Screening,
evaluation, monitoring and reporting
Screening
Plan
Screening of the athlete will take place on Monday and
Tuesday of Week 1 of the training plan in August (See Table 1). Due to the high
demands of the screening tests Wednesday of Week 1 will be a rest day to
provide adequate recovery. Ideally to avoid fatigue testing would take place
over a full week, however due to the lifestyle and training demands of a modern
professional footballer, this would be a very unrealistic testing plan, and
therefore the tests have been condensed into a two day block. Screening is
required to give baseline data to enable appropriate prescription of workloads
during the training programme. Also screening data is used as a control to
measuring future tests against in order to monitor progress.
The screening tests for the athlete will be:
Functional
Movement Screen
The functional movement screen comprises of seven simple
movements that will allow the athletes flexibility and stability to be
assessed. From this physical weaknesses and imbalances can be identified so
corrective exercises can be correctly prescribed. As this screen is graded it
will also allow for exercise progression to be assessed numerically, and the
training programme to be adjusted to the athletes needs for optimal
progression.
Repeated sprint
ability (RSA)
Instead of just doing a single sprint test, Rampinini et al.
(2007) suggested that a Repeated Sprint Ability test could be more sport
specific as it more closely replicates the physiological demands of soccer,
such as a decrease in muscle pH, phosphocreatine and ATP, and the activation of
anaerobic glycolysis. The repeated sprint
ability tests involve the footballer to complete multiple maximal or near
maximal sprints (1s-7s) with brief recovery periods. RSA is considered mainly due to its logical
validity (sport-specific) and its similar metabolic requirements. This test
would also seem to generate information for both speed and speed endurance. The
repeated sprint test comprises of 6 bouts of forty metre sprints.
YoYo Intermittent Recovery
Test
The test has high reproducibility and sensitivity, and a study by Krustrup
et al. (2003) found that it was a
valid measure of fitness performance in football, due to football’s
intermittent ‘Stop-Start’ nature. The
test is similar to the bleep test as it requires a tape with a series of bleeps
and is over 20m, however, the test also includes a 5m recovery part where the
player recovers (sport specific).
T-Agility Test
The
T-Test is a highly reliable test that monitors agility, leg power and leg speed
(Pauole et al., 2000). It involves several changes of direction, acceleration
and deceleration and is a reliable and reproducible test. The test also has
ecological validity and it can be done outside on the training field in full
training kit and boots, allowing the player to complete the test in an
environment with his ‘comfort zone’.
10-30m
Speed Gate Sprint Test
The
test assesses not only sprint speed, but acceleration and speed maintenance. It
involves sprinting for 30 metres with light gates set up at 10, 20 and 30
metres. Therefore acceleration is measured between 0-10m, sprint speed is
measured at 10-20m and speed maintenance is measured between 20-30m. Cotte and
Chatard (2011) suggest this test is reliable marker of a footballers sprinting
ability and has high ecological validity as 49% of sprints in a football match are
shorter than 10m and 96% are shorter than 30m.
1 Repetition Maximum
Test
A one repetition maximum (1RM) test will be performed on the core
strength exercises prescribed for the athlete. This not only assesses maximum
strength for the relevant muscle groups but also enables prescription of
workload in the training programme as workloads are calculated as a percentage
of 1RM (-%1RM).
Evaluation and Monitoring
Plan
The athletes progress will be tested and evaluated twice
during the competitive season (Weeks 12 and 27) as well as once at the end of
the season (Week 43) and once during the off season (Week 47). The monitoring will take place over two days
(Monday and Tuesday) and follow the same format as the screening block (See
Table 1). The testing during the season will take place over a two day period
also (Monday & Tuesday; See Table 2), but will have a
reduced number of 1RM tests (Back Squat and Bench Press, to assess lower, and
upper body muscle groups respectively) to meet the physiological demands of the
modern football season on the athlete. If the athlete is suffering from a minor
injury at the time of testing another exercise tested in the original screening
may be used to assess strength (Push Press, Shoulder Press or Hamstring Curl
1RM test). The t-agility test will be
monitored closely due to the athlete’s history of ACL sprain, as a reduction in
agility performance may indicate weakness in the knee and require modification
of the training programme to improve the effectiveness of prehabilitation work
in the programme. The results of all the tests will be evaluated and used to
make any necessary adaptations to the training programme to best meet the athlete’s
goals
In line with the monitoring and evaluation strategy a training evaluation report has been produced, showing how the 3 month evaluation report would be presented to the coach. This is shown below in Figure.1
Figure.1 The 3 month athlete evaluation report, in the format which would be sent onto the coach
