Do fitness tests reflect speed on the ground
Recently I was asked whether the 20m test generally used as a speed test is reflected on the ground. To be honest most times yes. Some players just read it better so in games dont look as slow as their tests suggest. Watching Pearce from Port Adelaide run at a draft camp a few years ago one could see he would explode later. The 20m test obviously doesnt measure max speed and/or many other variables. But in reality if one strips the science away from it I have always found that players who test quick generally look quick on the ground. Agility as researched by Young and Shepherd is a complex mix of speed, acceleration, change of direction abilities and many other attributes, with the ability to see what is happening and process it a crtiical factor. So players such as Harvey from St Kilda may have just reasonable tests results ( don’t know his speed) but due to decision making and change of direction abilities can get on their bike and scoot away from supposedly quicker players. Players like Dustin Fletcher at Essendon tested very quick and with his tennis background and football ability has been the package deal. Of course in his prime a player like Saverio Rocca at Collingwood was the best over 5 metres, a reflection of his ability to power clean nearly 150 kgs and throw a discus 60m plus. Wanganeen was simply the quickest I have measured over 10m ( 1.54) and I saw him run 11.1 sec for 100m at Aberfeldies one day without blocks and untrained. Again the package deal and like Fletcher these two were fast twitch animals with not so good aerobic qualities. In fact that day he ran 11.1 and Michael Long ran 11.2 and I think Lachlan Ross 11.3 and the next one home was a guy called Mick Symons who ran 11.6 ( 2,75 for 20m in gates). So yes test in a straight line and then test change of direction but as Warren Young and Jeremy Shepherd found in their research on reactive agility , getting away from players requires quite a lot of variables to come together. Then put it together at game speed in enclosed areas. And get strong in the gym and powerful with plyos in both legs. Some quick players can run one or two repetitions but after a few repeat speed efforts “slow” guys run past them. This is why rotations have had a big effect in footy allowing the fast guys to come on and smash it and why limiting rotations coupled with the new rules from 2006 will even more bias aerobic “slower” players and possibly stunt the explosive bursts from “fast” guys as the game goes on and even maybe limit their careers.
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loris bertolacci 
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