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Every year, the NFL Scouting Combine proves to be the biggest job interview for about 250 young men trying to fulfill their lifelong dream of playing in the National Football League. For some, it can enhance their draft stock tremendously. For others, it may have a detrimental impact on their NFL draft position and, ultimately, their career.

Truthfully, I really enjoy the NFL Combine. I live in Indianapolis, which has been the host since 1987, so I had the pleasure of attending the Combine a few times in my professional career before it became a live spectator event. While it may have flaws when viewed through the lens of strength and conditioning, the overall event is run well, it’s inspiring to see the great performances, and it has a positive impact on my city.

The current battery of universal Combine drills may not feature the best choices for displaying an athlete’s potential in the sport, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

With that being said, like all coaches involved in football at any capacity, I can’t ignore the fact that the current battery of universal Combine drills may not feature the best choices for displaying an athlete’s potential in the sport. In addition, the style of training leading up to the event may also not be the best choice in terms of physical preparation for football.

Every year, when it’s time for the Combine, we see the resurgence of coaches (including myself) bring up valid critiques on how relevant the Combine process actually is:

• These guys are just training to beat a test/drill…
• What does the 225 bench have to do with playing football…
• The “pro agility” test isn’t really a display of true agility…

Again, these are all valid thoughts that definitely open up some conversation on the topic. If you’re not a fan of the current set of drills, what would you change? I decided to explore that and come up with a hypothetical NFL Scouting Combine 2.0.

Below is my spin on the current Combine drills, what changes I think the NFL could benefit from, and why. For the sake of the article, I only looked at the “Big 6” drills, which everyone typically performs, regardless of position. I don’t take into account things like the Wonderlic Test, player interviews, position drills, injury evaluations, etc.

The “Big 6” consists of:

1. 40-yard dash
2. 225 bench press
3. Vertical jump
4. Broad jump
5. 20-yard shuttle
6. 3-cone drill

#1. Change the 40-Yard Dash (Kind of)

Right off the bat, we have to talk about the most popular drill of the Combine—the 40-yard dash. There is such an obsession over this drill because it focuses on speed, one of the biggest separators in team sports.

This drill can make or break a person’s draft stock, which is ironic because:

1. It showcases a lot of top-end speed in a very acceleration- and COD-based sport.
2. It’s one of the easier tests to hack with technique and Combine secrets for instant improvement.
3. Everyone, regardless of position, runs it. Even though I love to see the hogs get rolling, their 40 time isn’t the most applicable drill option.

The obsession with this drill actually started in the 1940s, long before the Combine became what it is today. The idea behind it, at the time, was that the average punt had a hang time of 4.5 seconds and an average distance of 40 yards. In theory, that meant coaches were looking for guys who could run that distance in that time to be able to efficiently cover punts.

The 40-yard dash evolved into something much greater and even trickles all the way down to the grassroots level. There are so many misguided parents and youth athletes when it comes to speed, football preparation, and the 40 times—it’s truly getting out of control.

The Combine should make better use of time splits in the 40-yard dash and rank positions based on those splits as if they were part of their own separate drill, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

It’s clear that the 40-yard dash is here to stay, and it should. However, here’s my proposal for the NFL Combine 2.0. It’s very simple: just make better use of time splits and rank positions based on those splits as if they were part of their own separate drill.

Yes, the NFL already takes splits now, but those numbers are seldom promoted or publicized. I had to dig to create the chart above, which illustrates how different a 4.28-second 40-yard dash can actually look.

We only see the final 40-yard dash time for all players and positions, because that’s what gets the attention of the viewers. Having each individual split as its own metric and its own drill would not only benefit the scouts, but also the athletes and spectators by providing more in-depth info on the drill.

0–10 Yards

This is an essential metric for all potential NFL athletes, because we get to see pure acceleration numbers. The sport of football requires acceleration and change of direction (which is essentially deceleration in one direction with immediate acceleration in another).

This 0- to 10-yard split gives scouts a better look at those power and acceleration qualities, especially if you consider the position each athlete plays. If two offensive linemen have an identical 40 time, but one has a faster 0–10 split, I would think that player has better acceleration power and would be the more enticing draft prospect.

10–30 Yards

We could really look at this as a flying 20. This would be great to see for skill positions. A lot of their work is done in a 20-yard radius and, in many cases, moving from tracking the ball, a player, or a gap and getting to top speed in that direction as fast as possible.

The NFL does capture 10- and 20-yard splits, but again, we never see those numbers. Those still count the drive phase, and I would love to see more of that fly-in speed as a metric of its own.

This isn’t saying the 0–10 or the entire 40 yards isn’t also important; this is simply another metric that can let GMs see the bigger picture. If you’re looking at two prospects with the same 40 time, looking at splits can tell you their strengths and weaknesses, and then you can take the demands of their position into account for further review.

40 Yards

Of course, we have to keep the original 40-yard distance in the mix. The world would come to a burning end if the Combine ever dropped this drill. It’s not a “bad” drill or pointless by any means, I just think using the splits more specifically and more publicly could do a lot of good for all athletes, teams, and spectators.

#2. Velocity-Based Bench Press

While we didn’t completely nix the 40-yard dash, I think the bench press test needs a complete makeover. In my opinion, out of all the drills in the entire Combine, putting 225 pounds on a barbell and getting as many reps as possible has the least translation to the sport.

Is it awesome to watch? Yes. But is it truly a metric that tells a story of what kind of athlete someone is? Not really.

For many of these men, it is not a test of strength at all. Many times, it ends up being more of an endurance drill with rep counts in the 20+ range and time under tension about 1200% longer than the average football play lasts.

I’ve also heard several horror stories of torn pecs and destroyed shoulders as a result of training for the max rep 225 bench press test. That obviously won’t help draft stock or career advancement at all.

Instead, let’s step into the year 2020 and use some technology to better utilize the bench press test at the Combine. My proposal is to use a velocity-based training system to capture bar speed and power output on an athlete hitting their body weight (on the bar) for 3 reps.

I propose making over the bench press test with a velocity-based training system to capture bar speed and power output on an athlete hitting their body weight (on the bar) for 3 reps. Share on X

This is more athlete-specific and sport-relevant. When an athlete puts their own body weight on the bar for this test, the benefits are threefold:

1. They’re not going to failure and risking injury (plus, it may be even lighter than 225 for some athletes). If a potential pro athlete can’t bench press their body weight, it can raise some questions—you don’t need a max rep test to determine that.
2. This weight is relative to the athlete and the other potential draftees in their position. For instance, 225 pounds for a right tackle is going to look different than 225 for a cornerback. It not only allows you to compare guys who are around the same size/position, but also compare the metrics to other positions with which they may often be paired in a game (e.g., DB and WR).
3. We get to look at velocity (speed) and watts (power), which are much more important in the game of football than a redundant weight on the bar for max reps. These figures display speed and power, or possibly a lack thereof.

The test will last about the same amount of time as a football play, tracking athletic qualities that matter during those plays and keeping it relative to each individual with an ability to globally compare in a much safer way. Everyone wins.

#3. Reactive Strength Index Jumping

I won’t beat around the bush… It pains me to say this, but the vertical jump test is gone. I want to make it crystal clear that I am very much in favor of vertical jump testing, but as you read along, you’ll see why it doesn’t make the cut for my new and improved Combine.

The vertical jump is an amazing showcase of force production and athleticism, but I believe the broad jump is just as good. Unpopular opinion: I think it’s even better in some situations.

Showcasing power straight up and down is great, but I love the broad jump because of its horizontal, NOT vertical, displacement. Yes, there is jumping in football. You’re taught to catch balls at the high point, it’s useful for breaking up passes, etc. I totally get that, but so much more of the game takes place on the turf and not in the air. I think the horizontal power production matters more in this case, but we’ll talk more about that later.

My proposal is to swap out the vertical jump test and get a reactive strength index (RSI) reading for each athlete with a box drop jump.

Video 1. A football player performing an RSI box drop jump. I believe we should swap out the vertical jump test at the NFL Combine and use a box jump drop to get an RSI reading.

In a nutshell, RSI is a metric that represents an athlete’s ability to produce maximal forces in minimal time. In the example of the box drop jump, it takes into account jump height versus ground contact time. This scoring system tells us the efficiency of an athlete’s stretch-shortening cycle (SSC), which is an essential function in speed, agility, quickness, and—of course—jumping. The higher the RSI, the better the athlete’s SSC.

