Fitness Testing
Physical Education: AQA GCSE, topic 3.2.3
Reasons for Fitness Testing
Fitness testing can be helpful for a number of reasons:
Discover strength and weaknesses
- Fitness tests can highlight the strengths and weaknesses of a performance.
- E.g. a football player’s dribbling ability might be poor because they have poor agility.
Set baselines
- Performers can do a ‘baseline’ test for each area of fitness to identify any ‘low’ scores in areas that need improving.
- By doing baseline tests, a performer will have a ‘recorded’ starting point. Performers can then compare their starting scores against any progress made.
Track progress
- Progress can be tracked over time to see if improvements are made.
- E.g. if a performer achieved level 5.2 in the multi-stage fitness test (baseline) but, when re-tested after 12 weeks, they achieve level 9.8, this shows that the performer is improving their fitness and their plan is successful.
Prevent tedium
- Fitness tests can provide variety in a training programme.
- Sometimes, training can be boring and fitness tests can be used as competitive tools to get performers interested (they want to beat their previous score).
Peer comparisons
- Performers can compare their fitness test scores with a national average.
- A performer could also compare their score with their peers (fellow performers).
Motivational tool
- A performer may use the fitness test as a motivational tool to improve.
- If a performer knows that they have a fitness test coming up, they are more likely to be motivated to do well.
- They may also have a specific goal to reach, so they will train hard to make sure they achieve that goal when tested.
Limitations of Fitness Testing
However, fitness testing has some limitations:
Too generic
- Tests can be too generic (not sport-specific).
- E.g. a multi-stage fitness test will not always show that a performer is playing football well, because the sport contains both anaerobic and aerobic activity.
Don't mirror sporting movements
- Tests such as the multi-stage fitness test do not recreate sporting movements.
- E.g. team sports do not need a performer to run back and forth in a straight line.
Don't recreate competitive conditions
- Fitness testing does not recreate the competitive conditions that there are in sport.
- Sporting competitions are performed in high-pressure environments that cannot be recreated in fitness tests.
- E.g. these tests can be done over and over.
Many tests aren't completely reliable
- Some tests need a performer to try their hardest to achieve an accurate score. If the performers aren't motivated, then the score will not be accurate.
- In some tests, a partner needs to record the score (e.g. vertical jump test). The person who is scoring may make a mistake and produce unreliable results.
- If the tests are not carried out with correct procedures or protocols, then the results are unreliable.
Test yourself on Fitness Testing
What is the name of a test used to record starting points for the various elements of an athlete's performance?
The acronym TEST can be used to remember the reasons for fitness testing. Can you think what this acronym stands for?
Which of these is not a limitation of fitness tests?
Why are the results of fitness tests often unreliable?