3 Things Coaches Should Know about Measuring Fitness

 

Measuring fitness is tricky as a coach: Should you be testing youth athletes for metrics like VO2 Max, doing lactate testing, checking body composition, timing them in a mile run, or doing a beep test? Do you need to know their maximum power or rep capability in the gym?

Here, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s Director of Science, Dr. Laura Lewis, shares her best practices for youth coaches who are looking for ways to keep track of their athletes' fitness while prioritizing wellness and growth.

1. What to Know Before You Test First, ask why you're testing. In a sport like soccer, for example, a test like a mile run or a body composition test won't actually be helpful to a coach. Those are common tests for young athletes—but are they relevant to soccer? By comparison, a beep test or shuttle run that tests the ability to sprint and pivot would be much more applicable to the game.

   Testing also shouldn't be "one and done," says Lewis. Rather, coaches should see it as a way to track whether a particular training intervention is working, or because you're tracking development over the course of the season. "It shouldn't be done to choose the team captain or to make any kind of value judgments on athletes," she adds.

   A good coach will also understand that the way an athlete tests on a given day is only a snapshot of their capabilities: A bad night of sleep, a gurgling stomach, a headache, or just a tough day at school can cause an otherwise stellar athlete to test poorly—but that's just a reflection of the single test, not of the athlete's abilities as a whole.

   "I’ve also seen athletes start to train for the test itself rather than focusing on how the training supports their sport," says Lewis. "That may help them do better on the mile-long time trial, but is it making them better at racing cross-country? Make sure your athletes understand that the test is just a measurement of progress, it's not the result they should be working towards."

   As a coach, it's also important to understand that athletes will view their test results in different ways. Keep in mind how testing could impact athletes from a mental health standpoint, and focus on effort and growth rather than outcomes.

   Finally, it's important to remember that these tests should only be used to compare an athlete to their own past performance—not as a way to rank athletes on the team or compare them to each other, especially not in a public ranking of any type. "We're testing to look at change in an athlete as an individual, not comparing them to others," Lewis says.