This week we pre-tested our 90second interval test on the Woodway Speedboard Treadmill. The beauty of doing this test on the Speedboard (and Force Treadmill for that matter) is that the athletes can pace themselves as fast as they want. I simply give the instructions to walk, jog, run, strong run or sprint and they perform at the best of their ability. The walks are always used as recovery, but you will see some players stop completely, while others walk at a fairly brisk pace. The jogs can be used as recovery or to gain a little distance. As we start to run and strong run, we want the athletes to cover as much distance as possible. And finally, when we sprint, we are looking for them to tell us how fast they got the tread mill up to. One of our U18 boys was consistently hitting 15.5 – 16.1 MPH on the sprints…cant do that on a normal treadmill!
The goal of this test is two fold…I want the athletes to cover as much distance as possible and I want them to be within 90-95% of top speed when asked to sprint. We run this test for 12 minutes and then take a 2 minute break and repeat the test. For more specifics on the test, feel free to contact me directly at: Scott@AthleteFIT.com. Here is an example of one of the intervals…
The best and most fit players tend to cover more distance during the course of the game, are involved in more actions, touch the ball more and are typically your best players. Players that can cover distance and still be fast when they need to are usually recognized as the great ones! This is why we put so much into this base line (indoor, off-season fitness assessment).
Having a non-motorized treadmill like the Woodway Force or Woodway Speedboard is essential to this test and our mission to create more competitive athletes, as most programs will simply set a pace we ask our athletes to push their own limits and create a pace that is challenging to them.
