Anthropometric and Athletic Performance Combine Test Results Among Positions Within Grade Levels of High School–Aged American Football Players

Abstract

Leutzinger, TJ, Gillen, ZM, Miramonti, AM, McKay, BD, Mendez, AI, and Cramer, JT. Anthropometric and athletic performance combine test results among positions within grade levels of high school-aged American football players. J Strength Cond Res 32(5): 1288-1296, 2018-The purpose of this study was to investigate differences among player positions at 3 grade levels in elite, collegiate-prospective American football players. Participants' data (n = 7,160) were analyzed for this study (mean height [Ht] ± SD = 178 ± 7 cm, mass [Bm] = 86 ± 19 kg). Data were obtained from 12 different high school American football recruiting combines hosted by Zybek Sports (Boulder, Colorado). Eight 2-way (9 × 3) mixed factorial analysis of variances {position (defensive back [DB], defensive end, defensive lineman, linebacker, offensive lineman [OL], quarterback, running back, tight end, and wide receiver [WR]) × grade (freshmen, sophomores, and juniors)} were used to test for differences among the mean test scores for each combine measure (Ht, Bm, 40-yard [40 yd] dash, proagility [PA] drill, L-cone [LC] drill, vertical jump [VJ], and broad jump [BJ]). There were position-related differences (p ≤ 0.05) for Ht, 40 yd dash, and BJ, within each grade level and for Bm, PA, LC, and VJ independent of grade level. Generally, the results showed that OL were the tallest, weighed the most, and exhibited the lowest performance scores among positions. Running backs were the shortest, whereas DBs and WRs weighed the least and exhibited the highest performance scores among positions. These results demonstrate the value of classifying high school-aged American football players according to their specific position rather than categorical groupings such as "line" vs. "skill" vs. "big skill" when evaluating anthropometric and athletic performance combine test results.

Percentile Rankings and Position Differences for Absolute and Allometrically Scaled Performance Measures From the National Football League Scouting Combine

“…Fitzgerald and Jensen (5) and Gillen et al (7) found similar results compared with this study, with skill position groups having the best overall absolute performance, followed by big skill position groups, then linemen. These results are in agreement with similar comparisons in high school-aged American football players (11,14,15), which may speak to the unique position-specific differences that span across players of various levels of competition. Interestingly, Gillen et al (7) noted that body mass was one of the variables with the greatest discrepancy between NFL Scouting Combine subjects and high school scouting combine subjects, which may speak to the necessity of future studies to consider body mass when assessing differences in performance across skill levels.…”

Evaluation of the Back-in-Action test Battery In Uninjured High School American Football Players

“…33,34 Vertical jumps, broad jumps, the 40m Dash, and CMJ are part of the NFL Combine and therefore a fundamental part of the training routine used by football players, which likely affects the development of power. 33,35 The fact that jump heights of 36.3cm (TL), 22.21cm (OL/d) and 22.8cm (OL/nd) were similar to untrained individuals, is probably due to the elevated body weight of players.…”

“…Their athletes achieved a vertical jump height of 62.9 cm. 35,36 This may be due to the fact that the vertical jump test of the NFL combine (as investigated by Leutzinger et al) is executed with help of the arms, which can lead to about 25% increase in jump height of CMJs according to Sayers. 37,38 Still, after multiplication by 1.25, the current results add up to 45.28 cm, which is still diminished, but comparable to 12-year-old players.…”

Pro-agility unpacked: Variability, comparability and diagnostic value

“…This could be due to the fact that most American football testing batteries include the pro-agility shuttle, and test performance has implications for NFL draft status. 10,22,23,36,47 However, since other sports, such as soccer, cricket, and tennis include many changes of direction, 7,15,96,97 the utility of the pro-agility shuttle could benefit sports which require multiple high degree directional changes, as a measure of repeated 180° COD ability.…”