It takes a lot of planning to pull off a combine – especially for the very first time.

The inaugural NWSL Combine saw adult and youth players flock to Florida to show off their skills in front of clubs. It was a unique opportunity to get players in front of NWSL clubs all in one place, but it was uncharted territory for the league.

Ellie Maybury, the NWSL’s High Performance Consultant, led the design of the Combine’s physical testing framework. With countless options available, the challenge was not what could be measured, but what should be measured.

In the Combine’s first year, the priority was simplicity, relevancy, and consistency. It boiled down to exercises that would answer the questions club scouts would need to make an informed assessment of each player.

How quick is the player? How much lower body power does the player have? How quickly and effectively can they decelerate and change direction?

We’re taking you inside the exercises Maybury and her team decided would best showcase a player's speed, power, and movement efficiency — three key qualities regardless of a player’s position.

SPEED

First up is a classic: the 40 meter dash. Using timing gates, Combine staff record speeds at five meters, 10 meters, and 40 meters. Rather than focusing solely on top speed, these split times highlight how quickly a player accelerates over short distances and how that speed develops over longer efforts. Taking these measurements gives scouts and coaches a clearer picture of a player’s speed in different situations and positions.

“Trying to relate it to each position, if you’re thinking about a winger or outside back, you know that ability to really break out and hit long term speed is really important,” Maybury said. “Whereas some of your other positions, it’s that short shuffle when you need to be quick in and out, but maybe that need to open up and really hit top speed isn’t as prevalent in that part of the game.”

POWER

To measure lower body power, the athletes hit the counter movement jump station. Players performed a countermovement jump with hands fixed on their hips – so no arm swing to help with momentum.

“They’re taking their hands out of it. In soccer, you do other things to generate force, but it’s just raw. We just want to see what your lower body can do,” she said.

The ForceDecks used capture detailed force-time data during each jump, allowing practitioners to assess key aspects of lower-body performance.

“We’re looking at jump height in inches, so their highest output from when they take off from the floor to how high they reach,” Maybury said.

The data also captures how quickly force is produced. Time spent on the ground is another important factor. Shorter ground contact times can indicate an athlete’s ability to produce force efficiently, which is necessary for the repeated explosive actions during a match.

MOVEMENT EFFICIENCY

Change-of-direction ability is one of the more challenging physical qualities to assess in isolation, but it remains a critical component of soccer performance. The final drill focused on deceleration and reacceleration while changing direction at speed.

Athletes sprinted toward the sideline before planting, turning, and accelerating back in the opposite direction, with timing focused on the change-of-direction phase of the movement.

The timing provides insight into how efficiently a player can decelerate, change momentum, and reaccelerate, all essential qualities in game-specific scenarios.

While future Combines may evolve as the league continues to refine its approach, the inaugural testing framework was designed to provide clubs with clear, consistent, and relevant physical information. Used alongside soccer observation and contextual knowledge, the data helps support more informed, holistic player evaluations.

And who knows, maybe your next favorite NWSL star is among them.