[CornFed]

Others have mentioned some important points about the bench press versus the work of an offensive lineman.  But also, think of it this way: in a bench press, your back is up against the bench, anchoring and stabilizing the torso as you push the weight.  In football, offensive linemen are relying on their legs and core to anchor their body as they push.  All the bench strength in the world is meaningless if you lose balance and fall in the process of pushing back a defensive lineman.

Unfortunately, we live in a measurement obsessed world and it is much easier to measure speed (40 time) and strength (bench press) than it is to measure flexibility, balance, range of motion, agility (I guess there is the three cone test), core strength, etc.

BC

Your observations are absolutely accurate, but it still appears that a regimen including bench presses is better than one without.  I guess the point of the thread, though, is whether or not it is an indicative metric as it is used at the combine.  I have come to understand a bit better why it probably is not meaningful in predicting success for a player in realtime game situations.

[CornFed]

Others have mentioned some important points about the bench press versus the work of an offensive lineman.  But also, think of it this way: in a bench press, your back is up against the bench, anchoring and stabilizing the torso as you push the weight.  In football, offensive linemen are relying on their legs and core to anchor their body as they push.  All the bench strength in the world is meaningless if you lose balance and fall in the process of pushing back a defensive lineman.

Unfortunately, we live in a measurement obsessed world and it is much easier to measure speed (40 time) and strength (bench press) than it is to measure flexibility, balance, range of motion, agility (I guess there is the three cone test), core strength, etc.

BC

Your observations are absolutely accurate, but it still appears that a regimen including bench presses is better than one without.  I guess the point of the thread, though, is whether or not it is an indicative metric as it is used at the combine.  I have come to understand a bit better why it probably is not meaningful in predicting success for a player in realtime game situations.