When it comes to getting the most out of your athletes, testing is most certainly not the end all be all. This is especially true for us, and others who operate in the private sector of performance training. That doesn’t mean testing is not important, nor that it should be overlooked. What, when, why, where, who, and how all must be considered when deciding you test day protocols.

What?

Some may consider this the most important question in deciding your test day protocol, and I would tend to agree. The “what” sets the foundation of what you are going to work on throughout your training cycle. If your training goal is to increase a 1RM by X amount of weight, then your training cycle should be built around that goal. Training to increase a 1RM, especially for the experienced athlete takes a lot of time, and energy. Wasting either one of those factors may lead to a missed goal.

The human body is extremely adaptive, specific, and because of those qualities, it what will do exactly what you tell it to do. Sounds great, right? It can be, but to often we tell our bodies to do things that don’t actually build towards the goal we set.

If you are creating a program for a team or athlete, find out exactly what you feel needs to be improved upon the most. Write it down, circle it, highlight it, and don’t forget it about it.

When?

A question that is often not answered correctly, and it’s to no one person’s fault. A coach will lay out a program, with everything planned to the second. The only issue is that we can’t predict the future. Athletes go through ups and downs on a day to day, hour by hour basis. Your plan to bump someone’s 1RM may go completely out the window if an athlete got 3 hours of sleep the night before because they were fighting with their significant other. Their 1RM suffers on test day, making your program look like eyewash.

With that being said, you do your best to follow your tried and true principles to put athletes in the best possible scenario to succeed. We know, for the most part, an intermediate(1-3 years training experience) to experienced athlete (5+ years of training experience) needs about 8-12 weeks to adapt to a given stimulus. That stimulus initially causes the athlete to see a decrease in performance, but eventually they adapt to the stimulus, and improve performance.

Knowing the “when” behind a particular peak must be planned for. It gets tricky for field sport athletes because they have a season they need to “peak” for. Unfortunately this peak is very short lived, and cannot be maintained over a lengthy season. So, there should be several test days planned throughout the training year to make sure athletes are maintaining their adaptations, and moving in the right direction. This will also tell coaches if their athletes are ready to perform. Day to day testing will provide coaches insight on athlete readiness, but that’s another topic for another day.

Why?

Why are you testing what you’re testing, and when you’re testing it? This “why” question has already been preposed in the paragraphs above if you think about it. If you don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing, you shouldn’t be doing it.

Does a 23 year collegiate pitcher who has little to no injury history, throws 90+ with great command, and has 10 years of training experience really need to spend 10 weeks increasing his squat max? I say no.

The amount of time and effort it takes to do that is more than people realize. Plus, it doesn’t matter how much he squats, as it is not a demand of his sport. He needs to be able to throw gas on a regular basis.

I would be more concerned with the range of motion at key joints, like the hips, pelvis, shoulders, spine, etc. I would also be making sure his expressions of power stay up throughout the year. So test day for this athlete may just include a movement screen (with and without external load), a broad jump, vertical jump, and a 10yd dash. In all reality, I can test these weekly, and I don’t need to waste a whole day at the end of the cycle to tell me if he improved.

Where?

Not much to say here, just keep it consistent. If you test one day in 90 degree heat on a grass field, and the next test day you move inside to a climate controlled atmosphere on turf, expect to see some different metrics.

You also want to avoid extreme climates on test day. When the body has to handle excessive stress from climate, their numbers will be negatively effected. Testing to match “sport environment” should be reserved for actual competition.

Who?

Again, a topic we have touched on above. The experienced athlete will respond differently to a given stimulus, and will require different goals/ expectations compared to the novice athlete. If a 14 year old soccer player walks into the facility for the first time, I can assume their squat max is going to be subpar. Test their body weight squat, and go from there. Give them an opportunity to grow into the squat max (if that’s what you feel is most important). I can safely get them to jump, and perform a short sprint with minimal risk of injury. These two data points alone will tell me more than enough about what the athlete needs to work on to increase on field performance.

Contraindications may prevent you from running a particular test. If it is not required by their sport and/or their overall health, and they are not physically prepared to complete the test, don’t run it.

How?

This is heavily test dependent, and is all dependent on the questions to be answered above. If you are testing for maximum strength output, you need to make sure you are going to find that answer by placing the athlete in the best possible scenario to succeed.

I’ll keep using the squat max example. Everything from pre-test activities, to the testing protocol must be accounted for to ensure accurate metrics. The body can handle short bursts of power and speed because they are not too fatiguing, and athletes are often able to recover from them quickly. Completing a test of max strength places enormous amounts of stress on the athlete (especially the experienced ones). Recovery from max strength tests can take days to recover from. If you were to do this before a jump or sprint test, the jump and sprint numbers would not accurately represent the athlete’s current capabilities. Neurologically, and physically, they would be too fatigued to preform at high levels. You could get away with it… maybe… if you were testing a novice because they literally do not know how to solicit a level of strength to cause that much fatigue. But, it should still be avoided.

Variables such as test surface (turf, grass, rubber, hardwood, concrete, shoes), time of day, rest time, warm up length, warm up intensity (potentiation?), and test protocol modalities all effect the outcome of tests and must be keep consistent to truly see accurate adaptions.

Finally

This is quite literally a fraction of the beginning of what is to be considered when testing athletes. Mix this with the amount of athletes your testing, and facility limits, and you’re about ready to explode LOL. But if you can answer these questions with confidence, and reason, you can’t go wrong. Keep an open mind, know how to adapt, and don’t get too high if your numbers prove successful, or too low if you don’t see what you anticipated. Often times the answers you seek are found in the questions above.

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If you’re still here you must really be bored, but to claim your reward, contact coach Nate at nate@tpstrength.com.