How to Prepare for a Fitness Test
A question that comes up quite a bit from referees is “How do I prepare for a Fitness Test?”
“Do I just practice running the test?”
"Do I do more than what is required?”
“Am I allowed to work matches while I am training for my fitness test?”
If you fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
When training for the fitness test, it’s recommended that you train for more than what the test requires. For example, run at a faster pace during your intervals and sprint faster than the required sprint times for that distance. Finding a good balance between high intensity work and longer, slower endurance runs is very important. There must be a good balance of specific weight/resistance/strength training to help with muscular power, speed, and endurance.
If you’ve been consistently training and have a good baseline fitness level, you can typically start focusing on your specific fitness test times about 2-3 weeks out from the test date.
If you haven’t been training consistently with interval runs, sprints and endurance runs, you will typically need about 6-8 weeks to be adequately prepared for the test.
Having a good base line fitness is very important, not just with a running program but also with a weight/resistance training program to compliment it. Also doing some pace/time-testing and heart rate testing will give you a good idea of your current fitness level.
Now, let’s get into the good stuff: how to prepare properly for the fitness test.
Depending on what type of fitness test you are running - Men’s, Women’s, Referee, AR, Regional, National, FIFA, it really comes down to doing more than what the test requires and then monitoring how your body responds.
What do I mean by that?
Let’s look at the distances required to pass the fitness tests.
6 x 40 meters sprints and 40 intervals - 75 meters run/25meter recovery.
Sprints: You will need to work on 3 different phases of the sprint - beginning, middle, and end. You want to explode out at the beginning of the sprint, while staying low and driving your legs powerfully into the ground for the first 10-15 meters. Then slowly, extend up accelerating for the next 10-15 meters, and then hit maximum sprint speed the last 10-15 or so.
It’s also very important to continue to run through the finish line on your sprint, then slowly decelerate. Coming to a dead stop or stopping without deceleration can lead to injury.
How to Train for Sprints (Overload Training)
You want to focus on 2 different parts:
1. Explosive Short Sprints
2. Build up Speed at Longer Distances
Working explosive shorter sprints at set distances, getting full recovery, and then repeating for a certain number of reps. This will help with not only being more explosive at the beginning of your sprints but allows you to concentrate on proper sprint form and transitioning.
Working on building up speed at longer distances than what is required and being able to sustain that speed.
60 meter sprint training example:
0-15m: 70% capacity
15-40m: 85% capacity
40-60m: 100% capacity
Allow yourself a full recovery before the next rep. Do this for a number of reps and sets.
Intervals: The main idea for this “Faster/over-training” theory is getting the body able to take on more work than what is required for the test and then seeing how productive you were while doing that work. If the body is able to tolerate the workload and still hit the prescribed distance, then it is effective. There may need to be an increase in the prescribed distance and/or overall workload or less recovery if it’s not taxing enough. If the body isn’t able to tolerate the workload and the athlete is not hitting the prescribed distance, then a decrease in the prescribed distance and/or overall workload or more recovery is needed.
Interval training example (based on FIFA Category 1 Men’s Test):
Required for test: 75m run in 15 seconds with a 25m recovery in 18 seconds
How to Train for Intervals (Overload Training)
To train for the interval portion of the test, you might choose to run 80m in 15 seconds and have a shorter recovery time of 15 seconds.
We need to know where your baseline fitness is currently to recommend what times and distances you should start your training at. I would definitely not recommend starting at the above times and distances if you haven’t been training regularly.
The best way to monitor this workload is through personal perceived exertion and heart-rate data tracking with a device. Polar and Garmin watches with a chest strap heart rate monitor is the best tool for accurate data reading. It’s very important to have this data, along with your own perceived exertion rate and compare the two. Being able to interpret the data is just as important as collecting it, which is what we do at Dynamic Athlete Training!