Just because someone can jump extremely high doesn’t mean they have an impressive SSC. A slow, high, jump doesn’t really tell us much in relation to football. In fact, many athletes with a slow SSC often have higher maximal strength capabilities, while fast SSC athletes often have higher reactive strength capabilities. For the sake of this test, I think the reactive piece holds more weight due to the nature and demands of the sport. Here’s an example of the same athlete with a slow versus fast SSC on a drop jump.

The vertical jump is cool, but I think using a box jump to get an RSI reading gives us a much better look at the important factors of an athlete’s abilities, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

I think that people could become obsessed with this test to the same extent they are with the 40-yard dash right now. We actually run this test as part of the intake and monitoring process at our facility, and it’s truly an amazing display of athleticism to see the RSI scores elite athletes can achieve. It’s definitely something our athletes take pride in and love to use to compete against others and themselves.

How cool would it be to see an offensive lineman get a 2.89 RSI score at 300 pounds? That is a guy that I would absolutely love to protect my quarterback.

The vertical jump is cool and all, but I think this type of data tracking gives us a much better look at the important factors of an athlete’s abilities. There are tons of options out there as far as what devices or equipment can track RSI, and it would be one of the more seamless changes on this entire list.

#4. Broad Jump, You Can Stay

As mentioned earlier, I really like the broad jump, both as a training tool and as a test. Obviously, context is key, but in this specific case I chose to scrap the vertical jump, so we can keep the broad jump.

To recap, the main reason for keeping the broad jump over the vertical jump is because of the horizontal displacement expressed in the movement and how that relates to football. That triple extension looks a lot like a sprint, and I love that.

Another reason is that I believe the broad jump is much harder to cheat than a vertical jump. On a manually tested vertical jump, there are many ways an athlete can cheat the system. The NFL obviously runs a tight ship in their testing protocols, but I’m sure athletes can still use some of these to get a slight advantage.

One way an athlete can cheat the vertical test is by limiting their initial reach. You reach up, then jump up, and the difference between those heights is your vertical jump result. This happens at pro days and other combines (especially high school), but maybe not so much on the big stage of the NFL Combine. It is still worth mentioning, though. Athletes can fake how high they can actually reach, making the initial reach lower, which adds to the end results of the jump.

It’s an unpopular opinion, but I think the broad jump is even better than the vertical jump in some situations, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

Aside from that, since this is a reaching jump test, your reach is obviously crucial. I’ve seen athletes access immediate increases in range of motion when it comes to reaching simply by performing some SMR on their lats, triceps, and/or pecs. If you alleviate the neural tone of those muscles, you can get better shoulder flexion. More shoulder flexion results in a better reach overhead, which can help an athlete touch maybe 1–2 more tabs on a Vertec and increase their score.

The broad jump definitely has some technique to it, but for the most part, what you see is what you get, and that is a great thing for Combine testing.

#5. 3-Cone Drill, You Can Stay Too

The 3-cone drill, or “L drill,” is another classic multidirectional drill that can be used in training or testing. In this case, I decided to actually keep this drill as is for the new and improved Combine event.

I really like this drill because it features acceleration, change of direction, and most of all, a little bit of curved running. That curved running piece, even if it is subtle, is really important for football players, as the game is not played on perfectly executed right angles. The game happens in all planes of motion, and I really like how this test features that aspect.

Is this a true test of agility? Not technically, but we can see plenty of different movements in one drill and I think that is still important, even in a closed-circuit environment.

I say all this leading up to the next change, which is to get rid of the “pro agility” test (another fan favorite). Similar to the broad jump versus vertical jump situation, one had to go, and I am in favor of the L drill for the reasons listed above.

#6. Reactive Agility Test

Last, but not least, we arrive at the pro agility test. Also known as the 5-10-5 or the 20-yard shuttle, this is another beloved Combine drill that, unfortunately, has to be replaced.

The 5-10-5 is not a bad drill, but I would propose replacing it with something a little bit more complex to showcase more of an athlete’s true agility. What I think the pro agility drill is missing is the reactionary piece. With today’s training technology and equipment, we can actually expose athletes to a more unpredictable and reactive drill that still requires them to showcase all the agility they would in the standard pro agility drill.

We can use today’s technology to expose athletes to a more unpredictable & reactive drill that still requires them to display the agility they would in a standard pro agility drill. Share on X

As is, the pro agility is another test that is extremely easy to hack for a better score. We know that a better score doesn’t necessarily mean a better athlete. Being good at a test doesn’t always translate to real life. I took Spanish courses in college all the way up to 400-level, no-English-allowed classes, but I can’t speak a lick of Spanish today. I was good at the tests, but it didn’t translate. This is how I feel about this particular test and several others listed above.

Instead, we can add some unpredictable elements to an agility-style drill. The initial setup can be the same as the 5-10-5 with three cones/lines all 5 yards apart, and then beyond the end, two end cones are a set of “finish line” timing gates on each side in the shape of a Y.

The athlete starts in the middle, just as they would on a pro agility test. A screen displays either “L” or “R” to initiate the start of the clock, and as soon as that command comes up, the athlete begins their standard pro agility in that direction. Instead of a 5-10-5 yard sequence, there is a 5-10 sequence and then a 45-degree cut (5 yards) to finish the drill. That cut is also signaled by a timed command of L or R as soon as the athlete crosses the original start line. This gives them 5 yards to read and react to make the proper cut and finish.

We haven’t strayed too far from the original 5-10-5—about half of it is the same—but we’ve added a reactionary piece that I think is a huge indicator of true agility. We’ve also added a change of direction in a different plane of motion with the 45 degrees. This drill is equally as simple, and it will further challenge the athlete not only physically, but mentally as well.

A More Accurate Reading on Athletes

I think this battery of drills for the new and improved NFL Combine 2.0 would be incredibly entertaining to watch, but also give players, coaches, GMs, and fans a better reading on the athletes competing for these draft spots.

Change can be a great thing and athletes have evolved so much over the years. I believe any or all of these changes would have a positive impact on the Combine, says @JustinOchoa317. Share on X

It’s pretty apparent that the NFL loves tradition, but change can be a great thing. Athletes, in general, have evolved so much over the years. The things that people are capable of now are incredible, especially if you compare athletes today to those 30 years ago. While this was a hypothetical makeover of the current Combine from an S&C coach’s perspective, I do believe that any or all of these changes would have a positive impact on the event.

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Hundreds of professional sporting organizations are now using force plates due to their affordability and feasibility. Testing takes less than a minute to perform, provides rapid feedback, and produces objective data with high reliability when used properly.

Unfortunately, many people overcomplicate this tool or find the complexity daunting. This post serves as an actionable resource for those wanting to advance their evaluation of neuromuscular performance using force platforms. It’s no more or less than the musings of one avid force plate user.

While I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have extensive guidance in this area from the very best, including the outstanding mentorship of Dr. Daniel Cohen and further guidance from the likes of Dr. Phil Graham-Smith, Drew Cooper, and Daniel Martinez, any errors below are mine. Academic and detailed texts exist in the literature and more are on the way. I mention these at the end of this post.

A Word on Force Plates and Professional Growth

Many strength coaches are either into using technology or not. Hopefully, most are realizing that one way or another, technology is now a part of our jobs. Many have begun to use force plates and found themselves overwhelmed with the information and options or ended up overcomplicating matters and confusing athletes and staff—sometimes making their lives more difficult than necessary.

Throughout this post, I refer to preferred minimalist approaches. And while I offer significant detail, the vast majority of force plate users will benefit most from the information on protocols, setup, logistics, and data use—not complexity, test selection, or niche variables. Of course, this comes back to the concept of simplicity done very well, which is overused but still true!

In the day-to-day operations of sports science, we often seek answers to the following questions:

1. What and how much did the athlete do. How hard did they work? What was the load?
2. How did they respond to the load? What is their current status and readiness?
3. How normal is the above, and if not, what are the necessary changes to the next prescribed load?

The first two questions have an important dovetailing dynamic that could use more attention, while the third question is a matter of systems engineering, analytics resourcing, and individual intelligence.

Given that leading sports science professionals openly admit that as a field, we are poor at assessing load, why are we not focusing more on response to load? After all, it matters less what has caused stress than the awareness and accommodation of the stress itself.

