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As testing relates specifically to football I am going to say that the Vertical Jump Test and 20 yard Shuttle Run are the best overall indicators for performance – through this post I will explain why and in the comments section below you can give your feedback and say whether you agree or disagree with my view.
At first glance The Vertical Jump Test may not seem as relevant to football as it would be for our beach volleyball playing friend to the right here but; the reality is, that it is a great test for football because it does an outstanding job of measuring power through triple extension – that is extension around the joints of the ankle, knee and hip.
Extension around these joints is important to a sport like football because football is dominantly a game of speed (acceleration) and power (mass x acceleration); it is through extension around these joints and recruitment of the musculature of the ‘posterior chain’ (calves, hamstrings, glutes and low back extensors) that we create the force required for acceleration.
When you are crouched at the starting line of the 40 yard dash you are in a flexed position around the ankle, knee and hip. This flexion or bend creates “power angles” which allow your body to store ‘kinetic energy’. Kinetic energy is the tension you feel when you stretch a rubber band to its limit – on the one hand; if you were to stretch the band too far it snaps, on the other hand if you do not stretch it far enough there is absolutely no elastic tension what-so-ever. There is a sweet spot in this force curve that will optimize the distance traveled by the band if you were to let it fly.
The same is true of your muscles in regard to producing the power necessary for explosive acceleration – you gotta find the sweet spot where the muscles around your hips, knees and ankles are primed to explode into extension. Joe DeFranco and Zach Even-Esh both discuss the principles of risk versus reward when training athletes in their Lost Secrets of Strength Training DVD and how to incorporate jump training (plyometrics) in combination with deadlifts to maximize the cross over to performance in 10 yard acceleration and vertical jump testing as opposed to the convention of using Olympic Lifts that require more time to teach and expose the athlete to great degree of risk and incidence for an injury due to training. Essentially the theory boils down to being able to practice and strengthen the muscles involved in triple extension by jumping rather than an exercise that is weight loaded such as power cleans.
The second test that I believe translates very well onto the football field is the 20 yard shuttle run – and its contemporary the L-test. Both of these tests gauge the ability of an athlete to change direction and accelerate out of those changes of direction – kind like this guy to our left.
Power and speed are great abilities to possess however if neither can be applied in a game situation then they are both useless. The above tests measure one of the most important abilities to football which is the ability to react, change direction, accelerate and make a play by being in the best possible position.
You can see it all over the field regardless of position – even offensive linemen have to be able to change direction and accelerate; think of a toss play and the pulling guard (one of my personal favorites). The element that varies from one position to the next however is the distance over which these changes of direction must occur and the speed at which acceleration and deceleration happen. This is why football is called a collision sport – the change of direction when coupled with the mass of the players and their ability to accelerate leads to some pretty big hits when combined with technique that has been practiced and practiced again from the age of 6 in some cases.
Now it’s your turn to weigh in, do you agree or disagree with the above tests being the best measures of performance and athleticism for football. Drop your comments below and let your voice be heard!
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