Some Thoughts on Testing – Part One

Testing and training go hand and glove. Evaluation through testing is an ongoing process that will determine the direction and content of training. Therefore it is important to build testing into the training plan. The traditional approach has been to schedule specific days for testing, usually at the beginning or the end of a yearly training cycle. This testing usually consists of criteria tests that profile the athlete with respect to the biomotor capacities in a particular sport. They are usually scheduled two times during a yearly training cycle. Over the past several years I have grown increasingly uncomfortable with this approach. Using testing only two times in a yearly cycle gave me good baseline information, but it did not give me information on the ongoing progress of training that I needed to make the day to day and week to week adjustments in the training to obtain optimum adaptive response.

The more varied the sports that I have worked with I have seen the necessity of incorporating testing into the actual training process on a day-to-day basis. The concern would be how can you do that and not fry the athlete and still train. The solution is that testing equals training and training equals testing. At various points in each training session there are distinct windows of opportunity to get feedback as to the effect of training. It is imperative in those periods to look for and utilize the feedback. Build testing in the training. We must keep in mind that training is cumulative so it is important to keep the big picture in mind. Ongoing evaluation enables us to keep everything in perspective. We need to train all the qualities throughout the training year; therefore we must monitor the progress of the various components on an ongoing basis.

When you are testing it is important to consider all of the following:

Know what you are looking for, there are periods of training where you should see marked improvement and other times when you should see stabilization or even slight regression on certain tests. Remember the tests should reflect the training.

Know what you are going to do when you find it. If you see regression then what adjustments will you make, conversely if you see unexpected improvement what will you do?

Regular monitoring is necessary to determine strength and weaknesses and progress of training. The goal in training is minimize weaknesses and to maximize training, testing can be a valuable guide to this process.

Testing helps to individualize training. There is much individual variability in adaptive responses to various training stimuli. Two individuals could have the opposite response to the same training session or training cycle. Testing can identify how each individual will respond and allow training adjustments to be made accordingly.

Testing will give constant feedback to the athletes and coaches as to the effects of training. Do not wait until competition to ascertain training response, use testing to be proactive. Testing must dovetail into training. It is an integral part of the whole training spectrum.