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What’s good OTA Squad!

Wow this week has been crazy.

I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new program that I’ve kept secret for some time.

You see, there’s a reason why I’ve been M.I.A for the past 3 years.

During that time I delve deep into vertical, speed, and strength training. I wanted to master these topics so I could provide the best training and information out there for any athlete I cross paths with.

I told you 2016 was gonna be our year.

We’ve released so much information and solid training programs so far, but the year isn’t over yet.

Keep your eyes open for Monday’s email 😉

So back to today’s topic.

The Combine

Today I wanted to lay out how I structure an athlete’sworkout when the goal in mind is to dominate at their combine.

First things first though, I want to express to you how important it is to train for your combine.

Some of these athletes that are getting recruited and given crazy offers are doing so solely on that fact that they had an amazing performance at their combine.

Some of them don’t even see the field!

That’s crazy to me, but if that’s the case for some of these athletes then why not take advantage of it.

The simple fact that you had the best vertical jump at the combine can land you a full ride or a million dollar contract on a professional team.

It’d be dumb not to take it serious.

So now that you know how important it is to dominate the combine we’ll go into exactly how I break down an athlete’s training during the week.

Typically if you’re training for a combine I recommend training 5 days out of the week.

This ensures that we’re targeting everythingwe need to target to get better at the drills in the combine.

The common split I usually have my athletes do is:

Monday – Acceleration/Lower Strength

Tuesday – Change of Direction/Upper Strength

Wednesday – OFF

Thursday – Top End Speed/Lower Power

Friday – Power/Upper Volume

Saturday – Sport Specific

Sunday – OFF

Day 1, which is typically monday we focus on acceleration. This is when I teach the athlete how to start properly.

The first 10 yards of your race is everything.

If you can improve this phase, and drop your 10 down significantly, it’ll set you up for the rest of the race.

There’s a lot of technique when it comes to learning the acceleration phase, that’s why we do it on Monday.

The athlete’s primed, he’s ready, it’s the beginning of the week and it’s easier for him to really dial down on the technique of acceleration.

Right after we finish our acceleration drills I’ll take the athlete through a lower strength training workout, where we focus on heavy weight and lower reps.

Day 2 is going to be change of direction.

This is going to come in the form of your L-Drills or your 5-10-5 (pro-shuttle).

Believe it or not, nowadays recruiters are looking at your 5-10-5 more than your 40 yard sprint.

This is because they want to see the fluidity of your hips when you’re changing direction on the field.

So when I train my athletes to get better at the 5-10-5 I usually break it down into parts.

For example, the first month I would train the first 5 yards of the pro-shuttle, and every month after, I would implement the next phase.

Right after our change of direction drills, we go into upper body strength.

Here we really focus on increasing our 1RM because when our 1RM goes up, so does the reps on the 225 Bench Test.

Day 3 is a recovery day. On this day I like to spend a lot of time working on soft tissue with the athletes. Also work on shoulder and hip mobility.

Day 4 we focus on top speed.

This is a very important day because a lot of athletes don’t have the proper mechanics when it comes  to cycling their legs during their top speed phase.

On this day we’ll go 70-80% intensity so it’s not really a top end speed.

The reason is because we want to focus on the technique of the cycling.  

If you’re sprinting at 100% intensity you won’t be able to properly train technique and that’s the most important aspect of day 4.

After our top end work I’ll have the athlete train lower body but concentrating on power.

And what I mean by power is moving a resistance at a much faster rate.

Day 4, is POWER.

This day we’ll be focusing on the athlete’s jumping technique and power output.

So movements that target vertical jump and broad jumps are perfect examples of the type of exercises we’ll use on this day.

Right after power work, I take my athletes into an upper body volume routine where we concentrate on strength endurance.

This is when we pretty much focus on burning out the bench press. Which translates to more reps on your 225 Bench Test.

Day 5 is a sport specific day.

I want the athlete to practice their skill. If you’re a football player practice your on field movements, Same goes for any other sport.

You can also practice the EXACT drills you’ll be performing in the combine.

Look online, see if you can find anything on the combine you’re doing but from the previous year.  Most of the time they’ll have a list of the drills they had athletes do on previous years combine.

Hope that helps you get a better understanding of combine training, if you have any questions drop

them in the comments section.

AFC

Holler,

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