The start of the New Year is a very busy time at MJP. The beginning of January begins MJP Pre-NFL Draft training programs. These programs bring in more than 30 athletes that are preparing for the NFL Combine. Over the next 9 weeks, these athletes will go through rigorous training—both physical and mental.
The NFL Scouting Combine began in 1982 as a way for NFL teams to find and evaluate the next great set of athletes to fill their rosters. The Combine is a week-long showcase occurring every February, where college football players perform physical and mental tests in front of NFL coaches, general managers and scouts. To gather all the physical metrics of the combine athlete, the NFL hopefuls go through medical screenings, and injury evaluation to parse out any sort of performance-limiting factor and injuries that could be detrimental to their on-field performance. After physical evaluations, combine participants complete multiple performance tests geared toward determining an athlete’s strengths and weaknesses.
In a way, each NextGen athlete that comes through the doors of MJP gets to participate in their own combine experience. Prior to training, all athletes perform a pre-evaluation, that is based on evaluations performed at the highest level, the NFL Combine.
For our NextGen athletes we use a variety of biomechanic measures (such as peak height velocity) to help determine the athlete’s growth and maturation status. Doing this allows us to effectively tailor the athlete’s training to their open windows of adaptation allowing them to become the best athlete they can be.
Like the Combine, the 40-yard dash, 5-10-5 or pro-agility, three-cone drill, vertical jump, and broad jump are all performance measures that we also use for monitoring performance of our NextGen athletes. The 40-yard dash is one of the measures we use to follow changes in linear speed. The 5-10-5 is used to look at lateral change of direction; while the three-cone drill fits more closely into what we term angular change of direction. The vertical and broad jump look at lower body power production. Instead of using the 225-bench press test to examine upper body strength and power, we use the kneeling power ball throw.
These tests, when combined with the biomechanical measures, help to give us a holistic view of the athlete at that point in time. When conducted with periodic retesting, the athlete’s progress is monitored and ultimately allows us to make the necessary changes for optimal performance improvement.
If you’re going to be in the facility over the next few weeks, keep an eye out for our pre-draft training athletes and know that MJP NextGen programs are preparing your future athlete.
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