The day was February 15th, 2010. It’s been almost a year since my last competitive football game. On the brink of 25 years old with a lot of ambition to play football at the next level, either semi-pro or pro football I decided to enter into the Elite Pro Football Combine. This combine is second to only the NFL combine as being one of the most prolific football combines and is said to be “pro football's insurance policy against missing a single talented player”.
I have had years of football training behind me and felt that with a little extra speed training I would be able to establish myself as one of the top athletes in the Atlanta combine which I was invited to attend on May 8th 2010. As it turned out, it didn’t seem to be as simple as I originally figured. A few weeks into my speed training a hamstring pull put a halt to my training which was followed by weeks of rehab. Three weeks later my training resumed only to feel the constant strain on healing hamstring. I decided it was a little early and I had to continue the strength training of my upper body, core and rehabilitation of my hamstring while trying to maintain my lower body strength.
I knew my time was running out as the combine date was fast approaching, I had to get conditioned for this combine so I decided to continue with agility drills and light speed training. Eight weeks after I originally began preparing for this combine I felt as if I hadn’t made any progress. I knew I had only a few weeks of training remaining prior to my combine. The agility drills and light speed training proved to pay off as my hamstring felt solid and willing to perform to my intentions. I finished my training cycle and although I did not feel I was at my peak performance, I knew that my athletic ability would be able to show for itself, so I decided to carry on with my trip to Atlanta, GA.
Friday May 7th 8:00am, I pulled out of Port Saint Lucie. With the solid 9 hour drive I had ahead of me, I decided to leave a day early to allow myself some time to adjust to the new environment. The entire ride up I was full of mixed emotions. Anxiety that maybe the injury I had would affect my performance against some of the top athletes around the region. That emotion was coupled with confidence that I had truly been training my whole life for an opportunity like this and I had to be ready, I was ready. Nervousness would have to be the one word that could some up the entire trip.
I arrived at my lodging location a little later than expected, approximately 9:30pm. The offensive position combine commenced at 5:00pm the following day. I figured it was time to get some sleep so I could wake up early and take a trip to the facility which the combine was being performed.
Saturday May 8th, 2010. Woke up feeling pretty good thinking “GAMETIME”. Nothing was going to stop me from performing at my best. Having a little knowledge about nutrition I knew it was important for me to continue my hydration as well as stock up on some carbohydrates and proteins, Denny’s sounded perfect! Ordered a steak and egg skillet and started to chow down, guzzled down about (4) glasses of water and took off to grab some Gatorade and began my short trip to the field. Arrived on the field around 2:30pm to see the defensive group still working. Seemed like it was 120º but later found out it was a beautiful 80º with a gust. Must’ve been my nerves playing tricks on me.
First things first, I had to sign in and get my t-shirt, ID number, height (5-10.7), weight (229), arm length and hand size. After that I began my combine experience as I would any other training session, strapped up my cleats and got a thorough static and dynamic stretch in. I couldn’t help but look at every other athlete wondering witch ones were running backs such as myself. There was definitely a good group of guys out there and some stiff competition. Soon after the Combine Coordinator rounded the offensive unit up and informed us that we would be warming up as a team and to get our cleats on. This information definitely helped me feel better about the quality of the stretching I would be getting. We began by jogging around the field, still I was wondering who the other RB’s were. Once we completed our lap around the field we split up into columns and rows to begin our static stretching. I took another look around. There must have been a good 150 offensive athletes. We did a multitude of stretches from jumping jacks to hamstring stretches to groin stretches. We then continued on to our dynamic stretching where were did all the stretching I had been used to since I was 10 years of age and first started playing ball. Now I felt at home and comfortable and confident. Our stretching came to its conclusion and the Coordinator split us up into groups by position. The information was coming so fast all I could think about was getting ready for my first test. RB’s would start off at the 20 yard shuttle. I was excited about this. I was confident this would be one of my better performances. As I watched a few of the RB’s perform I critiqued their techniques to myself and did some light shadowing of the drill. Finally, it was my turn and I was confident. Although I had not been exposed to too much drilling on a field turf surface, I still remained confident. I started off my drill exploding to the right first, planted my foot and with a little slippage, raced to my left, planted firmly and then exploded one last time to my right and finished strong. We then repeated the test in the other direction. Ending up with the fastest shuttle time of the group I was still slightly disappointed with my time, as I know I am capable of sub 4 second 20 yard shuttle times. As we waited around a few minutes to be released to our next station I gazed around the field watching all the athletes perform, wondering which ones would be the tops of there groups.
On to the next one! Bench press was our next event. This is probably the most known exercise to any football player other than squats. Once again, I watched as the other athletes performed their bench press. I was confident I would hit right within my average of 28-29 repetitions of 225 lbs. I did just that, 28 repetitions which I was still just a little upset about, as I figured my adrenaline may have been good for just a few more. This time I was second to one other stallion who threw up an astonishing 31 reps! Quickly after our bench press they rounded us all up to take our photographs. I was told pre- picture by a few of the guys I looked “beefy” so I already knew how that was going to turn out.
Our next event was the vertical jump which I have hit 34” consistently during training. Although I had previously pictured me hitting 36-38 if I had continued my speed and strength training prior to the combine. It seemed as if most of the guys were all in the 30” range until some monster jumped and nearly hit every tab on the vertex machine. As I approached the machine for my turn, I couldn’t help but notice how high the previous athlete had jumped topping just under 42 inches! Once again it was my turn. I got in my stance, squatted down and thrusted up a few times to get some rhythm and then with one last explosive effort pushed off the floor as hard as I could when I fired up. Again, I hit right at my average of 34 ½”. This vertical jump is nothing to be upset about, but with the knowledge that I had of my weeks of setbacks, I knew I could have blown that number away.
The last and most crucial station was the 40 yard sprint. This is the one event which I knew would be the toughest due to my very limited training. As practiced my starts and I watched some of the RB’s takeoff I didn’t notice anyone with any tremendous speed. As my turn approached, in my mind I knew almost everything I had completed prior to this event would mean nothing if I didn’t nail it. My number was called and it was my turn. I got in my stance as I have so many times and exploded out. It seemed I had nailed the start, but more critical was the next 30 yards which I sprinted as hard as I could. My run felt very smooth and clean so I was anxious for my next shot which went equally as smooth. As I finished my run and began to trot back to my group of RB’s I was flagged down by one of the gentleman holding the stop watch. He revealed himself as the owner of “Elite Football Combines” and asked me a few questions about myself. It seemed if he was interested in my football ability and then said to I looked like quite an athlete and he would “keep his eyes on me”. This raised my sprits going into our next and last event which were position drills. I knew if there was one thing I would excel at, it would be position drills. Theses are most natural to me than anything else and due to the explosive nature of the running back position, compliment my abilities.
This last station started with basic coordination drills and moved on quickly to running back routes and ball control. It seemed as if I excelled in the position drills, which is nothing less than what I expected. I felt I had finished the combine successfully with the hopes that somebody will give me the opportunity to showcase my talent even for the briefest moment.
My experience with my first combine was pretty much as expected. It seemed a little fast paced, but when you are aspiring to play professional football, that is nothing short of what they would expect either. In all, I was and remain excited about my experience and look forward to my next opportunity. Maybe it will come in the form of football, maybe in the form of a strongman weight lifting competitor. Whatever it is that I do, I will do with my best abilities and have a tremendous amount of fun doing it.
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