3 Drills NFL Combine Prospects Use to Run a Fast 40-Yard Dash

ONE OF THE NFL Combine‘s signature events is always the 40-yard dash, a sprint that can help to make or break the draft status of football’s brightest prospects. Run a fast 40—especially as a skill position player—and you’ll help to make yourself an even more attractive candidate for a high round grade. But if you miss a step and put out a slow time, you might just see yourself plummet down projection boards. A lot can go wrong in roughly four to five seconds.

This is where trainer Travelle Gaines comes in. The Athletic Gaines founder has worked with some of the NFL’s fastest athletes—including speedsters Davante Adams and DK Metcalf—to help them hit their top sprint speeds at exactly the right time. Gaines explains how he works with his athletes toward nailing a 40-yard personal best by taking Men’s Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S., through some drills. Before he gets moving, it’s important that he (and you) know there’s a magic number for the ideal 40-yard dash: 19.

Gaines says 19 is the number of steps a perfectly performed 40-yard dash should take, no matter who is running. Whether you’re a world-class wide receiver, enormous All-Pro offensive tackle, or practice squad punter, every well-run 40 should take just 19 steps. He says it comes down to two elements—strike length and strike frequency.

“It’s not necessarily a height thing. It’s all about covering ground,” Gaines says. “Your stride length and stride frequency are the best ways to win the 40. It doesn’t matter if you’re short, tall. This is a race that anybody can run if you perfect it.”

The road to scoring your own personal best 40 time and hitting that 19-step mark—whether you’re at the Combine or training at Max Impact Training in White Plains, New York, where Gaines takes Samuel through the sprint process—begins with these three technique tweaks.

3 Drills for a Faster 40

Arm Swings

While most people think of sprinting as an entirely leg-driven movement, nailing a good 40 time is impossible without arm movement—which is a component many athletes fail to train. This drill stresses that movement, and you’ll quickly realize that the faster your arms work, the quicker you’ll be able to move your legs.

“This is one of the biggest things that athletes can correct in the short amount of time they have to wait for the combine,” Gaines says.

How to do it:

1. Sit on the floor, back straight, legs straight and close together.
2. Holding a pair of light dumbbells, place one hand forward and the other behind your torso, in a running position, think about swinging from your glute to side of your face.
3. Begin swinging, going at a good tempo, keeping your elbows tight to your body.
4. On command, increase the tempo, swinging as hard as possible for about 10 seconds—the hard swing should also create plenty of hip action, even from the seated position.
5. Put weights down, then repeat using just body weight. You should be pumping a lot harder without the weights.

“I think it’s a different feel to because I as soon as I start pumping my arms and I get that just shows how the arms, the legs, start pumping,” Samuel says. “I feel like my body really wants to move my lower body do things, which I guess is the purpose.”

Perform these about three times a week. Arm swings make a great drill for teaching technique and muscle memory.

High Knees

This is a drill that establishes the working relationship between your arms and legs, and also helps build a more explosive sprint to the finish. High knees will help improve technique. The drill also helps create greater awareness of the importance fluid arm swings will make in generating a more powerful sprint. Try whipping your arms erratically and all over the place and you’ll realize how much energy you are wastefully draining.

“The thing that people fail to realize every time is that their arms are important,” Gaines says. “Going across your body is counterproductive… this makes sure you understand what the great fluid motion great technique to make you run faster and cover those 19 steps in the 40.”

How to do it:

1. Stand nice and tall, with your hands placed down by your sides.
2. On command, begin pumping your legs to chest height, while still keeping your hands by your sides.
3. On second command, begin to pump your your arms as fast as possible to coincide with leg pumps. This creates arm swing awareness.

“It’s a lot more out of me than it should,” Samuel says. “But you can instantly feel so this drill is as much about building any kind of strength as it is about creating awareness of what my arms are doing during the running.”

These can be performed about three times a week, right between your warmup and workout.

Walking Lunge

While the first two drills stressed arm awareness, now you’ll shift to your lower half. No good 40 time comes without plenty of leg power. Lunges target stride length and frequency, while providing a foundation for improving technique.

“I like the walking lunges,” Gaines says. “You engage your core, you’re still moving forward, you have to step over your calf every time, keep your knee up, your toe up with great dorsiflexion, and you’re still working the technique by working on restricted same time.”

Do these twice a week, about four sets of five reps with each leg. You can even switch off with step up as well.

How to do it

1. Place barbell on back (you can also hold dumbbells or kettlebells as well).
2. Standing straight, keeping core tight and braced, begin taking one step forward.
3. Drive your knee up, then step over calf as you take another step, keeping a straight direction. Continue this, while maintaining as straight a path as possible.

Do these twice a week, about four sets of five reps with each leg. You can even switch off with step ups as well.