As our countdown to the NFL Draft continues, we dig into one of the often-overlooked areas of projecting prospects – strength and conditioning and how to project injuries. Chuck Zodda and Mark Schofield are joined on the March 2 Quick Kicks Podcast by Brandon Thorn of The Football Educator to discuss what scouts can learn about a prospect based on how he walks and his actions during drills. Topics this show include:
- Brandon’s introduction to physiology and how he initially became interested, and his path towards learning more about the subject over the past several years (2:04)
- What types of physical traits can be red flags of things that may lead to injury down the road, and how posture gives us a wealth of information about stress areas in the body and the potential for future breakdowns (3:35)
- Structural aspects such as pelvic tilt and lack of ankle dorsiflexion and what they indicate about a prospect’s overall athleticism and balance (8:27)
- Common areas of strength and conditioning that are lacking in many prospects, as well as areas that tend to be overdeveloped by prospects during their draft preparation (10:45)
- What drills that are currently done at the NFL Scouting Combine give reliable information about a player’s overall athleticism (12:56)
- The lack of knowledge we gain from watching prospects do the bench press, and what drills would be better suited for gleaning this data (15:28)
- Our Twitter Question of the Day, “Could Greg Hardy potentially be a fit in a 3-4 defensive scheme?” (22:32)
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