Pawel Dwulit/CFL.ca
CFL.ca Staff
#CFLCombine
TORONTO — University of Calgary’s Linden Gaydosh may have surprised himself with his result at Saturday’s bench press at the 2013 CFL Combine, but surprising everyone else was Bishop’s defensive lineman Elie Ngoyi.
The six-foot-two, 270-pound defensive lineman led all participants with 40 reps, placing him just ahead of the highly-touted Gaydosh, who finished with 36 reps.
Ngoyi’s effort surprised everyone but himself.
“I think I walked in there an underdog but I got out of there like a bigger person,” he said afterwards. “I was at 35 and I was tired but I put up five or six more.
“I never quit, I’m the type of person that’s going to go through the pain – at 35 my pecks were about to give up, but I just kept going and going.”
CFL.ca’s Combine Insider Cauchy Muamba, who went through the Combine back in 2010, said that kind of determination likely caught the attention of scouts and general managers.
“That was great what he did so far,” said Muamba. “He’s doing well and he’s opening eyes for scouts and coaches so that’s good for him, his stock is rising right now.”
Gaydosh, ranked third in the latest CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, was equally impressive and at the very least maintained his high standing, surpassing even his own expectations with what he called a personal best.
“That’s it, that beats my record by at least five,” said Gaydosh. “Personal best – this is the time to do it.” For the six-foot-four, 290-pound lineman, the added pressure seemingly played to his advantage.
“You walk in the room there and it was just the atmosphere, it was dead silent and you could hear a pin drop. You just know that all eyes are on you at that time and it fires you up.”
“I just kind of went with the flow,” he continued. “Everything started going and as soon as the ball got rolling it just got me there, got me into the moment, and I did the same thing I’ve been doing the whole time: my warm-up didn’t change, my hands on the bar didn’t change, my breathing was all good – it just went for me today.”
McMaster offensive lineman Matthew Sewell, the highest-ranked prospect participating in this weekend’s combine, finished with 17 reps. While he was frustrated with the way he finished, he said overall he was satisfied with his result.
“I didn’t do what I was taught at the end there, I tried to go all out and it didn’t work out for me,” said the six-foot-eight, 335-pound tackle. “I could have gotten a couple more reps but nothing I can do now.”
For Sewell, the focus now turns to the rest of the weekend’s tests, as he looks to cement his status as one of the highest-ranked prospects heading into May’s CFL Draft.
“It’s nice to get the first one done and get the butterflies out a little bit so you can relax and focus and get used to it.”
Offensive lineman Corey Watman of Eastern Michigan placed third in the bench with 31 reps, followed closely by Taylor Servais of the University of Ottawa with 28. Regina offensive lineman Brett Jones rounded out the top-five with 27 reps.
Running backs Matt Burke and Brendan Gillanders were the top non-linemen in the bench, finishing with 24 and 23 reps respectively.
All in the technique
Gaydosh credited his success in the bench to discipline and technique, something Blue Bombers linebacker Henoc Muamba, the first overall pick in 2011, knows all about.
Henoc achieved his personal best in the combine with 25 reps, leading all linebackers in his draft year and helping to cement his status as the top pick in the draft – in part thanks to close attention to detail.
“To the untrained eye people will think that it’s just coming in and throwing weights up and down, but it’s not, there’s more to it than that,” he said.
For example, Henoc explained, one of the most important fundamentals is arching your back in order to not only push off your shoulder blades, but also to decrease the distance from the top when your arms are locked to your chest.
| Combine Leaderboard |
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Bench Press: DL Elie Ngoyie (40) |
You also want to use your legs, he continued, because contrary to what most people believe, the lower body is important in the bench.
“You’ve got to be able to plant your feet and push off of your heels because when you push off your heels, you’re using your body as well as your hamstring to push the bar.”
The most successful athletes in the bench press are the ones that practise good technique, and maintain that technique all the way through. Sometimes even the most disciplined athletes in training camp come unraveled when the spotlight is on them.
“When I came here I treated it very much like a game, you come here with the crowd and the GMs and the lights are on,” said Henoc. “And in the same way you treat the game, you don’t want to forget the fundamentals you learned in practice and in training, so you come here and you start benching you don’t want to let those go.”
In the case of Gaydosh on Saturday, the spotlight only helped.
“When the lights come on it does one of either two things: either it makes you shine brighter, or you completely disappear,” Henoc continued. “I’ve seen a lot of guys that came here and I talked to a few guys that said they accomplished their personal best coming into today, which I did as well.”
“But for some guys, the pressure takes over and it’s harder for them.”
Part of it, of course, also depends on genetics.
“At the end of the day naturally if you have long arms, it’s not a good drill or exercise for you because you’re extending your arms and bringing it back down to your chest – it’s a longer distance,” said Henoc.
“It’s really good for the men that are built with shorter arms because it’s easier for them to go up and down.”
Agility and Athleticism
Next in the day’s event was the broad jump and vertical jump, as athleticism and explosiveness took centre stage. Fullback Isaac Dell made waves in the broad jump, finishing with the second-highest mark of 10’3.00″.
Stealing the show, however, was Kristopher Robertson of Concordia, an invite at the regional combine in Quebec who was invited to participate in this weekend’s combine. First, the defensive back set a mark of 43″ in the vertical. Then for an encore he set an impressive 10’6.00″ in the broad jump, finishing the day with both the top broad and vertical jump.
One of the more athletic players in the combine, Ben D’Aguilar, also raised his stock after finishing first among linemen in the broad jump with a distance of 9’9.00″, to go with a vertical with a jump of 35″ to put him third among offensive and defensive linemen.
Unlike with the bench press, the strategy for the jumps was simple: jump high and jump far.
“I actually just started training my body for the jump to the pros, and then maybe a month ago I started doing the test repetitively,” said the six-foot-two, 240-pound lineman out of McMaster about his preparation for the afternoon’s tests. “In itself I would broad jump, vertical jump, and run 40s as much as possible.”
| Technique Matters |
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“To the untrained eye people will think that it’s just coming in and throwing weights up and down, but it’s not, there’s more to it than that.” |
Henoc Muamba said for the most part, linemen and running backs had the most to gain from the broad and vertical.
“It’s more important for positions like d-line because you want to be able to explode out of your stance; running back because you want to be explosive when you see an obstacle in front of you; and linebackers because obviously you want to be able to move quick, and this is the type of stuff that shows that,” he said.
The results of these tests are valuable to scouts and general managers because they show what simply cannot be seen on film.
“Even for a linebacker let’s say, the amount of force he’s going to use to tackle a running back, that can be measured by how explosive he is on the broad jump,” said the younger Muamba.
“You can’t really feel it when you see it, you can’t feel the impact when you’re seeing it from the sideline or on TV, but if the linebacker is jumping very far, chances are he has a lot of power when he’s hitting somebody.”
Still, while these events will almost certainly have a lasting impact for participants, tomorrow is another day.
“This can get you a lot of attention,” added Muamba. “If you do well in the broad jump or vertical jump it can get you a lot of attention from scouts and GMs.”
“But again, one event is not the main event. One event is just one thing and you want to be able to be consistent with all of the other events as well, and especially tomorrow is going to be huge.”
“To turn heads at these events you have to be able to do something on the field, if you can do that I think you definitely raise your stock.”