Understanding response to recent load is perhaps more valuable than information on the amount of the load, says @CoolHandJakeGS. #forceplates Share on X

Put another way, playing and running more than usual in last night’s game is not functionally different from a poor night’s sleep regarding today’s decisions. This detail and differentiation are useful, but we aren’t there yet. If we all agree that each day we are tasked with communicating to stakeholders the readiness of each athlete and our professional advice on their management, it’s fair to assume that clear and detailed understanding of athlete status—including their response to recent load—is significantly more valuable than information on the amount of the load.

Enter force plates.

Background: Technology, History, and Biomechanics

Force platforms, also called force plates, are (typically metal) surfaces upon which athletes can perform a variety of movements. The plates are under-rigged by strain gauges or load cells that measure force and time at high-frequencies.

Jumping, landing, and isometric movements typically are assessed through the derivations of impulse to produce velocity, momentum, and flight outputs and from these measures, power, acceleration and displacement. Assessments of the forces applied to and by objects are categorized as kinetic. Kinematics (or the motion of objects), on the other hand, require more (and much more expensive) technology and specialized biomechanical and statistical analyses.

Until recently, force plates often featured significant limitations on their feasibility in daily sporting environments:

• Single, large, and very heavy platforms prevent limb-specific (and therefore asymmetry) outputs
• Portability issues
• Labor-intensive data extraction requiring both specialized computing skills and prohibitive amounts of time
• Software limitations

Currently, there are multiple available technologies providing instantaneous feedback to users with automatic variable calculation in the dozens, with often over one hundred variables available to compare and contrast athletes and inter-individual variations over time. Of important note is that this article will focus on applications of uni-axial force platforms, measuring only vertical displacements; tri-axial force platforms providing insight on horizontal displacement and thus opening great possibilities for dynamic multidirectional assessments are of outstanding value in cases where an organization has the resources, time, buy-in, standardization of testing, and specialized skillsets available to evaluate the resultant data. However, as the vast majority of practitioners and organizations either do not have such resources and/or have not yet integrated “simple” vertical assessments into their programs for the greatest possible return of value, I will focus on those such applications here.

Common Procedures: Types of Tests and Typical Prescriptions

We categorize tests on uniaxial force plates as jump-landing (or jumps), landing, or isometric movements. With rare exceptions, these evaluations are designed explicitly for standardized neuromuscular evaluations. This does not mean generic, nor without intended or possible application and transferability to sporting qualities. It means that the movements are not sport-specific and instead provide neuromuscular information from which we can derive sport-specific insights.

Force plate movement tests are not sport-specific; they provide neuromuscular information from which we can draw sport-specific insights. Share on X

An example is a sport where a technical coach perceives an athlete has a weakness with change-of-direction ability. When this happens, the physical preparation staff executes an intervention and examines pre- and post-measures of rates of force development in the eccentric phase of a countermovement jump. The staff uses this information to assess an objective marker of outputs representing the qualities necessary to execute the key movement skills.

Common Tests

In applied settings, the two most common tests performed are the double-leg countermovement jump (CMJ) and the isometric mid-thigh pull (IMTP). Each has variations, including a single-leg CMJ (SLCMJ) and the use of either a squat rack (IsoSquat) or parallel bars for the isometric pull. I encourage you to consider your population and facility logistics to decide the appropriate application.

The next most common tests are the squat jump (SJ) and drop jump (DJ). The SJ is excellent for examining isolated concentric qualities—jumping ability in the absence of an elastic component and countermovement.

Shot-put throwers, football linemen, rugby forwards, and ice-skaters probably all benefit more from regular SJ testing than other athletes, but it has its place in initial profiling and intermittent monitoring for any athlete. For example, quarterly or at each training-cycle changeover period.

Comparing SJ and CMJ outputs, such as jump height or peak power, provides context on eccentric and concentric qualities (sometimes called the eccentric utilization ratio). Output comparisons also provide a nice second layer of jump analysis that examines training adaptations or retention of qualities over periods of time, such as in-season.

The DJ is a very interesting test. For many practitioners, it’s the go-to test because it’s the method through which we can derive the most information—contact time as well as flight time—from jump mats and similar technologies.

I’m not a huge fan, however. Cases where athletes drop jump reliably are far too rare, and athlete aversion to the impactful movement is far too common. The test does help examine how an athlete lands on the ground and their ability to turn around and leave the ground as quickly as possible. But the movement is far less idiot-proof (easy to teach, hard to mess up à clean data) than CMJ.

The drop jump has a place in profiling and intermittent testing, but it has limited reliability and athletes are especially averse to it when sore, says @CoolHandJakeGS. Share on X

Also, athletes can use technical strategies that result in false-positive performances. Or they can feel far less coordinated than they do with similar sporting skills, which creates false-negative information. DJ has its place in profiling and intermittent testing, but for me, it’s not sufficiently valuable as a regular testing method.

Another common and essential jump test is the land-and-hold (LAH). LAH is a profiling and intermittent monitoring tool that’s criminally underrated. While we can learn much information from the landing of the CMJ, we derive more specific information and deliberate context from an isolated landing. I expect future research will demonstrate its use for lower body injury screening and rehabilitation. I imagine this as a centerpiece for diving, gymnastics, throwers, and aerial skiers.

The land-and-hold jump test is my dark horse pick for the top three must-do tests in any setting, says @CoolHandJakeGS. #forceplates Share on X

Performed single- or double-leg, the LAH is my dark horse pick for a top three must-do tests in nearly any setting. Credit to Will Morgan (Australia Winter Sports) and Phil Graham-Smith for pointing me toward this one and up-skilling me on it.

Finally, position-specific isometric tests have become quite popular recently, with a range of variations offered in the literature and current practices. Common favorites are the calf, hamstring/posterior chain, and shoulder tests.

Position-specific isometric tests are very useful, and demand for upper-body tests will grow as throwing and racquet sports modernize. Share on X

I’ve used all three in track and field and found them to be very useful. The supine single-leg posterior chain showed the strongest correlation to anything we measured to 60m and 100m sprinting performance in our Florida State sprinters during the 2017-18 season. While traditionally force plate tests have looked at lower body or total body movements, the demand for upper-body specific tests will continue to grow as throwing and racquet sports modernize (Ashworth 2018).

When to Administer Tests

For ideal best practice in any running-based or field and court sport, I suggest administering all of the above tests at the start of the season (and both start and end of preseason, if feasible). Administer the LAH, SL-CMJ, secondary Isos, and SJ tests monthly or at the turn of each training phase, and the CMJ + IMTP (or variation) or LAH as often as possible, preferably >3x/wk.

Test Administration and Cueing

As with any data collection, standardization and ecological validity are extremely important. One common fallacy when discussing CMJ eccentric variables is that they are not reliable. This is a byproduct of many studies that did not include cueing toward maximal velocity-effort.

When administering a CMJ, I cue the athlete to “be explosive and jump as high and as fast as you can!” If the athlete jumps as fast as they can, jump height will be true and, therefore, sensitive—reliable data is sensitive data.

Eccentric variables vary far more than concentric variables for the following reason: athletes are highly capable of altering jump strategy—often subconsciously or unintentionally—to take more time than typical for their countermovement (eccentric phase) to produce normal jump outputs. A classic example of a fatigued athlete is one who takes 100-200ms more than normal for the eccentric duration and yet produces a completely normal jump height. This is a common and brilliantly useful situation that practitioners should be looking for when administering CMJs.

When an athlete is cued to jump explosively and as fast as they can (often a second time after a slow first jump) during their attempts to jump quickly, their jump height may drop off, revealing fatigue. Conversely, a fresh athlete often displays reduced eccentric duration more than they will increased jump height or peak power.

With the IMTP & IsoSquat tests, and really any isometric test, pay attention to the athlete’s stability before the movement. The cueing depends on whether you’re interested in the rate of force development (RFD) or only peak force measures. Many practitioners do 1-3 reps of each, first cueing to ease into a true max and then instructing an explosive and fast pull.

Outputs: Variables and Meaningful Data

Force plate data is best examined through a lens zooming in and out. Many variables are useful to watch when profiling and screening athletes and when looking at long term trends. More acute and ongoing observations, however, are better narrowed to a handful of metrics known to be reliable (and therefore sensitive) and pertinent.

Where machine learning techniques are feasible, examining raw data or a large menu of variables can be beneficial. During week to week testing of the rhythms of a season, 3-6 variables from the CMJ are often sufficient to provide actionable monitoring information within healthy populations. The IMTP/IsoSquat, SJ, DJ, and LAH provide only a few variables that I’ll detail at the end of this section while the rest will focus on CMJ outputs.

