Why it's Time to Do Away with Max-Out

Aerobic Tests in Team Sports

April 13, 2017

Matt Danaher

‘This is the Nike SPARQ version of the Yo-yo intermittent recovery test, level two.’

For most players (thankfully, not myself), this one line of dialogue is enough to cause
cold sweats, shivers, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting. It’s the kind of side effects that
you usually only hear at the end of a pharmaceutical advertisement, when you think to
yourself, why would anyone want to take that willingly.

At its best, the beep test can scare players into running their butts off all summer. At its
worst, especially in the women's game, it can do some real damage to your players,
both physically and emotionally. I know of players, friends of mine, who developed
eating disorders, simply because they were so scared of failing their fitness tests.

If you ask me, there is no reason to run

tests like these in preseason, or ever.
Before all the fitness gurus lose their minds, please hear me out. I do believe that in the
fitness world, max out aerobic tests have their place , when used in the right context
and the correct environment. They can help measure a player’s aerobic capacity and
VO2 max, and give their coach an idea as to where they stand fitness wise.
 

I am also not suggesting eliminating the test because I myself was bad at fitness tests.
Far from it actually. My highest Yo-yo level 1 score was a 45, and I consistently run a
sub 5:30 mile and sub 11:30 two-mile.

But for most coaches, we exist in a reality where we don't have 10 sports science
coaches on hand to help us. All we have is ourselves and a clip board.

To give some context for those who aren't aware, max-out aerobic tests are typically ‘go
until exhaustion’ tests, so you are already risking injury with any type of high volume
aerobic test.

On one of my former teams, we opened day one of preseason with a timed mile or 2-

mile test, 300-yard shuttle test and repeated full field sprint test. What could go wrong
with running a couple of max out tests on the first day of preseason?

We had 9 players out for the afternoon session on the 1st day of preseason through a
combination of injuries, ineligibilities, and not being allowed to play because they had
failed one of the three tests. They then had to re-run those same tests, in that exact
same order, the following day (and every day after that, until they 'passed').

If you want to be able to train with your full team right from the start and through into the
season, why risk serious injury right away? And if you decide to hold players out of
training because they are deemed ‘unfit’ through test failure, how will they become
‘football fit’ without training?