EXCLUSIVE TO GAELIC STAR:What’s wrong with Fitness Testing in the GAA?
Written Exclusively for Gaelic Star by Mike Mcgurn. A native of Enniskillen, Fermanagh, Mike has been with the Irish Rugby Union senior team since 2002, and has now taken up the head coaching job in Armagh. A former Irish cross-country and 5,000 metre champion, he has previously worked with rugby league clubs St. Helens, Leeds, Hull and the Irish team in the Rugby League World Cup in 2000. McGurn brought with him a wealth of experience in preparing players to compete at the highest level.
Testing is open to manipulation – A player can bluff the early tests. Coming close to the key season games, it is then easy to beat their previous scores and look like Lazarus.
Suitability of tests - Michael Jordan was probably the best basketball player ever, but in tests he wasn’t even the best in Chicago Bulls. Explain that?
Fitness tests also do not give a player the same adrenal or hormonal environment that they will experience when they are nervous before a big game, and the adrenaline is pumping.
There is no clear relationship between fitness test performance and team performance - Studies from New Zealand showed a 1% improvement in a rowing power endurance test could only transfer to a 0.3% improvement in actual rowing time!
Tests change the focus from performance to beating tests - If we keep testing we only develop players that are training to beat tests. We get great testers and poor footballers. As they say in Rugby – “Training like Tarzan and playing like Jane”.
Testing Wastes Time To properly test you need to rest for 2 days before hand, 1 testing day and recover for 2 days after the effort = 5 days training wasted.
Test Conditions – You can’t test speed on grass in summer and indoors in winter and compare them. You need identical testing conditions for the same test.
What good is a fitness test? - What are you going to do if a player fails a test coming up to a big game? Drop him? You know the manger is going to play him no matter what the fitness coach tells him so what is the point?
The real test is the game – If you really want to evaluate a player watch them play football and forget about treadmills and stop watches.
The key point is this – Fitness is an expression of your body – a fluid, fluctuating bioelectric system.
I do very little testing. I never strength test, since my weights programmes take players down regularly to heavy singles and double reps, so we know where they are. By not testing I do not lose a full day of valuable training time. A glimpse of the athlete’s strength at that moment in time may be inaccurate. Factors beyond their control and mine may have an influence on the outcome of the test. For example, the night before he might have had an argument with his wife, or had a sleepless night because his child was ill.
A more appropriate system is monitoring, which basically is a collection of snap shots along the way which provide ongoing information. This, combined with honest and open communication between the player and his S & C coach, ensures that they are moving ahead physically on the field during competition. After all this is where it counts – not just in the gym or on the training grounds.
Finally, there has been a lot made of what brilliant test results certain players achieve. This is of little benefit because unless that same player can put the ball over the bar, make the important tackle, pass accurately, catch the ball cleanly and lay it off quickly, having the best fitness scores in the world tell you nothing about how they will cope in the real heat of battle.
I recently watched a player who is famed for his fitness tests.....He played like a Donkey. Ed.
Most Tests have no relevance to Football -
Someone please tell me how valuable a Vo2Max test is to a GAA footballer – None. Thank you. So why are you testing it?
