analysis of differences by position in some motor skills

American football: analysis of positional differences in some motor skills

American football (football) is an attractive team sport whose popularity is spreading all over the world. It is an extremely complex sport characterized, among other things, by the player’s distinct specialization by position. In this paper, players who took part in testing at the NFL Combine (N=322), a traditional camp attended by college football players who plan to continue their career in the world’s strongest league, the NFL (National Football League), are tested. They were tested through 6 tests in which differences were determined by position and also between drafted and undrafted players. The results of the post-hoc analysis showed that the players can be generally divided into two groups between which there are significant differences: line players (OL and DL) who are better in repetitive strength of the upper body and field players (all others) who are significantly better in measures speed, explosiveness and agility. Also, significant differences were determined by analysis of variance between drafted and undrafted players in the 40-yard sprint (DL, LB, CB), long jump (DL, LB, RB) and agility tests (RB, TE).

American football; NFL Combine; draft players; positions; differences