Workouts designed for NFL combine drills

By John Marshall PHOENIX >> UCLA’s Eddie Vanderdoes barrels toward the orange cone, plants his left foot outside it to make a cut, then slides his right foot to the inside before finishing the drill.

Two of his workout partners notice the gaffe and chuckle, though Vanderdoes doesn’t seem to notice, his focus more on trying to catch his breath.

Vanderdoes takes his second turn on the agility course and again slips his right foot inside instead of planting it around the orange marker. This time everyone notices, the laughing and trash talking starting even before the 6-foot-3, 320-pound defensive lineman crosses the finish line.

“That’s what you call athletic ability right there, fellas,” Vanderdoes says in his own defense.

That part’s true, but still not right.

“Do that at the combine and you’ll have to do it over again,” EXOS trainer Victor Hall tells Vanderdoes. “You’ll need to work on your stamina, not your footwork, it’s ‘cause they’ll keep making you do it until you get it right.”

Players who earn invites to the NFL combine are the elite of college players, finely tuned athletes accustomed to pushing themselves to the edge in the weight room and on the field. The pre-combine workouts at the EXOS performance center in north Phoenix are nothing like even they have encountered before.

To get ready for the combine, the players go through very specific movements designed to enhance their performance in front of NFL executives and coaches at next week’s combine in Indianapolis. They work on footwork, technique, strength, speed, explosiveness — all with an eye on the different events of the combine.

EXOS also works with the players on nutrition, flexibility, recovery, media training and the mental side of the combine, including preparation for the Wonderlic test.

Football players are used to position-specific drills during the season. At EXOS, they prepare specifically for the drills of the combine.

“It’s been intense. A lot of the stuff they do here, I’ve never done before,” Washington defensive tackle Elijah Qualls said. “The work is different, the lifting, the endurance drills. Just how much technique matters, in lifting, running, drills, technique on your technique. It’s insane, but it makes a big difference. I can feel it, see it whenever we watch film. It’s huge.”

The eight-week program — shorter for players whose seasons ran long — includes two to three workouts a day, six days a week. The workouts are typically broken up into upper and lower body sessions, both in the weight room and on-thefield drills.

The players do get position-specific workouts with professional coaches a couple times a week, but for the most part the workouts are the same for every group, with only the weights varying.

That’s because everyone is training for the same thing.

On the football field, every position has its own specific needs, and the drills reflect that. Every player at the combine goes through the same drills, so the EXOS workouts are designed specifically for those, with particular focus on the two money makers: the 40yard dash and bench press.

“We not playing football anymore, we’re training for the combine so it’s just different,” Clemson All-America receiver Mike Williams said. “It does make a big difference.”

The primary focus at EXOS is three-fold: technique, power and body composition.

The technique aspects cover everything from footwork on cuts to proper form on the bench press, allowing the already-tuned-in athletes to get the most of their speed and strength.

For the bench press, a big focus is on speed; the more reps a player can get in the first 10-15 seconds, the more he can get overall with the 225-pound lift. On the field, the players go through a variety of drills with bungee cords, harnesses and sleds as the EXOS trainers help to hone their technique.