The NHL Combine was held over the past few days and a few people have asked me, "What's the point?"
As a 4th year Kinesiology student, I can say that testing an athlete in different physical aspects the emulates a game situation is essential for scouts and management to get more information on a prospect's physiology.
So really, what is the combine? Well, it has four main tests; the interview, medical evaluation, psychological evaluation and fitness testing.
Of the four, the interview might be the most important part of the combine. Players meet with team management and are asked questions about themselves, and sometimes a psychologist is in the room as well to assess the prospect at the same time. This is the point where a team might be sold on a guy and make the decision about drafting him. Certainly, this works the other way as well.
Second, the medical evaluation is very straightforward. A health questionnaire is completed as well as physical exams such as an eye test and hand-eye coordination tests. Background screening is very important, and the combine instituted this as a safe guard from health concerns (think Jiri Fischer, Alexei Cherepanov and Mickey Renaud).
Psychological evaluations are also important when trying to see a player's motivation factor. Psychology can determine drive, heart, desire, teammate interactions, coach interactions and on-ice behaviour. It includes 220 questions that are yes-no answered. An example is a question like, "If your coach was talking, would you interrupt him if he was wrong?" Gets you thinking, doesn't it?
The second part of the psychological test is the mental efficiency test, which measures spatial awareness, decision speed, decision accuracy, concentration, and rates of mental fatigue. A shortened form of the second part was repeated immediately after the fitness testing component, to determine the how much the individual player's reactions decline under stress and fatigue.
The part that has the most publicity, since there are cameras and personnel everywhere, is the fitness testing portion. This is the part that most fans hear about.
In total, the players are given 18 tests, lasting about an hour and a half for each player.
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