Although there is always a place for loading up all of a players’ time-course data and examining their trends, I find it useful to break down typical “data views” to one of the following contextual purposes (each of which I examine more fully in the following sections):

Profiling and Screening: Initial, healthy baseline data to compare and contrast athletes within and between groups, evaluate their condition at the end of the offseason/start of the preseason, and filter for potential high-risk individuals.

Intermittent Monitoring: Monthly, quarterly, or at intervals representing the start or end of training and competitive phases specific to intended adaptations of physical statuses. Ideal for examining training effects and retention of qualities during competitive and high volume or low rest periods.

Load-Response Monitoring (LRM): As frequent as possible, with contextual accommodations for the acute and heteroscedastic nature of single data points. Match Day +2 is a typical LRM examination, comparing athlete data to their normal MD+2 as well as MD or MD- data. Discovering how an athlete typically enters a loaded period and how they respond to loads can be hugely beneficial for athlete management.

Rehabilitation: When an athlete is injured and in the return-to-perform (RTP) process, what we examine, how we examine it, and which tests we perform may be quite unique.

Profiling, Screening, and Intermittent Monitoring

In my experience, the variables of particular note in profiling, screening, intermittent monitoring, and long term athletic development (LTAD) (year to year) are often the same:

Jump Height. While we should not ignore this variable, we best treat it as a contextual placeholder representing overall athleticism and should not provoke reactions from day-to-day variation nor false negatives where stable. Mechanical and jump strategy variables described below are more sensitive.

Concentric Impulse and Eccentric Deceleration Impulse. These are phase-specific representations of force outputs. Deceleration, typically dependent on software applications, represents the eccentric phase minus unloading. Impulses are rate-vectors reported as Newton-Seconds (Ns). Impulse is the amount of force applied within the time taken. We can visualize it as the area under the curve/slope on a force-time trace. These (especially concentric) are closely related to jump height and are fairly stable, yet can evolve significantly with training effects and training age.

RSImod. Probably the ultimate catch-all jump performance metric that is also synonymous (though calculated slightly differently) with Flight Time:Contraction Time, RSImod encompasses how high and how fast. Anecdotally, RSI may continue evolving across training age after jump height plateaus, and there may be individual athletes who jump through the roof compared to those who jump very high and do so very fast!

Peak Power (relative and absolute). A mixed variable because explaining what exactly power is can be extremely ambiguous. Power is another interesting variable that provides isolated comparisons and, in contrast to jump height and RSI, can encompass body mass as a factor.

Load-Response Monitoring

For load-response monitoring, RSI can remain with the following sensitive variables added.

Eccentric Duration (ED). My favorite variable for monitoring readiness, or fatigue and freshness. ED will vary widely with jump strategy and mechanics provided we cue the athletes to consistently jump as fast as they can (or explosively). Transient or acute changes in RSImod likely will be reflected in ED, with athletes under fatigue or with otherwise impaired neuromuscular status demonstrating increased (elongated) ED. Individual sport athletes, when tapered or brought to peak for performances, can display reduced (shortened) ED.

Eccentric Deceleration RFD (EDRFD). Another favorite variable, this will wax and wane with ED, yet can represent quite different qualities. Stiffness is a misused term and concept, and this post will not cover spring-mass models. For me, EDRFD nicely represents an athlete’s bounce. If it’s poor, their ACL risk is possibly elevated (before considering asymmetries and a host of other factors). If it’s great, the athlete likely possesses a strong change-of-direction ability.

Concentric Impulse @ 100ms (Con-Imp100) (or another time constraint). Whereas total impulse answers the question of “how much force was applied in the time it took to complete the jump phase” (concentric, eccentric, etc.), Con-Imp100 informs how much force the athlete applied in the first 100ms of the concentric phase.

Concentric Rate of Power Development (Con-RPD). Cormie identified this in 2008 as a useful variable, essentially representing acceleration, using watts per second. Visualized as the slope of the power curve on a kinetics graph, RPD correlated with acceleration in collegiate sprinters in unpublished data. Sprinters who had higher RPD were consistently ahead at the 5m and 10m mark in races. RPD can be weight (/kg) or time (e.g., @50ms) constrained for more granular analysis.

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation features its own set of contextual factors. First, great consideration—and the influence of medical staff—must be taken as to when we can integrate certain tests safely as well as at what stage certain variables become relevant. For example, bilateral CMJs reasonably may be integrated during lower body RTP far earlier than SL, though both are very useful and healthy baseline data is essential where feasible.

Further, practitioners will notice that eccentric peak velocity (Cohen, Aspetar in Press) may take a while to return to near healthy standards even when the rehabilitating athlete can perform jumps. Often asymmetries “disappear” early in the RTP process because athletes are not yet moving quickly enough to manifest intra-limb differences in meaningful magnitudes.

In any case, asymmetries and jump strategy or mechanical variables are likely to be a focus of RTP monitoring. While output variables such as jump height and total impulse may return to healthy baselines relatively quickly, EDRFD and its asymmetries, time-constrained impulses, and landing asymmetries often take far longer to revert to healthy norms in rehabilitating athletes.

Variables From Movements Other than the Countermovement Jump

Drop Jump. The DJ is typically integrated for contextual RSI information, though looking at contact time on its own has value, as does asymmetries.

Squat Jump. In the SJ, jump height is often the only metric used for comparison with CMJ-JH as a concentric utilization ratio, which essentially compares how much jump height ability the countermovement produces—how much force and velocity an athlete produces without an eccentric phase. We can also examine CMJ-parallel metrics from the concentric phase, including impulse, peak power, and RPD.

Land-and-Hold. The LAH typically provides only three metrics, all of which have contextual value. Time to stabilization (TTS) represents the duration between the instant of landing and the moment in which the weight (represented by force) detected by the plate stabilizes to within a set range, depending on the technology. Peak landing force refers to how stiffly or softly the athlete lands on the plates, which is relevant if we cue the athlete one way or the other. Asymmetry between limb-specific peak force is very interesting and can be a key marker during lower body injury rehabilitation. With that in mind, many practitioners choose to favor single-leg LAH and compare both TTS and peak landing forces between limbs once the athlete is cleared to do so.

Isometrics. With IMTP and other isometrics, variables can become quite nuanced with the right population. Stone’s recent 25-year review is a fantastic read on the topic. Most often, two metrics receive attention: peak force and RFD. Examining both, depending on cueing, is useful (see test administration section).

Looking Ahead: Future Research, Evolving Applications, and New Technology

New software capabilities will include auto-detection and analysis of traditional resistance training movements, such as squats and cleans, as well as more advanced force-time curve visualizations like waveform analyses. The research will begin to assess which variables may relate more closely to transient versus residual and chronic fatigue, as well as those which relate to more specific sport skills such as on-field speed.

While some inroads have been made in these areas already, much of this article’s content relies heavily on word-of-mouth best practice while the literature lags behind, as in any applied science.

Like most sports science information, there is work to be done to establish standards and benchmarks for different populations and variables. As each athlete and scenario is different, the question of “what is a good score” remains intentionally unanswered in many cases. The more data we can share, the more informed we’ll be, and the better technologies will be used.

Summary

Force plates are an extremely useful objective tool we can use to assess and monitor athletes, in particular their responses to load. Accordingly, force plates provide a very significant advantage over more limited jump-assessment technologies. I encourage you to use a broad range of tests in profiling and screening and intermittent monitoring and do very regular monitoring with CMJ (and, where feasible, IMPT/IsoSquat and LAH) over less frequent monitoring with more tests.

As with any sports science practices, data value and practice efficacy are directly affected by establishing meaningful changes and signal-to-noise balances, while minimizing report outputs and excessive data use as well as maximizing efficiency and actionable information streams.

Regardless of how well established a load monitoring system may be in a given environment, load management cannot be truly effective without a strong integration of load-response evaluations. Force plates provide an outstanding tool with which to do this.

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Further Reading and References

An upcoming Aspetar (Sports Medicine) Journal features a special collection of papers for those interested in neuromuscular monitoring in their programs, including a piece on rehabilitation and single-leg jumps. I highly recommend these! Also, when the NSCA releases its sports science programming, the textbook will include a chapter about using force plates, taking a more long-form and academic approach to the above concepts.

Cormack, Newton, McGuigan, et al. (2008). “Neuromuscular and endocrine responses of elite players during an elite Australian rules football season.” International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.

