The Athletic Combine Part 2: Interpreting your Athletic Testing Results

Testing can quickly become a waste of time if you don’t do something with the data - what it means, where they stand compared to their peers and what they need to do to improve athletically.

Jacob Tober

April 30, 2018

The Athletic Combine Part 2: Interpreting your Athletic Testing Results

This is part two of our three-part series on our athletic testing combine. You should check out part 1 to learn more about what each test means before reading on.

Testing can quickly become a waste of time if you don’t do something with the data. Every testing combine, workshop, or team session we run ends with us explaining what the data and results mean for the team and each individual.

Each athlete receives a testing handout taking them test-by-test through their results, what they mean, where they stand compared to their peers and what they need to do to improve athletically.

This is the most crucial and important part of the entire testing process.

The radar plot gives athletes and coaches a visual tool to highlight their strengths and weaknesses. Different athletes will have differently shaped charts and this can very quickly tell an athlete a lot about what sort of athlete they might be. (Explosive v strong v aerobic)

The superstar:

Keep doing what you're doing, it's working! These athletes are the standard by which all other athletes are compared, in the top 10 for basically every test, strong, robust and explosive.

The weak but springy:

You have been blessed with type II muscle fibres, elastic tendons and a reactive nervous system, but maybe your two-foot jump or change of direction is a little low (compared to your top speed). If this is you, you will thrive in the weights room, adding strength to your system is usually the catalyst to becoming a superstar.

Fit but slow:

Can go all day but never can really GO! You need strength power and speed training, and less steady state cardio. (Stop going for long runs!)

Strong but slow:

A much rarer beast, you have done the hard work of getting strong in the gym but now you need to work on transferring it into the game. If you're the kind of athlete that cannot be moved/tackled/boxed out/pinned but can't seem to keep up when the game opens up you will thrive with the addition of plyometric style training, sprint training and high-velocity dynamic efforts. Be careful though to not over do it.

The Rookie:

The good news is there is plenty of room for improvement, and the best place to start is with your strength, if you can get even just a little bit stronger it will have a flow on effect of making everything else better as well.