Fitness Testing - A Roadmap to Athletic Success

Speed Training Academy is the one-stop home for team sports athletes and fitness warriors seeking a speed advantage in various sporting disciplines. Whether you want straight-line or multidirectional speed, we deliver athlete-driven, performance-driven training programs for your success.

 

Is Sports Fitness Testing Worth It

The challenge of team sports athletes seeking to improve their running speeds for multidirectional and linear efforts is that the performance metric of speed is a component of and not the primary driver of performance. Unlike the sprinter, for whom maximum speed is critical, maximum speed is a tool in team sports.

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Therefore, speed, power, and anaerobic fitness testing of team sports athletes demand objectivity, and all tests must meet the conditions of reliability and validity.

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Reliability and validity are crucial concepts regarding fitness testing in team sports athletes. These concepts examine the quality and accuracy of each fitness test in a fitness testing battery. Speed Training Academy uses video analysis to ensure the reliability and validity of its online fitness testing process.

 

Video Analysis Systems in Sports Fitness Testing

Video Analysis Systems are technology-driven tools for capturing, recording, and analyzing an athlete's movements and performance during various fitness tests and sports-specific activities. With the assistance of a video camera and/or smartphone camera, Speed Training Academy uses proprietary motion tracking software and other advanced technologies to extract performance metrics and results generated during the fitness testing process.

 

Next, a brief review of some of the key concepts of reliability impacting the usefulness of video analysis in fitness testing.

1. Objective Data Collection

Video analysis eliminates subjective bias in testing by providing objective data on an athlete's testing performance. Objectivity is crucial when evaluating reliability, as it minimizes potential errors introduced by human judgment.

 

2. Intra-rater Reliability

The fitness testing process at Speed Training Academy utilizes mainly intra-rater reliability. Intra-rater reliability assesses how consistently the same tester/coach performs and collects measurements over time. Video analysis facilitates the permanent recording, collection, and storage of each test over time and allows the same tester/coach to review and analyze an athlete's fitness test performance repeatedly. Hence, it reduces human error, recall bias, and testing environment reconstruction in a measurement error. Video analysis establishes intra-rater reliability by comparing the results of multiple tests conducted by the same tester/coach. Video analysis systems can consistently record the same performance data for the same athlete, suggesting that the tester is applying the evaluation criteria consistently.

 

3. Inter-rater Reliability

This type of reliability will not be used to evaluate your fitness tests. Inter-rater reliability examines the consistency of measurement between different testers/coaches.

 

4. Feedback and Training

Video analysis is valuable for training testers/coaches to apply consistent evaluation criteria. With its permanency and significant storage capabilities, video analysis allows a tester/coach an opportunity to review and discuss the testing procedures, identify relevant criteria for testing, and improve the calibration of their judgment. This sequence of steps creates a feedback loop for the athlete and coach improving intra-rater and inter-rater reliability.

 

5. Quantitative Analysis

Conducting our fitness testing via video analysis allows the extraction of quantitative data, such as joint angles, running distances, split times (e.g., 5m, 10m), step and stride lengths, ground contact times, and velocities for speed, strength, and power fitness tests. All usable metrics to test, track, and monitor the progress of the athlete's speed running and fitness training sessions.

 

6. Performance Improvement

The capacity of video to conveniently and permanently store large amounts of information allows coaches and athletes to use the technology to extract testing results live or later in the training cycle. The athlete can review each video file for positive and negative execution information. This review means that video analysis is a powerful feedback option to implement enhanced training strategies and facilitate improving performance.

 

Using measuring tools and video analysis together impacts the validity of any sports fitness test. Validity refers to the extent to which any fitness test accurately measures what the fitness test was designed to measure.

 

Next, a brief review of some of the key concepts of validity impacting the usefulness of video analysis in fitness testing.

1. Objective Measurement

Video analysis provides objective and quantifiable data about an athlete's fitness testing performance. Objectivity minimizes the influence of subjective human judgments and biases that can commonly affect the validity of sports fitness testing.

Physical metrics like joint angles, running distances, split times (e.g., 5m, 10m), step and stride lengths, ground contact times, and velocities for speed, strength, and power fitness tests generate precise data via video analysis and contribute to the content validity of the test.

 

​2. Criterion-Related Validity

Criterion-related validity assesses how well the fitness test scores correlate with an established "gold standard" or criterion. Video analysis allows the coach to compare an athlete's performance in a fitness test with performance in real-game situations or other gold standard measures. For example, extracting ground contact times or air times of a sprint step/stride using proprietary video analysis software to the “gold standard” times norms collected via force plates.  

 

3. Construct Validity

Construct validity evaluates whether the fitness test measures the underlying construct or trait it is designed to assess. Video analysis establishes construct validity by thoroughly analyzing an athlete's technique, form, or movement patterns. For example, video analysis can capture the performance of a vertical jump test and output metrics such as take-off angle, take-off velocity, flight time, ground contact time, and landing mechanics, which contribute to constructing validity.