Mooney, Cormack, O’Brien, et al. (2013). “Impact of neuromuscular fatigue on match exercise intensity and performance in elite Australian football.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Gathercole, Sporer, Stellingwerff, et al. (2015). “Alternative countermovement-jump analysis to quantify acute neuromuscular fatigue.” International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance.

Bromley, Turner, Read, et al. (2018). “The effects of a competitive soccer match on jump performance and inter-limb asymmetries in elite academy soccer players.” The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research.

Stone, O’Bryant, Hornsby, et al. (2019). “Using the isometric mid-thigh pull in the monitoring of weightlifters: 25+ years of experience.” UK Strength and Conditioning Association.

Constantine, Taberner, Richter, et al. (2019). “Isometric posterior chain peak force recovery response following match-play in elite youth soccer players: associations with relative posterior chain strength.” Sport (open access).

Taberner, Allen, Cohen. (2019). “Progressing rehabilitation after injury: consider the ‘control-chaos continuum.'” British Journal of Sports Medicine.

P Cormie, JM McBride, GO McCaulley. (2008). “Power-time, force-time, and velocity-time curve analysis during the jump squat: impact of load.” Journal of Applied Biomechanics.

The summer is a terrific 10- to 12-week block of open calendar when many coaches hope their athletes will do a little extra training and come back to school ready for a big athletic year. Nothing beats enrolling in a private facility’s program or working under the eyes of a knowledgeable and watchful coach. You can have periodized training and consistent and appropriate exercise selection, follow a progressive overload, and get deload weeks timed appropriately.

For me, summer programs and clinics have always been less about the preparation for the upcoming season (although that is the draw), and more about promoting independence moving forward. Athletes should carry some sort of basic understanding of why they do what they do into the competitive season. This helps them make better choices in training.

For me, summer programs and clinics have always been less about the preparation for the upcoming season, and more about promoting independence moving forward, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

The truth is that many high school athletes float around untethered each summer without a lot of structured training. They work out by themselves because the cost of some summer training programs is too high, their schedules are already full, or they don’t think structured training could benefit them. With a little more work, these athletes have the potential to help our teams.

Misconceptions about what is needed to take these steps forward are a huge problem. No matter how much coaches explain their philosophy and training methods in season, most athletes don’t internalize these tips or seek out extra coaching. Some end up doing too little; some, too much; and some, nothing at all. The disease of more is just as problematic as inactivity.

Lots of high school athletes who are beginners sign up for gym memberships. From what I observe, it goes one of two ways:

Consistently solid training in the important summer weeks will always yield better results than doing nothing or doing the wrong work, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

I am sure there are exceptions to these examples, but not having a plan or seeking out solutions is disadvantageous. This writing doesn’t serve as a specific training program, but rather, a reminder to those athletes who may be flying solo this summer. These athletes can help our programs and should be pointed in the right direction to make good choices. Consistently solid training in these important weeks will always yield better results than doing nothing or doing the wrong work.

Don’t Be Driven Solely by Aesthetics

Whether you call it hypertrophy training, beach muscles, or pump chasing, high school males find it hard to ignore its appeal. They rifle through the latest issue of Flex magazine, pull out a sample week from Phil Heath, and make plans to get “jacked.” We have all heard it before: “Coach, I’m going to get huge this summer.”

Many of us coaches love this training ourselves. It is easier on the tendons and joints and makes us look great in our polos. It is also probably a good base of training for athletes who are new to the weight room and can be a good accessory lift in the right doses and places for others. However, the SAID principle eventually says that if we want to be good at something, then we just have to do that thing, or at least things in the same ballpark. Endless bicep curls and bench presses just adapt us for curling and pressing.

Always lifting this way is a performance killer, especially in the absence of other components of training like sprinting and plyometrics. A bodybuilding split in and of itself won’t get you the results that you need. Single joint exercises are about the muscles and not about the movement. Your body doesn’t think like this. Athletes need to focus on the intention of the movement.

Lifting in the 8- to 12-rep range isn’t heavy enough for main lifts and is too much volume for high intent on power exercises like the hang clean. After learning correct technique, lifting relatively heavy loads or moving them fast will be the key for athletic transfer through a high force output. This matches up better with the goals of most athletes.

Having a strong upper body is absolutely important on the field and during acceleration to help timing and counter rotation. Just make sure it isn’t all ‘show and no go,’ says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Having a strong upper body is absolutely important on the field and during acceleration to help timing and counter rotation. Just make sure it isn’t all “show and no go.” There are plenty of simple multi-joint movements that can create a strong upper body. If an athlete is eating a well-rounded diet (I know, I know—most aren’t) and slightly more than maintenance calories, they will gain muscle while still staying strong per pound of body weight.

You Need to Train Your Legs

This brings me to my next point. As Bret Contreras has said, “Glutes on the ground, hamstrings in the air.” I like this quote because it boils down the complex sprinting biomechanics of the legs to something very simple: Legs are important. This means compound lifts, rather than isolated movements like leg curls, should be the main lifts.

Hamstrings are most active when prepping for the ground and glutes are most active in the stance phase, where they help extend the thigh, stabilize the trunk, and prevent hip drop. This is a little reductionist on my part, but legs help athletes go, slow down, stop, land, and prevent injuries. Yet, many high school athletes avoid training them altogether unless they are with a coach or trainer. Barbell hip thrusts are an excellent way to train hip extension in sprinting and Romanian deadlifts are a great way to eccentrically train the hamstrings for ground contact when sprinting.

I think, compared to most upper body exercises, the technical nature of lower body strength and power exercises is a bit intimidating. I love all types of squats, from goblet and front to back and split squats. I cannot in good faith recommend that someone who doesn’t already know how to squat just go and start squatting. Squatting is very individual and matching up squatting exercises and mobility drills is something a coach should help with. The same goes for all types of Olympic lifts.

Matching up squatting exercises and mobility drills is something a coach should help with. Don’t just go and start squatting if you don’t already know how, warns @grahamsprints. Share on X

I think it is easy for someone to fall into analysis paralysis with the vast array of lower body items making the rounds on the internet. I still think if an athlete is sprinting and doing other athletic work, they don’t need complicated in the weight room, at least for high school kids. It is also perfectly okay to repeat exercises. Variety is good and can be motivating, but not if you haven’t passed Weight Room 101.

For the high school athlete who is by themselves this summer, I think these exercises are fairly easy to learn and still accomplish most of what they need to take a step forward.

In this table, you can find terrific examples of hip extension exercises and lower body power exercises. I am not going to say they are the “best exercises,” but the exercises I feel most athletes could learn and do safely on their own. The hip thrust, even with a dumbbell and single leg, is an excellent way to train hip extension.

I would encourage athletes to still research and look at the videos on YouTube before doing these movements. There is enough variety to motivate an athlete to switch things up when bored while also promoting consistency. When we utilize exercises too soon, we can end up with something unsafe (or at least unproductive), like the reverse curl-hang clean.

The hex bar deadlift jump also gets a lot of love as a power exercise and I can see why. But I would not want an athlete in the off-season to be doing this without a coach/trainer. There have to be prerequisites to advanced items. A careful load selection percentage, the presence of a hip hinge, eccentric hamstring strength, and prior experience with deadlifting are all factors I would want in place before an athlete does these. While a trap bar deadlift is not the same setup or technique as a conventional barbell deadlift, it is a derivative used for roughly the same purpose. Conventional deadlift technique is taught better and, in my opinion, this makes trap bar deadlifts that much easier to master afterward.

I have seen many high school athletes at regular gyms without supervision just squat down, lift it up, and crash down with no eccentric control. This hinders hamstring development and deceleration abilities.

While it is a bit easier to do and add load than a conventional deadlift, the addition of a jump to a hex bar deadlift must be earned. These have an eccentric and concentric portion. If you are not doing trap bar deadlifts with the all-important eccentric phase, hex bar jumps are not an option for you yet. Simple things still need to be coached and you need to be strong before you worry about being powerful. Hold off on this exercise and other shiny objects for a while.

The above four power items are a bit less shiny and concerning due to the bodyweight and lighter weight load used during the exercises. There just are fewer boxes to check first before doing these. Every power exercise above, except med ball throws without countermovements, has an eccentric portion. Pick movements and not exercises. For beginners, learning correct technique on med ball throws is not as hard as Olympic lifts, especially if throwing it hard and fast is progressed slowly.

Rest More Than Before

I am not just talking about sleep. I am talking about rest intervals between sets and reps. Somewhere along the line, we seem to have fallen in love with the notion that constant motion equals hard work. Sweat doesn’t equal intent and, more often than not, doing things fresh with more rest will get the better result.

