The Combine is the NFL’s largest scouting event for new players and gives teams amazing access to potential draft picks before the draft. With a testing system in place that tests every part of a player’s game, it’s hard to escape the critical eye of scouting professionals. The part of the combine that many players overlook is the Interview and the Wonderlic cognitive testing. A big part of professional sports is being mentally tough, shrugging past that may just be your downfall.
The NFL Combine
For those who are not up on Combine history it was initially devised in 1982 as the National Invitational Camp held in Tampa, Florida. Previously, teams had to schedule their own visits with every player they were interested in. The National Combine as it is now referred to, has been held in Indianapolis since 1987 and has been the only National Camp since 1985 after three camps were merged into just one.
Between 2-300 players are generally at the invite-only Combine that provides a variety of testing measures for teams to assess players live before the draft. For players wanting a spot in the league but ranked in the first round draft, it can be a real game-changer for their chances.
Physical Tests
Most of the focus of the tests emphasizes the physical prowess of the athletes and of course this is the first real test to determine if they have the basic structure needed to play at the elite level. It’s like an amateur poker player that has substantial tournament wins before deciding to turn pro. It provides an essential background to each NFL player and what their physical stats are.
Not all tests are physical drills per se; the injury test and drug test of course ensure the player meets minimum standards for playability in the league. Physical measurements and the Cybex test that measures joint movements again just provide background information for scouts.
Even though there are eight other physical drills such as the bench press, 3-cone drill, 40-yard dash and position specific drills, they are now taken a little less seriously since recent studies indicate that these drills do not provide a great correlation to future performance. In fact a new study has linked performance throughout college as a better indicator for future performance than these tests in the Combine.
So what then is the true value to teams of the Combine?
Mental Tests
Teams are placing more emphasis on the Interview of individuals than the specific physical tests. The all important interview gives coaches direct access to players for 15 minutes to ask any questions they want. For players, it is a time where their mental game and toughness are weighed during the evaluation process.
The Interview can be very different across the different coaches in the league and questions can even become very personal and probing based on the players in front of the coach. Coaches use a number of various questions to test the mental acuity, response time and focus of players.
Coaches probe using these actual questions below:
• Do you wear a g-string or a jock strap?
• What’s the drug of choice on your campus?
• What animal would you describe yourself as?
• How many different things can you think of to do with a paper clip?
Mental toughness, acuity and focus can be more important to coaches than a 0.2 second difference in a 40-yard dash stat. The reason of course is that coaches need to have players that can think on their feet with quick mental reflexes to read situation and act.
There is probably no other sport on earth, besides poker where the field of play is more dangerous and fast moving than the football field. Players need to assess their opponents and react as quickly as possible in order to defeat them. As in the game of poker, the mental game can be the more grueling aspect. Even if you know pot odds and the math of the game, training your brain on identifying weaknesses and reading your opponents is what takes a good player and makes them great.
The Interview
Within the realm of football, it’s not intelligence that usually makes a great player, the scores of the mental Wonderlic intelligence test is proof of that. Overwhelming proof shows those who score amazingly high have lackluster careers but those who score poorly such as Dan Marino, Ray Lewis and Terry Bradshaw are true Hall of Famers.
So the idea that mental acuity, focus and toughness is not correlated to intelligence but often intangible things like the ability to react to situations, picking up reads on your opponents that often go missed by others. This mental acuity allows quarterbacks like Brady or Manning (Peyton of course) to pick out a receiver, their route and have amazing passing stats.
It’s the interview process where this mental toughness is tested. So players better be on their best game when they get their fifteen minutes in front of a coach.
If you need help, just try some online poker to train your brain.
