Download
WEEK 5: Conjugate Dynamic 2
WEEK 6: Strength/Power Split
WEEK 7: Power/Strength Split
WEEK 8: Taper, mock tests
WEEK 9: Combine
There are examples of each phase listed below. Be sure to contact us directly or jump on our forum with questions and feedback.