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ShareThisCombine prep
On the NFL Network's draft preview show earlier this week, Mike Mayock expressed frustration that more and more prospects --- all of them, basically --- are spending January through March training specifically for combine drills. This makes it difficult to determine whether those 40 times represent real speed that will translate to the football field, or merely track speed that will disappear as soon as the pads go on and the players are having to think and run at the same time.
As a college professor who occasionally participates in admissions-related activities, I can sympathize. Just as the skills (namely speed, quickness, and strength) that lead to good results in combine drills are closely related to the skills that players need to succeed in the NFL, the skills that cause a student to do well on the SAT are indeed correlated with the skills that cause students to succeed in college. But what a student learns at an SAT prep class serves only to improve the test score itself, not to improve the actual abilities that admissions people hope the test is trying to measure. One test prep center advertises, "Spend a little time getting to know the SAT better and you can find out how to use the structure and format of the test to your advantage." In other words, it's not about making yourself more prepared for college. It's about making yourself appear more prepared for college.
If I had access to an honest account of how many hours of SAT prep each applicant had (and in which program), I think I could make smarter admissions decisions by discounting the scores of those who spent the most effort bolstering their appearance.
I, of course, have no such account. But NFL teams do. They know exactly where all these players have been spending their time since January. So this seems to me like an opportunity for smart teams to gain an advantage. Some of these combine training facilities have been around for a decade now. Figure out how many hundredths each of these camps shaves off the 40 time of a typical player. Then figure out whether those hundredths stayed off when the player reached the NFL. In other words, did they teach him how to run a faster 40, or did they actually teach him some meaningful techniques that he was able to translate to the field? If the former, and then add it back on for the purposes of evaluation.
Suppose a guy "played like a 4.6 guy" in college, but ran a 4.45 at the combine. Go look at his rookie year film and determine whether he played more like a 4.6 guy or a 4.45 guy in the pros. You might find that the guys who worked out at Training Facility A were in general able to maintain their speed gains while those who trained at Facility B were not.
Don't be frustrated by it, use it.
On the flip side, if I were an agent, I might at this point be tempted to hire a team of ex-NFL coaches and publicly advertise that my players are specifically not training for the combine drills. Instead, they're getting actual NFL coaching, doing football work, and learning how to train like NFL players train. Essentially, my guys will have a head start in terms of picking up NFL terminology and schemes because they haven't been wasting their time learning to keep their elbows in while they run, or trying to put on weigh-in pounds that are going to come off after three days of real practice.
This entry was posted on Friday, April 20th, 2007 at 4:58 am and is filed under NFL Draft. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
If there is a way to prepare for an entrance exam that distorts the results of those exams, then the exam is at fault.
The reason that someone preparing for the 40 yard dash doesn't translate into better football ability is that the 40 yard dash is seldom a part of football.
The NFL needs to come up with a better way to test players.
I thought I would NEVER live to see the day where a college professor would actually score studying AGAINST you and give you a higher score for not studying. Where the hell were you from 1991-1995 when I needed you. On a slightly more serious note, wouldn't you actually be interested in someone who is interested in preparation and hard work to better themselves than some lazy bastard who wants to rest on his raw ability? Guess what - I was one of those really smart but really lazy bastards and yes, I got by in school but now I got a bucket of piss to show for it - where all my stupid friends who studied the asses off actually have good jobs. I walked in and took the GMAT without even looking at a sample test and got a 77%ile. I then signed up for a classroom prep course and got a 98%ile on round 2. I then got into Vanderbilt despite a 2.60 GPA. I would argue that if I cared more about my future, I could have gotten an 98% in all my classes too - but I was much closer to 77% GPA pretty much through out. So, don't you think the level of preparation is an indicator of future success? I know you are in academics and it is hard to fake being smart but let me tell you there are a lot of dumb mo-fo's in the bidnez world getting up at 5am and faking it and making a lot of jack. You buddy sto, for example. How about this - you take the Randy Mosses and let the Jerry Rices (who was known for his incredible level of off season preparation) fall to me. GLS.
And how about this cynical theory: The SAT exists because college admission departments are lazy. Talk amongst yourselves.
To take this a step further. The best NFL teams should start recognizing who trains the "workout wonders" vs. the guys who learn how to run better for the NFL. They can take that and over time weed out guys who get great numbers if they come out of a certain program.
As for the Admission departments being lazy... I don't know about that. Schools are completely bombarded with applicatoins for college, NYU for one had over 100,000 applying students, SAT is just another tool to separate some of the students. Without a standardized test what are you going to go on? Grades and 2 essays? A portfolio? They can't spend 3 hours on every student.
Cut the admissions people a break.
Indeed. Then the only solution to the problem is randomized standardized testing. The students don't know when they are going to be tested but if they do not do well the first time, they have to miss four weeks of college. If the screw up the second random standardized test, they miss a full year.
And just for the record, regarding school, like Doug, I too am completely against "Performance Enhancing Studying". I think the NFL should also look into "Performance Enhancing Exercise" and basically ban it completely.
Good to have you back, monkeytime.
I'm pretty sure you're intentionally misrepresenting my position because you're bored on a Friday afternoon. But just in case....
Student working hard to study math: good.
Student working hard to study strategies for scoring better on a math exam without learning any more math: not good.
Athlete working hard from January to April to improve his football skills: good.
Athlete working hard from January to April to improve his 40 time without improving his football speed: not good.
For college admitions it is really a case of rational ignorance. Someone could develope a better way to test applicants, but it would likely take more resources (time, money, etc.) than that information is worth.
Universities take a short-cut (as they should) by using the SAT as a piece of their evaluation. As long as Universities do that, then students are going to try and game the test, as they should.
If it becomes important enough to stop this "gaming" of the test, then Universities will spend more resources on a better evaluation method.
Bored. And unfortunately I have another 141 days 02h 38m 45s ahead
Here's a comment on 40 times from Bill Walsh:
And a similar comment by Mike Mayock:
If you look at the trainers who help college players get ready for the NFL combine, a lot of what they work on with the player is his track stance and start.
For example:
Why not good? For a given hour of studying, you'd prefer it to be spent on improving math instead of improving test-taking. But the work done to improve test-taking is still worthwhile. Maybe not as worthwhile as math -- but probably more worthwhile than sociology or something.
Have them run ALL the drills in full pads & helmets on grass.