My brother has been raving about this new book he is reading called The 4-Hour Body.  It is written by Timothy Ferriss, who was the author of the #1 bestseller The 4-Hour Workweek.  He liked them so much he got me both books for Christmas.  The 4-Hour Body is a lot about exercise and fitness.  Timothy Ferriss wanted to learn more about what worked and didn’t work so he put himself through all sorts of experiments such as running a 50k or adding x amount of pounds of muscle.

One of the items that he wanted to do was to see just how fast a person could get running a 40 yard dash for an NFL combine.  You hear stories of athletes training hard, running great 40 times, and securing an awesome contract for themselves.  I am a firm believer that out of the many tests done at the NFL combine, you better do well with the 40, or it could cost you millions.

As many of you know, Armand Robinson came to me after the NFL draft to get him prepped for a potential NFL season.  I think he didn’t get drafted purely based on his combine time.  Dane Sanzanbacher, a former Ohio State player, ran the third fastest time in the 20 yard shuttle at the combine this past year.  His 40 time was a 4.55.  He didn’t get drafted.  Now there might be a few other reasons why both these guys didn’t get drafted, but you can’t tell me if either one had run a 4.4something in the draft, some team wouldn’t have drafted them.

To do his testing for the 40 yard dash, Ferriss went to combine draft guru, Joe DeFranco.  DeFranco is THE man and has put tons of people in the NFL with his draft preparation.  I purchased one of his first combine preparation videos when it was only out on vhs.  His teachings is the basis of how I train my athletes for the 40 yard dash and football combines.  As he has adapted his draft preparation methods, I have too.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Timothy Ferriss suggested should be considered when trying to run a fast 40 yard dash.  I’m not revealing anything secret, since this book is out in stores now and there are plenty of videos with Joe DeFranco talking about this:

  • DeFranco follows the teachings of Charlie Francis, a world renowned speed coach, which suggests training at shorter distances with 95% to maximal effort.  Less effort doesn’t generate enough work to develop speed and longer distances makes it too tough to recover from in 24 hours.  So, with the 40 yard dash, he focuses on getting the first 10 yards down pat.  Work on the start, the first 10, and the 40 will come into place.
  • You want to make sure you have a good warm-up prior to your race.  This is true with just about anything when you compete in sports, but just make sure you do this.  A dynamic warm-up is good  – skipping, leg swings, reverse lunges, etc.
  • When you start, have your power leg a foot behind the starting line and your back leg’s toe in line with your front leg’s heel.  The leg width should be at hip width, no wider.
  • If your left leg is forward then your right arm will be down as you get into a 3 point stance.  Reverse that if it is the opposite.  You want your shoulder slightly forward then your hand, with your back arm in an L shape placed against your side.
  • Drive the lead arm backwards as you are driving the back leg forward.  That back leg should land in a spot about three feet ahead of you.
  • Your head should remain tucked and looking at that spot three feet ahead.  Keep it tucked the entire ten yards, with your torso ahead of your legs.  Then gradually raise it up as you are running the remainder of the 40.
  • Try to get that first ten yards in 5.5 – 6.5 steps depending on your body type.
  • Fire those arms as fast as you can, stay relaxed, and head for the finish line.

If you just continue to work on the 10 yard dash with maximal effort, your 40 time will decrease.  Miles Austin of the Dallas Cowboys ran a 4.67.  Did some training by running more than 100 10-yard dashes and just 3 40-yard dashes.  He was able to drop his time down to 4.47 seconds.

Feel free to comment and let me know what you think.  I’m sure there are a few other things that Joe DeFranco would do if he had more time than what he worked with Timothy Ferriss (which was about one day), but if you follow this blueprint, you should be running a faster 40 in no time.