What does CAP Offer? Testing Service Conditioning Testing: Because the demands of each sport (and the realization that most sports consist of repeated bursts of speed and agility, mixed with technical and tactical skill over the course of a long period with specific rest times, breaks or time outs) the aerobic and anaerobic conditioning of the athletes is as much a concern as the athleticism tests. We would want to look at some type of sport specific interval test to determine conditioning level of the players. Beep Test: One of the most common tests is the beep test or yo-yo intermittent sprint test. And although there is much controversy revolving around the validity of the test and the specificity to sports performance, we feel that the easy protocol and increasing intensity make it a fairly good test of the players’ ability to stay on the field or court. This is an applicable test for soccer and basketball, but not necessarily a good test for the other sports. Some have questioned it as a test of conditioning level due to the fact that the beeps start to occur so fast that even with fresh legs some athletes would not be fast enough to cover the 20 yard distance before the next beep. We think this is what makes it a good test of what an athlete is capable of doing when fatigued. You not only see what type of shape they are in, but you also can see if they can keep up with the speed of the game when fatigued. Although it might not be a true aerobic conditioning test, and because of the speed factor it might be limited, we still think it will tell you what kind of speed, endurance and heart a player has all at the same time. 90 Second Interval Test: This test is our absolute favorite. We use a Woodway Force Treadmill (non-motorized, resisted treadmill from Woodway USA). With this treadmill (which has no motor), the athlete is the driving force behind making the belt move. We add 10% of their body weight as resistance to the belt and then turn them loose. We run 10, 90 second intervals of the following format:
–RECORD SPEED / DISTANCE at 90 SECOND INTERVALS and FINAL DISTANCE The above breakdown of the percentage of time spent sprinting, running, jogging and walking/resting is based on the percentages in the chart below (Figure 1). We wanted to make a more sport specific test of soccer endurance, which appears to be more anaerobic in nature with a solid foundation in aerobic endurance. Some define this as power and speed endurance. With slight modifications this test can be a good predictor of conditioning for basketball players as well.
To do this with out a Woodway Force Treadmill you can go to your local track and start the players in a particular spot. Then start your stop watch and call out the commands above. For instance at the beginning you would start your watch and call out “Walk”. Then your athletes would start walking at a brisk pace. Then 15 seconds into the test you would shout, “Jog”, at 30 seconds, “Run”, at 40 seconds, “Strong Run”, and at 45 seconds, “Walk.” Then at the end of 90 seconds record how far each athlete had gone. If this proves too difficult to record, just record the total distance covered at the end of the 15 minutes. What’s nice about the Force Treadmill is that it monitors your speed so that we can see what happens to their velocity as they become tired. Our athletes compare this test to the toughest 15 minutes of the toughest soccer game they ever played and every one of them will tell you it is very specific. 12 Minute Run: For purely aerobic conditioning, or if you are having trouble finding time and space to do these other test A 12 minute run test is usually a good indicator of aerobic conditioning. There is also tons of data on-line and research that has been done for years on this, so coming up with norms and standards should not be difficult. The format is easy, just start on the field, treadmill or track and run as far as you can in 12 minutes. What do we learn from a 12 minute run? This is purely aerobic conditioning, and it will show us exactly where the athlete stands in terms of cardiovascular conditioning, heart rate levels, etc. CAP testing is somewhat different than that of the NHPI. Where NHPI is standardized, CAP testing reflects the athlete’s performance during a workout (prepare them for the test, then test and monitor). CAP testing will look at how certain aspects of training effect the outcome or athletic expression (the effect of isometric activation on vertical jump). |
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