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Hi i was wondering what sort of fitness standards you expect players at different levels to achieve, eg. sprint times, squat, beep test etc. and also can you give any examples of the strongest, fastest or fittest players you have seen?
To tell you the truth I do not place a large emphasis on testing, they are tested every Saturday, I only do a 2.4km time trial first day back into training to gauge if they need to be training aerobically and also to work out distances for intervals, the other test I do is a speed test and a phosphate decrement test, I never strength test, we work done to doubles and singles on a fairly regular basis so i know more or less what a player can do, but in saying this I would want a minimum of a 10 minute 2.4km run time trial other wise the player maybe be doing a lot of aerobic work for the off season, I have one player who has a poor bench press say 120kg but can squat 240kg, so what i lose on a swing he picks up on the round about and he is one of the best scrummagers in NZ, I just encourage players to be as good as they can be and do not have targets that they have to reach, cheers,a shley
interesting, thanks
do you sometimes find that a player might perform poorly on a fitness test but has a large work rate on the field or is weak in the gym but manages to man handle people during a game?
Ashley made a good point there that is often overlooked – the testing is on Saturday!
– Often by wanting to look at figures in the gym we miss the point that the real test that is most important to pass is the game.
– I agree with the strength test, if you watch the players progress or training numbers you know whether they are going up or staying the same. To properly test you need to go push to a max single in a controlled manner and this can be incredibly draining on the CNS.
– If you wanted to avoid Speed testing you could look at a vertical jump test which are closely correlated, but again from the game day you’ll know whether they need to work on it – or which aspect to work on.
– One of the things I found most useful and maybe too simplistic is asking the player! They are in the thick of the game and they sometimes know better than you which area they need to improve on – HOW they improve (speed/power/strength) or the method used should be the coaches shout. Also by asking them they ‘buy in’, ‘control’ their own training and become more responsible for their performances.
– One of the most interesting things about testing is like Clyde Hart said about Micheal Johnsons running style – the smartest thing he did was to do nothing! Sometimes when we test we attempt to make everyone into a clone, and while there should be some standards it’s always important to look to Saturday as the big test!
– I’m currently looking at a whole range of tests and methods of mointoring – but finding one or two that are fast, reliable, repeatable and useful is tricky.@prop 162 wrote:
do you sometimes find that a player might perform poorly on a fitness test but has a large work rate on the field or is weak in the gym but manages to man handle people during a game?
This very thing was reported about Michael Jordan of the Chicago Bulls
@prop 162 wrote:
do you sometimes find that a player might perform poorly on a fitness test but has a large work rate on the field or is weak in the gym but manages to man handle people during a game?
happens all the time and that is why I say that the game is the test they go through every week, conversely I have players that star in fitness tests but you do not see them on the field performing with the same dominance, ashley
Hi there, just had a great quote from Luke Thornley, as we were training this morning, he can not remember the exact source, but here it is, “Too much information but not enough knowledge” how true is this when you are putting together programs, I know of a trainer who has yet to really cement his own philosophy of training and he reads something of interest and then puts that into practice but then the next week reads something else and dumps the previous week’s program and goes onto something new, just stay with something long enough to know if it works for you, or if something comes along that rock’s the foundations of your philosophy, have a good long hard look at it and assimilate it or dismiss it, ashley
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