If you thought Ross had a history as a track sprinter, you wouldn’t be mistaken. His exceptionally fluid form and explosive stride look like those of a track star rather than a football player.

But according to Gary Cablayan, speed coach and owner of Evo Sports Training, Ross was nowhere near as fast just six weeks before the Combine. When Cablayan started training Ross for the big event on Jan. 11, Ross ran a relatively pedestrian 4.53. That’s by no means slow, but it probably wouldn’t have caught the attention of the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him ninth overall.

“He was really bad but with the time he ran, I thought, ‘Sheesh, if he can run that fast looking like that, we have a lot of room for improvement,” Cablayan recalls. “There was a ton of stuff wrong. His start was wrong. His top end was wrong. He was super tight and super choppy when he ran.”ADVERTISING

Ross showed great potential, but Cablayan had to teach him how to be a sprinter so he could realize that potential and shave valuable seconds off his 40 time.

It’s safe to say that Cablayan’s plan worked magnificently, as Ross shaved a whopping .31 seconds off his time. Even a tenth of a second improvement is considered a success. Scary thing is, Cablayan believes Ross could’ve run faster.

Every day is critical when a player prepares for the NFL Combine, and missing even a day can be a major setback when you only have six or so weeks to make improvements. Ross missed over a week because he was sick and had doctor consultations.

Also, the Combine puts athletes under immense pressure. Grueling days of evaluations, team meetings and testing, together with the importance of the event, make it unlikely that any athlete will run his best possible time. Ross was no exception.

“John didn’t have a perfect start. He had a perfect start the night before, and I think if he did that alone, he would’ve ran a 4.20,” Cablayan says. You can see Ross’s perfect start in the video above as he was rehearsing for the Combine.

This shows us two things. First, John Ross is an incredible athlete with the ability to quickly learn and improve. Two, Cablayan knows how to make someone fast and reach their full potential.

Here are the five steps Cablayan took to improve Ross’s 40-Yard Dash time. You can use them to shatter your personal record and turn coaches’ heads.

Andy Haley – Andy Haley is the Performance Director at STACK. 
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