We seem to have fallen in love with the notion that constant motion equals hard work. More often than not, doing things fresh with more rest will get the better result, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

During our track season, it is not uncommon to have four or five athletes at a rack in the weight room. We do this to force rest. By the time the first person goes again, they typically have rested for three minutes. This is a perfect amount of rest when strength training and they do nothing between sets but talk, spot, and support each other.

The same goes for speed training. The general rule of thumb devised by people much smarter than me is to rest one minute per every 10-meter run in an acceleration or max velocity session. A common introductory session I might use is 6x20m r=2’. If we are doing 10-meter flys with a 25-meter lead-in, I may use four minutes of rest by rounding up from 3.5 minutes. I encourage them to do some sprint drills to stay loose between sets. At any rate, complete rest is the goal.

Dr. Mike Young has noted that people with well-developed aerobic systems (helps ATP production) may be able to handle slightly less rest as long as the intent and speed are still greater than 90%. If you want your body to adapt neuromuscularly to sprinting, you have to train absolute speed. This can be boring and relatively sweat-free, but it works.

Have someone time you or, better yet, compete against a friend. Two sprint days a week can go a long way in developing your speed this off-season. Again, working with a coach on a specific program will always be the best option, but sprinting fast is often a good place to start. While everyone else is on “the grind,” use appropriate rest periods to get your best results.

A beginner athlete lifting smaller loads can probably get away with less rest and have slightly more volume to learn the movements better. As they move into increasing the loads, they may initially need more rest. An intermediate-level lifter will need to stay truer to the rest constraints.

Have Fun with Your Workouts

This is geared more to the intermediate and advanced athletes with some more experience. The pressure of being a serious athlete has to wear on high school athletes at times. Long seasons, early morning workouts, and school work can all have a cumulative effect and resultant burnout. They can become disinterested and experience large drops in performance.

I have an interesting view because I teach fifth grade and see strong athletes enrolled in travel ball, playing soccer through all seasons, and getting private lessons all the time. It is not uncommon for me to discover that when these athletes reach high school, they don’t play any sports at all. Some of this might speak to their peers catching up to them developmentally, but I suspect a few just got sick of it.

Mark Manson said, “Success is often the first step toward disaster. The idea of progress is often the enemy of actual progress.” I don’t see that pushing too hard, too often, and early is good for long-term development. More isn’t always better for growing athletes. Keep doing things really well and enjoy the process.

I don’t see that pushing too hard, too often, and early is good for long-term development. More isn’t always better for growing athletes, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

Even professional athletes have time off written into their contracts. As coaches, we need to remember who we are dealing with. Summer is an excellent time to catch up on much needed rest and make some gains, but I also think athletes should make time for things they love that still involve activity.

While good training is very structured, choices provide a mental break that goes a long way. Not everyone has fun running fast or lifting heavy all the time, but the good athletes will still do it.

My track athletes have done some of the following in the summer:

• Skateboarding
• Parkour
• “Tricking”
• Golf
• Dance
• Gymnastics

At the time, some of this stuff drove me nuts. I am learning that choice and variety are great things and can make more-resilient athletes. Some of my favorite gym or track sessions now, at age 36, are completely unplanned, and having that freedom keeps me going. I have never associated fitness with torture or being bored. I want my athletes to consistently work out and they need to authentically enjoy themselves once in a while.

I don’t think it has to be as extreme as some of the above activities.

• A well-placed “arm day” or hypertrophy block that doesn’t have a huge technical focus can provide a little mental break for the strength athlete. Training at high intensities all the time is impossible. Even powerlifters periodize training so they aren’t always training maximally.
• An abs/core circuit is a favorite among some of our female athletes. I think lifting heavy and sprinting address most of the core needs, but this is about mental health, not necessarily athletic gain. Think more along the lines of bear crawls, birddogs, and deadbugs, rather than sit-ups and crunches.
• Go for a run. I know some sprint coaches will have my head, but lots of field sports are aerobic as well. Even extensive tempo workouts like repeat 100 meters @70% or bowtie sprints for soccer players are structured. I’m not saying make running the main thing, but the cleansing effect and stress relief from a run can be a good thing.
• Play a pickup game of basketball, volleyball, football, ultimate frisbee, or something that isn’t your sport. Most sports are probably more similar to each other than different. This is an excellent way to get some agility work in a new setting, which can keep motivation high.

Once September hits and the competitive season begins, you want not only to be physically prepared, but also mentally ready to sustain that higher performance level, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

If you are an athlete whose calendar is already full of games and workouts and you hear a voice in your head or your joints saying “I need a break” every once in a while, take it. This could be active or complete rest. Once September hits and the competitive season begins, you want not only to be physically prepared, but also mentally ready to sustain that higher level of performance.

So, What Now?

An athlete not being coached through a specific program can have an issue seeing progress, but doing something is better than doing nothing. Getting into the weight room in the off-season and not doing any harm is a good second place trophy. They are still at a disadvantage when compared to athletes getting coached.

Realistically, for beginner and intermediate athletes, 2-3 days a week of full body done well is perfect. It is good to have some variety, but ultimately, some consistency with exercise selection is necessary to improve. I am not going to go full Flex magazine and list out sample training, but I will list a sensible daily format. If you are a novice or intermediate-level lifter, you should probably do something that looks more like this:

A1) Power exercise – jump squats

B1) Strength exercise (main lift) – Bulgarian split squat, 5×5 reps

C1) Assistance exercise – incline push-ups, 3-4x 8-10 reps

C2) Assistance exercise – banded pull-ups, 3-4x 8-10 reps

This is an easy way to start thinking about a plan and how long a gym session may last. You can also easily adapt these for bodyweight exercises to do at home. It isn’t perfect, but it is probably pretty achievable and more along the lines of something that will be beneficial. The next time the athlete lifts, they could make the main lift upper body and superset two lower body accessories. Change is a good way to make sure progress is happening.

The problem is that most of the exercises listed previously as being easy to learn aren’t actually considered main lifts (at least, not like squats or deadlifts are). The only exceptions may be the barbell hip thrust and Bulgarian split squat. I still think progressing to heavier weights with these exercises will help.

It also depends on what you want to get out of your assistance lifts. They are commonly used to make the main lifts better with extra work at lower intensities. Combining an upper body push with an upper body pull is a good way to make sure you aren’t becoming too anterior dominant. Symmetry and balance are great to help an athlete stay healthy.

Symmetry and balance are great to help an athlete stay healthy, says @grahamsprints. Share on X

I can’t speak in absolutes, so working with a coach obviously helps tailor the pairing of assistance lifts to the athlete and needs of the sport. It also provides more options with an emphasis on better technique. At the very least, athletes should remember that high-volume, split body part workouts aren’t very effective.

The same goes for sprinting. The base of speed is speed. Work short accelerations first and progress to flying sprints. Tony Holler has changed the game by getting the word out across the country with his “Sprint as fast as possible, as often as possible, while staying as fresh as possible” mantra. It is a terrific quote loaded with good common sense, but as Voltaire famously said, “Common sense is not so common.”

I spend a lot of time at tracks in the summer and see lots of athletes training. I see lots of quasi-sprinting under 90% with rest periods that are too short. Sprint first before the weight room and not on days when your legs are already sore. In 11 weeks of this summer, you have the opportunity to do around 20 extra sprint workouts that may bring forth neuromuscular adaptations that allow you to hit greater speeds on the field.

If you are truly working hard, either by yourself or with a coach, you should still plan some less-structured working out. I think being coached and learning are huge for developing as an athlete, but you should be mentally ready to be at your best in season as well. Don’t leave your best performances and mindset in the summer months. Best of luck this fall!

Since you’re here…
…we have a small favor to ask. More people are reading SimpliFaster than ever, and each week we bring you compelling content from coaches, sport scientists, and physiotherapists who are devoted to building better athletes. Please take a moment to share the articles on social media, engage the authors with questions and comments below, and link to articles when appropriate if you have a blog or participate on forums of related topics. — SF

Sitting in the bleachers behind the bench, bundled up between our team physiotherapist and nutritionist, I tightly squeezed their hands in mine. With the match level at a 2-2 in the 89th minute, our team had drawn a last-second penalty kick. Our 21-year-old striker, one of the league’s top goal scorers (and with both goals in this match to his name as well), adjusted the ball in his hands, settled it on the spot, and took three large steps back.

