Field evaluation

The high capacity of the skill of acceleration/speed is considered as an integral part of the modern soccer player. Over 80% of the sprints in a game are until 10 meters. For the most reliable speed measurement method use photocells.

Do not miss to execute the speedtest of 30 meters with another gate at 10 meters (many place them and at 5 meters) as well, with a lot sport scientists consider as more important the good times at these meters.

If you refer to the literature you will find many variations as to what time is considered ''good'' (the diversity of findings obviously ought to differences in the level of the athletes and the execution of sprint surface or the distance of the foot from the starting gate).

I would recommend you to create your own norms in your team by placing 10% of the best times in "good" performance. If again definitely you want a comparison, consider the times less than 1,71 sec at 10 meters on the grass surface, as a "good" time.

The YoYo Test is one of the most popular fitness tests used worldwide from the lowest to the highest level teams to evaluate and monitor the aerobic capacity of the players.

The Yo-Yo test (Endurance (En 1 and 2) and Intermittent Recovery (IR 1 and 2) are used primarily with the En test showing very high correlation with the test of VO2max and the IR pertains both aerobic capacity as and specific endurance needed (correlation 0.77) in football.

There are many things you can do to improve your score. Here are ten tips that you can apply to give yourself a little extra next time you do the test.

1. BE PREPARED: Make sure you body is in the best condition for a maximal exercise test. Rest the day before and get a good night's sleep, and eat a light meal about 1-2 hours before the test and make sure you are well hydrated.
2. WARMUP: without a warm-up well you probably will not perform at your best also you could risk injury which could set back your fitness.
3. PRACTICE: It's a good idea to practice the YoYo Test 1 or 2 times before the administration of the test. The athletes will be more relaxed and accustomed to pushing their limits, and with groups there will be less confusion on test day.
4. BE POSITIVE: A more positive state of mind can help you push through the pain barrier and reach a higher level.
5. BE EFFICIENT: Using efficient running and turning techniques can conserve energy for the final stages of the test. Set your own consistent pace and ignore the runners around you. Run with your shoulders relaxed and breath deeply and smoothly.
6. MINIMIZE DISTANCE COVERED: Don't run further than you need to; as you come in to the turn, time it so that only one foot just touches the line (you don't have to go over the line), and turn sharply and not following a wide arc.
7. FOCUS: Focus on something else, such as your breathing, instead of the pain.
8. SET GOALS: Set achievable goals along the way. Achieving even an easy goal instigates a positive state of mind that will in turn encourage you to keep going.
9. IMAGINE SUCCESS: At every turn imagine yourself getting to the next line before the sound of the beep. This mental imagery technique enhances confidence and determination.
10. GET FITTER: Finally, there is no avoiding this 'tip', the only sure way to make significant improvements in the beep test is to train well to improve you aerobic fitness.

thanks to www.topendsports.com

Monitoring the skills of our players at regular base can be a very useful strategy for a team. The data collected daily is aimed at improving the performance of football players by developing personalized as well as group training plans as well as preventing unwanted side effects. Exhaustion situations or injury prevention can be avoided with simple but targeted content from the teams' coaching staff.

One way to monitor the linearity of aerobic performance on the field is to perform sub-maximal tests and regularly update them to compare the data collected.

Running a sub-maximal YoYo test protocol can give you the data you need without interfering with the training process and without overloading your players.

In the figure below you can see the performance line of heart rate in the individual stages of a field test that I modified, created and performed on my teams from time to time to monitor the progress of players but also phenomena that deviate from overall performance.

Heart rate is one of the most easily monitored parameters of all football teams. It is one of the indicators that reflect the intensity of the exercise, documented in hundreds of scientific articles that emphasize the importance of monitoring it during the training process.In my last publicated research in soccer, with the s11 team, I analyze the importance of watching it in preparation.

• Leonidas Papadakis, Charis Tymvios, Konstantinos Patras (2019).

Association of internal training load with changes in aerobic endurance and strength/power variables in profesional soccer players during the pre season. Biology of exercise. Volume 15.1,2019.

Personally, I analyze dozens of training intensity and volume parameters daily along with training data in pursuit of the legitimate result of individual and overall improvement. Heart rate always plays an important part in my day-to-day work with the monitoring team I work with, partly recording the internal workload of the workout (alongside with other data) and driving me to create an easy and fast way of tracking one of the most important parameters of training proccess.