No one factor determines athletic success. We know from The Undoing Project, that the three markers correlating with NBA success are college program, success in that program, and age at drafting.
In addition to skill, game knowledge, and 'makeup', we want measures of athletic prowess. The RAS (Relative Athletic Score) is a direction the NFL is taking. The RAS creates a composite of size, speed, explosion, and agility based on objective testing.
Only time will tell whether it predicts professional success.
Here's the composite for Patriots' first pick, Cole Strange. I don't know whether he'll succeed in the NFL but his worst attribute is that he ONLY weighs 307 pounds.
The NFL draft has become three days of theater, entertainment where talking heads confirm or condemn the preferences of 'career professionals'. Patriots Director of Player Personnel Matt Groh was quoted, "“A wise man once told me, you want to have a tough team, you’d better have tough players. We’re always looking to add tough players and speed. To be able to add some speed there to the perimeter and some athleticism inside, I mean, who’s not looking for those things?”"
We know within sport, copycats abound. In his book, The Politics of Coaching, Carl Pierson discussed measuring speed, strength, and jumping ability at tryouts. When a parent asks why Susie didn't measure up, Pierson can say that among the forty candidates, she was in the bottom five percent of objective athleticism.
That doesn't mean that the less athletic player can't succeed, but there is an adage, "the race is not always to the swiftest or the battle to the strongest, but it pays to bet that way."
Return to "control what you can control." If you know that coaches compare your speed, strength, and jumping to your peers, work on them. Yes, I cannot jump over a piece of paper, but that's not my job requirement.
The goal isn't to be a "gym hero" but to develop TRANSLATABLE ATHLETICISM.
- blow by guys with explosiveness
- finish through contact with strength
- keep the ball in front of you with more agility
- rim run with speed
- keep guys off the board with strength
There's no 'one size fits all' training regimen.
And athleticism doesn't replace skill, game understanding, and resilience. You can't bring your jumprope, weight vest, and stop watch onto the court. But coaches know who invests time in the training facility and the gym.
You can build your own RAS score here...
The point isn't to compare yourself to NFL players but to compare where you are now with your better version, your bigger, faster, stronger self.
Lagniappe: Applying and testing athleticism to finish.
Lagniappe 2. Paint a picture of success.