As we waited for the whistle, the goalkeeper bounced up and down dramatically on his line and the shooter’s eyes shifted just barely from the keeper to the left corner flag. I held my breath as the whistle rang out, silence falling over every spectator in the freezing stadium.

The young striker accelerated forward, striking the ball to the left side of the goal.

Wide left. Not even a save—simply a miss.

He hung his head, standing frozen in the middle of the box. As the other team celebrated their great fortune, a few players ran up to pat our forward’s back and encourage him. From afar, I could see his head shaking in disbelief.

I waited in the hallway outside the locker rooms for the last of the players to debrief and hit the showers. As he passed me, he avoided my eyes and dropped his head. “I bombed,” he grunted in no particular direction. I followed him toward the bus.

“What ran through your mind?” I asked, neither confirming nor denying his seemingly obvious but self-deprecating statement.

“Nothin’,” he huffed. “Said I already put up two. Add one more and make it a ‘hatty.’ Get the win.”

I nodded and shrugged. “What was the difference between the two goals in the run of play and the penalty?”

“Penalty isn’t run of play,” the young forward sighed, shaking his head. “Everyone’s watching. My parents were here. The national team scout was here too; saw him during warm-ups… I really wanted that hat trick.”

“What did you feel and where?” I asked, trying to gather more information about what exactly went on in the seconds before the penalty. “Was it distraction, confidence, stress… something else?”

He shrugged this time. “Nah,” he said as we dropped our bags in the luggage compartment under the bus. “Just thought, oh wow, this is a really big moment. Heart was beatin’ real fast and felt kinda tingly all over… like it was a big deal, y’know?” He smirked as we loaded ourselves into the bus, mounting his cool demeanor again. “Whatever. It’s done.”

Preparation and Performance

The world of performance sport is erratic at best, with its captivating highs and lows. Incredible feats of human achievement occur just as often and just as quickly as devastatingly poor performances. With the inherent instability of the sport world, stress and pressure are an inevitable experience for athletes, coaches, parents, and team staff alike. As such, it is important to understand and prepare for these occurrences, so as to limit their impact on performance when it truly matters.

Stress and pressure are an inevitable experience. It is important to understand & prepare for these occurrences to limit their impact on performance when it truly matters, says @thejulialion. Share on X

Mental preparation is as equally relevant and realistic as physical preparation training, which every athlete (and coach) is familiar with leading up to competition. As a psychophysiologist—or, more simply, a “sport psychology researcher” or “brain-body connection expert”—I teach performers how to manage their stress using a three-phase plan of mental skills training.

Before diving into the mental training portion of this blueprint, it is important to define the term “stress” and then understand how the body’s built-in stress management system works.

Stress, the Brain, and the Body

“What is stress?” has been the topic of some many thousands of research articles, most of which lead to further questions of what stimulates stress in the first place, why we humans most often frame it as an inherently negative experience, and whether there is a distinction between physical and psychological stress.

Dr. Richard Lazarus (1984) famously defined stress as a relationship “between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing,” “exceeding resources,” and potentially “endangering his or her well-being.”

This definition expands upon earlier research, which framed stress as “a response to any demand placed on the body.”This assumed that everything in life is a stressor and that stress was an answer to “any vigorous, extreme, or unusual stimulation, which, being a threat, causes significant change in behavior”—an interpretation that relies too heavily on an inherently negative reaction (Seyle, 1980; Miller, 1953).

What the human body tells us about stress, though, is that it is neutral.

When the brain and body first receive a new stimulus from the environment, the brain interprets this new stressor and tells the body how to react accordingly.

The brain asks: “Is this environmental stimulus positive? Is it negative? Is it irrelevant? Is there a potential danger nearby? Should we run?”

Let me frame this in the perspective of an athlete—any competitor can attest to how different performance environments are compared to training. For some players, the presence of spectators (which can include parents and scouts), the pressure of achieving their goals, and other environmental stimuli can be appraised as “dangerous” and begin a stress reaction, disrupting their focus during performance. This can happen even if the athlete is proficient in this skill and capable of perfect execution in training. Other athletes thrive under these conditions, using the “hype” as a driver for their performance and experience skill enhancement. And, in the same environment, another competitor may appraise these new situational stressors as “irrelevant” and have no skill disruption at all.

Compared to training conditions, competitive scenarios are just different, and naturally high-arousal athletes who suffer under pressure need to train for these changes.

Compared to training conditions, competitive scenarios are just different, and naturally high-arousal athletes who suffer under pressure need to train for these changes, says @thejulialion. Share on X

So, what exactly happens when the brain receives and appraises the stressor? Depending on how the brain perceives the stimulus, it instructs the body how to respond through the autonomic nervous system (ANS), which controls all of the body’s involuntary functions, like breathing and digestion. Its two branches, the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, play primary roles in stimulating and inhibiting the stress response.

If a stressor is appraised as negative or threatening, even potentially, the sympathetic nervous system (also known as the “fight or flight response”) is activated. This can be thought of as the body’s gas pedal.

Through a series of complicated brain activity, the hormonal system releases a slew of hormones, namely adrenaline and cortisol, which heighten the body’s senses. The heart rate increases. The body’s attention is diverted from unnecessary systems, like the digestive and reproductive systems, temporarily slowing these processes down. Energy may surge at first, possibly resulting in jitters or stomach discomfort. Arousal is high. This is the built-in survival mode.

As you can imagine, this state is not optimal for peak performance in most sports. A golfer, sprinter, soccer player taking a penalty kick, or gymnast likely cannot perform well under these conditions, because the demands of their sport are specific and require accuracy.

However, there is another branch of the body’s build-in stress management circuitry, called the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for regaining and maintaining homeostasis. You should consider this the body’s brake pedal.

This division of the system essentially inhibits the stress response created by the sympathetic nervous system by allowing the body to relax its muscles, decrease its heart rate, and reinitiate a focus on the nonessential systems such as digestion. The body is low in physiological arousal and thus able to continue its recovery processes. This is the built-in regeneration mode.

Is a completely relaxed parasympathetic state optimal for athletic performance?

Probably not. Very low levels of arousal might be preferred in some sports, such as darts or shooting sports, which only require very fine motor skills. Sports requiring physical fitness, especially in speed, power, and endurance sports, are less compatible with a low-arousal state. The body is required to perform at its maximum capacity for a duration of time; activating the full recovery mode is not possible!

Every athlete has an optimal level of arousal for their peak performance in their sport—some players thrive on the “hype” and need to psych themselves out to a high level of arousal before competing, while others need to calm themselves down from their naturally heightened arousal state (again, perception of threat and thus, stress). It is important that every athlete naturally identifies and can regulate themselves into this zone.

The process of identifying optimal zones for performance and the complete workings of the ANS and its branches are grounds for another article. In the following sections, I will present methods of teaching stress management to these naturally high-stress athletes.

The Competition-Stress Compromise

To begin addressing stress in sport, we must accept that mental and physical arousal (the feeling of stress in the body) is simply part of being a competitor.

As tennis icon Billie Jean King proclaimed, “pressure is a privilege.” The very presence of pressure, of competitive stress, means that an athlete has something important on the line: there is something to lose, but also something to gain. The investment of time, energy, dreams, and (in many cases) money is high. This is an experience that not every athlete, and certainly not every human being, gets to know or feel. It is specific and special.

Once athletes have accepted the presence (and privilege) of pressure, it is time to reckon with competitive stress in an individualized way in order to strike an optimal, replicable balance of “low arousal” and “over-arousal” in performance.

It is here that we introduce the three-phase blueprint for athlete stress management: preparation, maintenance, and damage control

Preparation

Athletes spend a lot of time physically preparing for what is often a very short competition.

Marathoners clock double-digit hours of training in the two weeks before a race. Soccer players pull two-a-days for a 90- to 120-minute match. Sprinters put in weight room and track sessions for events lasting seven seconds to two minutes.

Why? Because, in theory, the best-prepared athletes and teams usually win.

Athletes who are prone to becoming distracted—or even paralyzed—by their stress in competition may report a spiked heart rate and/or lack of concentration, appear lost, or simply underperform in competition as opposed to their normal training output. This requirement for preparation also applies to their mental training and strategies for managing stress.

Here are the facts of the matter:

1. It’s often easier to prevent stress, and thus the distracting response, from happening in the first place, rather than to deal with it once it’s arrived.
2. No athletes, especially stress-prone ones, can outwork a lack of preparation when it’s time to perform.