 

4. Feedback for Test Refinement

Video analysis is helpful for fine-tuning fitness tests by providing insights into the specific aspects of an athlete's performance relevant to the sport. Analysis of the data collected provides the coach with feedback to modify testing and improve data collection. For the test creator/designer, the feedback helps create and upgrade the test to better represent the physical demands of the sport, improving construct and content validity.

 

​5. Longitudinal Analysis

Using video analysis to track the athlete's progress over time ensures objective comparisons of the athlete’s testing data from different testing periods. longitudinal analysis provides insights into the athlete's development and helps establish the predictive validity of the tests for future performance.

 

​6. Injury Prevention

Video analysis facilitates the identification of movement patterns and biomechanical flaws during fitness testing that may increase the risk of injury or negatively impact sporting performance. A combination of sequential video recording and analyses in concert with targeted prehabilitation exercises/movements reduces the likelihood of injury and indirectly enhances the construct and content validity of sports fitness tests.

 

Practical Applications and Benefits of Fitness Testing

1. Wholistic Training Interventions

Fitness testing provides the coach with metrics to design a training program to enhance your overall performance levels. Best practices involve evaluating many testing components as standalone items, with each test giving unique results. Designing the subsequent training program within the concept of synergy is still necessary. Focusing on the foundational principles of speed, power, and anaerobic endurance will smooth out the differences in testing metrics and ensure more balanced performance outcomes.

 

2. Position-Specific Training

Team sports athletes play specific positions and roles within team sports. Planning will include specific tests to extract data to assist with program design. This information helps include any position-specific training activities necessary for all-around athletic development.

 

3. Periodization and Planning

The data obtained from fitness testing will guide the coach in developing periodized speed, power, and high-intensity interval training plans. Be mindful that while the fitness testing results drive the designing of your Ultimate Sports Fitness (U.S.F.) plan, this plan represents a sub-plan auxiliary to your team sport periodized performance plan. Strategic planning, organization, and communication with your sports coach are vital to the success of your periodized Ultimate Fitness Plan and ensure no catastrophic impact on your sports performances.

 

4. Recovery and Regeneration Strategies

As a team sport or multisport performer, the physiological responses to speed, power, and anaerobic endurance during training and competition require effective recovery strategies. These strategies include optimizing pre-training, during-training, and post-training fuelling, napping, and adequate sleep, and the inclusion of passive and active recovery modalities (dynamic cool-down, massage, ice baths, and warm baths). Enhancing your recovery reduces post-activity fatigue, increases the next session's physical and psychological readiness, and decreases the risk of overtraining.

 

5. Feedback and Motivation

Strategic fitness testing provides usable knowledge of results and knowledge of performance feedback. In conjunction with an interactive real-time online athlete management system, communication and motivation channels are kept open, facilitating a positive environment for improvement.

 

Fitness testing is a fundamental component of optimizing the performance of athletes engaged in running-based sporting activities. A comprehensive evaluation of running speed, power, multidirectional speed, and anaerobic endurance provides data for designing periodized training programs for individual athletes and teams. The practical applications of fitness test results extend to injury prevention and the development of targeted interventions to enhance overall athletic performance.

 

 A Typical Fitness Testing Package

The fitness testing package covers five days of testing and is strategically administered over ten days to maximize tester performance. 

The package is necessary for the coach to effectively design your Ultimate Sports Fitness (U.S.F.) plan. Without initial benchmarks, planning and implementing any training plan would surmount nothing more than spitting in the wind.

 

Testing Components and Sequence

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Day One: Athlete Profile

1. S.W.O.T. (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis

2. Daily Analysis of Life Demands for Athletes (D.A.L.A.) Questionnaire

3. Review of medical history and any injury history

 

Day Two: Neuromusculoskeletal Integrity

1. Gait analysis

2. Rouge Core Wheel Challenge

3. Hamstring Break Test

4. Overhead Squat screen

5. 3-D Lunge Matric screen

 

Day Three: Load Capacity Tolerance

1. Interlimb Asymmetry Test

2. Abalakov Test

3. Depth Drop with BLE Rebound

4. Reactivity Index Test

 

Day Four: REST

 

Day Five: Power

1. Standing Horizontal Jump

2. Backwards Overhead Medicine Ball (BOMB) Throw

 

Day Six: REST

 

Day Seven: REST

 

Day Eight: Acceleration Speed

1. 30 m from three-point start

2. SLED Load Profile * 30m

 

Day Nine: Maximum Strength and Power

1. Cleans

2. Bench Press

3. Squat

4. Deadlifts

 

Day Ten: Rest

 

Day Eleven: Anaerobic Endurance Testing

1. Anaerobic: R.A.S.T. Test (Running Anaerobic Speed Test)

 

After completing your testing package, results are analyzed and discussed with you, the client. The final step is buying the Ultimate Sports Fitness (U.S.F.) plan.