Toughest Endurance Tests in College Sports
Overview
Having endurance is an extremely important part of being an athlete. That’s why athletes do endurance tests and drills to see what their current endurance level is and how it can be improved. Not only do these tests help with endurance but can also help with overall fitness. These drills are meant to be extremely challenging and push athletes to their athletic limit in order to further their athletic ability. Most of these drills are made for older, highly skilled athletes but they can also be modified to be better suited for younger athletes to try. In today’s blog post we will be looking at three endurance tests and will be giving suggestion about how to modify them for younger athletes.
Beep Test - Soccer
What it tests
The Beep Test or 20-meter shuffle is a endurance test used in soccer to measure an athletes aerobic endurance and their ability to sustain running fast for a period of time.
How it is performed
For this endurance test athletes have to run back and forth between cones set 20 meters apart. A recording plays beeps, and when the recording beeps the athletes have to have made it to the cone. The recording speeds up and they have less time to run the 20 meters, with no breaks in between the sets. If you don’t make it to the cone 2 times then your test ends.
How to modify it for younger athletes
While this test is hard and is used to test elite college athletes it can also be modified for younger athletes. To tailor this drill for younger athletes shorten the distance to 10 - 15 meters along with having the intervals of times be a little longer. Making these modifications can help to train young athletes endurance while also not being too challenging.
Lactate Tolerance Sets - Swimming
What it tests
This endurance test helps athletes in sports like swimming, track, and soccer to be able to push past high levels of fatigue to perform well in their sport. During high intensity workouts your body produces energy anaerobically instead of using oxygen. Creating energy anaerobically creates lactic acid in your muscles. This test helps athletes to perform even when their muscles are sore from lactic acid and clear lactate faster.
How it is tested
For swimming a lactate tolerance set consists of swimming 8 x 100 yards at max effort at 1:30 then swimming 4 x 50 yards at max effort on 1:00 rest. The goal while performing these sets is to maintain top speeds the whole time.
How to modify for younger athletes
To modify this test for younger athletes you can decrease the amount of repetitions, and set a new amount of repetitions that is suitable for their age and skill level. Along with that you can increase the time so that they have a longer break and a longer time to complete the laps.
The Tribe Test - Football
What it tests
The Tribe Test is a conditioning test that replicates the demands that happen to football players during games. This test achieves this through having short bursts of intense activity followed by a brief recovery time.
How it is tested
For this test football players sprints for 5 seconds to a specified distance or go as far as they can in that amount of time. This is followed by 25-30 seconds of rest. These steps are repeated multiple times. This helps to both build endurance and see how athletes maintain their performance over the multiple reps.
How to modify for younger athletes
For younger athletes this can be modified by having a longer rest time, since games at a younger level may not be as fast paced and to give them time to recover. Along with that the distance can be shortened along with the amount of reps that are done.
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