Test day rules

What it trains

Make your day 0 and day 90 results fair, so a change in your score shows a change in you, not in the test. The start and timing method alone can shift a sprint time more than years of training (Haugen & Buchheit 2016).

Set up

• Same surface
• Same shoes
• Same timing and device
• Same time of day

How it works

1. Pick your test day and time, with an adult there if you are under 18. Do not test while injured or in pain. Warm up fully first: FIFA 11+ Kids (ages 7-13) or FIFA 11+ from 14 (episode 2), or your club warm-up, then 2-3 build-up runs or practice jumps.
2. Test in order, at least 3 minutes apart: the standing broad jump, the countermovement jump (optional: only with a jump mat or app; episode 14), the 30 m sprint (episode 13), then the bleep test (20 m, episode 15) last or on another day. The map is not to scale.
3. Standing broad jump: toes just behind a line, feet about shoulder-width apart. Swing your arms and jump forwards as far as you can, taking off and landing on both feet together. Measure from the line to the back of the heel nearest it. Jump twice and record the longer, in centimetres; a fall or step back does not count.
4. Write down every result with the date, time of day, place, surface, shoes and how it was measured (stopwatch or gates, jump mat or app, bleep test audio). On day 90, copy them all.
5. Your first result is your baseline: what matters is how it changes. Compare like for like, the same test measured the same way. Growth alone explains part of a 90-day gain in young players.

Coaching points

1. Rest 3+ min between tests. Same order and rest on both days: the jumps, then the 30 m sprint, then the bleep test last or on another day, at least 3 minutes apart. A published study put skill tests before tiring ones so fatigue would not spoil later results (Pauole et al. 2000).
2. Same way every time. Do each test exactly as its procedure says and measure it the same way every time: hand times are only compared with hand times and gate times with gate times, keep the same jump mat or app, and use the same UK bleep test audio.

Not this

Changing something between day 0 and day 90: new shoes, a different jump mat or app, gates one time and a stopwatch the next, another bleep test version, another time of day, or sprinting after the bleep test. Then you cannot tell if you improved or the test changed.

Dose

• First result: baseline
• Our target: retest day 90

Our target: Test on day 0 and again at day 90 (the Football Reach plan's check-in, not an FA rule).

Harder / Easier

Safety

• Test safely: warm up fully first, with an adult there (under 18), on a flat, non-slip surface such as grass, a 3G pitch, a track or a sports hall, with room to slow down, never a road or pavement. Do the bleep test last or on another day, and do not test while injured or in pain. Land jumps on grass or a mat, never a rug on a smooth floor.
• Under 16: if your knees or heels hurt when you run or jump, stop and tell an adult. Knee and heel pain is common while you are growing, and a GP or physio can help. 16 and over: stop rather than train through pain.
• If you get chest pain or feel faint or dizzy when you train, stop straight away (under 16: tell an adult) and get it checked the same day by your GP or NHS 111. Call 999 if someone collapses.

Sources

• Football Reach, how the measured tests work (opens in a new tab)
• Haugen & Buchheit 2016, sprint methods (opens in a new tab)
• Pauole et al. 2000, test order and rest (opens in a new tab)
• Youth sprint protocol (PMC) (opens in a new tab)
• Fradkin et al. 2010, warm-up (opens in a new tab)
• Rossler et al. 2018, FIFA 11+ Kids (opens in a new tab)
• FIFA, FIFA 11+ from 14 (opens in a new tab)
• Rago et al. 2020, arrowhead test (opens in a new tab)
• The FA Boot Room, physical corner (opens in a new tab)
• Sheffield Children's NHS, Osgood-Schlatter (opens in a new tab)
• Sheffield Children's NHS, Sever's disease (opens in a new tab)