For athletes who struggle with performance pressure, staying ahead of the game—as much as is humanly possible without causing its own kind of perfectionistic stress—separates high performers from the casual, spontaneous types.

Physical training is a form of preparation. As every coach knows, very rarely can athletes out-perform a lack of fitness. Appropriate physical and mental fitness are as essential to peak athletic performance as oxygen is to human life. Skills, tactics, and technique have to be drilled in advance in order to achieve automated execution, which is less distracting and tiresome than non-automatic skills.

If players put the time, effort, sweat, and tears into their physical and mental training in advance, they can enter a performance situation confident in the execution of their skills, says @thejulialion. Share on X

If players put the time, effort, sweat, and tears into their physical and mental training in advance, it breeds confidence. They can enter a performance situation confident that they are physically and mentally prepared to execute their skills at that time. Coaches must encourage athletes to trust that training and the process.

Planning is also a key factor in mitigating stress in advance. When the time for performance comes, making decisions and handling difficult, cognitively tiring situations wastes mental real estate that should be entirely focused on performing. Encourage athletes to eliminate as many decisions and as much stress as possible in advance. This includes gathering necessary information, packing, planning, asking the right questions, and implementing pre-performance routines as long as possible before “go time,” so that 100% of their focus can be on performing.

The use of mental imagery is a helpful tool in the preparatory phase of a competition. Using their imagination and all five senses, an athlete can create a detailed image in their mind of peak performance: how they look, feel, and experience being in a flow state and performing optimally, even under the glare of lights and an audience and surrounded by noise. Imagery allows athletes to familiarize their brains with potentially new and stressful stimuli in advance of “go time” with the goal of mitigating the perception of threat and sympathetic stress response during competition. When it is time to perform, the brain and body should both say, “I’ve been here before—we’re good.”

Likewise, a solid pre-performance routine can help athletes focus in as the countdown to performance draws to an end. This may be the playlist they listen to, the order of the warm-up, the statements and affirmations they repeat to themselves, a pre-game mindfulness meditation, or the order in which they dress. This ritual or routine assists with concentration by taking away the distractions before a match and the number of decisions athletes have to make, and tells the brain, “Hey, we’re prepared for whatever comes our way. It’s ‘go time.’”

Maintenance

When stressful situations do inevitably occur—even when everyone involved has done their best to prepare—it is just as important for athletes to have tools in their belt to handle and minimize the stress response as it comes.

This is a skill called “coping.” Whether purposeful or not, everyone has developed an intuitive set of coping mechanisms, and they are often positive and helpful. Sometimes, however, they are not beneficial to performance (and, in fact, can distract from or decrease performance).

Thus, it is critical to help athletes develop purposeful, positive coping mechanisms around competitive stress. Like all skills, it takes lots of practice for this to become automatic.

It is critical to help athletes develop purposeful, positive coping mechanisms around competitive stress. Like all skills, it takes lots of practice for this to become automatic, says @thejulialion. Share on X

Remember that the brain perceives stress subconsciously. If the body suddenly slams on the gas pedal, it is worth consciously reappraising the situation; in this case, building a purposeful awareness of the situation so athletes ask themselves:

• What emotion am I feeling and where?
• What am I stressed about?
• Is something dangerous?
• Is it actually negative?

Often, simply helping athletes become conscious of the situation—the stimulus/threat and the psychophysiological response—is enough to relieve their pressure instead of them helplessly drowning in it.

Sometimes, though, reappraisal is not sufficient in reducing the stress response. In the midst of high-pressure situations, athletes may default to over-controlling their movements, doubting their ability to compete, and using derogatory self-talk. It goes without saying that this makes the situation worse!

Through practicing and maintaining positive self-talk, athletes can bolster themselves against external pressure and noise. Encouraging an athlete to repeat positive affirmations of themselves or the training process (i.e., “I’ve trained for this. I am ready”)—or, as a coach, repeating it for and to them—is a straightforward, memorable way to reinforce this positivity. In this case, fake it until you make it does apply.

In situations when stress is not acute, but rather reoccurring or long-term, regeneration plays a vital role in the Maintenance Phase. Some stress, like long in-seasons, tournaments, or multiple back-to-back events, last more than a few minutes, hours, or days. It’s important that, just as in workouts, the rest periods and type of regeneration are adequate for and proportionate to the amount of stress being dealt with. Insufficient recovery can lead to fatigue and illness and, in worst-case scenarios, injury or burnout, all of which are suboptimal for high performers.

An athlete’s ecosystem can also be a valuable coping mechanism. Coaches should encourage athletes to seek out other things to focus on besides their sport, especially when it is a primary source of stress. Taking part in non-competitive hobbies, exploring new things, and having go-to people or places can help remove the constant concentration on sport, develop athletes’ self-awareness and self-concept, and remind them of who they are, regardless of competitive outcomes—they are complete human beings before they are athletes.

Damage Control

In absolute best-case scenarios, stress has been prevented and managed before ever arriving at this point. But sometimes stress, and the resulting performance decrements caused by it, just sneaks up from behind when no one is looking. To minimize the damage and return to mental fitness as quickly as possible, the athlete requires another set of coping mechanisms.

Developing and implementing mistake rituals can assist athletes in releasing distractions and regaining focus when errors have been made. If an athlete is prone to succumbing to their own negative self-talk (and even resignation), encourage them to instead mentally bookmark that mistake to return to later at an appropriate time for self-feedback.

Developing and implementing mistake rituals can assist athletes in releasing distractions and regaining focus when errors have been made, says @thejulialion. Share on X

Instead of dwelling on their mistakes and losing focus in competition, instruct athletes to select a physical cue (shaking out hands, wiping off shorts, running hand through hair, etc.) or a verbal cue (“cancel,” “delete,” “forget,” etc.) to snap out of the cycle of “I’ve made this horrible mistake and now…” They should fight the urge to immediately overcompensate for the mistake, which leads to distraction and fatigue, using the mistake as motivation to continue performing well but not to stay in the past. Once an error occurs, it becomes a piece of the past and nothing they can do will change it. Thus, it is important to help athletes develop routines to mentally refocus on the present and tune into performing to their maximum capacity—no more and no less.

Athletes do not and should not have to handle stress crisis situations, whether seemingly big or small, alone. Athletes should be encouraged to reach out for help and use their surrounding resources, whether an on-staff sport psychologist, a social support network, their immediate team ecosystem (teammates, coaches, etc.), or others. It is also important that athletes are never shamed or alienated from their teams during times of stress—this makes “reentry” to the team, once the situation is solved, much more difficult, whereas peer and leadership support can help expedite the process.

Even in the Damage Control phase, recovery is still important. It is vital to focus on regenerating after large doses of stress. As coaches should know, contrary to the popular motivational phrase in the gym, rest is not earned. It is required for the brain and body to heal from the literal damage caused by stress.

This Too Shall Pass

As the player and I boarded the bus on our way back from the game, the young striker trying to shake off his disappointment from the missed penalty kick, I squeezed his shoulder encouragingly. “You did your best. We’ll work on it this week, so you have some strategies to help you in PKs next time. Enjoy your dinner.”

When we began the following training week, this athlete and I started to implement this three-phase strategy. We included more stress-protective elements in his mental training and practiced skills like positive self-talk and purposeful awareness until he felt confident that, should he feel so isolated in a high-pressure situation again, he would have the appropriate resources to meet the demands.

This mental skills training helped to reduce his stress, as he later reported to me that “even if I do get stressed, I know what it feels like, so it’s not scary and I have stuff to help me handle it now.”

He has not missed a penalty kick in the year since.

Regardless of motivation, determination, or level of mental toughness, everyone faces a stress crisis at some point, whether big or small, in the public eye or in private.

Giving athletes more useful skills and resources to meet the mental and emotional demands of sport can reduce negative feelings that result from pressure situations, says @thejulialion. Share on X

Athletes are no different, especially in the very volatile, commoditized world of high performance. Giving athletes more useful skills and resources to meet the mental and emotional demands of sport can reduce negative feelings that result from pressure situations. Coaches should teach players to maximize resources, prepare, reappraise, and practice productive coping skills, and remind them that all stress does wane and pass at some point.

And they will recover.

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Mellalieu, S. D., Neil, R., Hanton, S., and Fletcher, D. “Competition stress in sport performers: Stressors experienced in the competition environment.” Journal of Sports Sciences. 2009;27(7):729–744.

McCorry L. K. “Physiology of the autonomic nervous system.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 2007;71(4):78.

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