How to Run a 4.2 40 Yard Dash

In the NFL Draft, where potential is prized above all, objective measurements like 40-yard dash times can count as much as stacks of game tapes. Times like East Carolina's Chris Johnson's have a special power because they were taken at the combine, the annual gathering where NFL teams put top college prospects through their paces -- and where 40-yard times are measured indoors with an automated system. (The legendary 4.17-second 40 Deion Sanders ran at Florida State in 1989 was measured by stopwatch.) Jeffrey Foster of National Invitational Camp Inc., the firm that runs the combine, says Mr. Johnson's mark is the fastest at the combine since records have been kept.

Despite being one of the NCAA's active leaders in career all-purpose yardage and the MVP of the Hawaii Bowl, Mr. Johnson knew pro scouts were wary of him because he hadn't played at a powerhouse school. He figured his only chance to crack the draft's upper echelon was to run a scorching 40. "If I had run a 4.30, I would have been upset," he says. It all comes down to speed training.

Only days after his college career ended, Mr. Johnson packed his bags to spend eight weeks with NFL speed guru Tom Shaw, who runs an independent combine-preparation camp near Orlando, Fla. Mr. Shaw's clinics consist of two-a-day training sessions and cost about $750 a week, plus room and board. He has trained 94 first-round NFL picks, and in 2007, his trainees ran four of the top five 40 times at the combine.

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