A key part to any good training program is to know the current status of an athlete with regards to their strengths and weaknesses. How fast is the athlete now! How agile is the athlete! What is their reaction time like? Are they fast only over a short distance or do they possess speed-endurance! Does the lack of good flexibility inhibit their ability to become faster? The only way to answer these questions is to perform some pre-season testing.
Many coaches perform some form of pre-season testing yet many do not know which tests to choose and which are specific to the fitness component that they are trying to test. Choose tests that are specific to the movements in your sport. This requires performing a needs analysis and understanding the exact requirements for your sport.
Benefits of Testing Include:
Identifying the current status of the athlete with regards to speed. It gives you an idea of where you stand in comparison to fellow athletes in your sport. When you conduct testing it will allow the athlete to see where they stand in relation to other athletes. They can also use these tests to motivate them in training to improve and strive to beat their test score the next time testing comes around.
Testing helps you to set goals for yourself. You may not be as fast as your opponent but you can certainly decrease the difference gap. Speed is recognised as one of the most important factors for success when training athletes. Once you know your current speed status then you can set goals for yourself on what times you will aim to get.
Testing also allows you to see if you are fast in certain areas but not in others. Eg. Do you have linear speed but are slow when it comes to speed with multi-directional changes?
Are you fast once you get going but lose time due to being slow off the mark? As already mentioned there are many often neglected factors that determine how fast an athlete is.
Testing gives you specific times and results for a test that are measurable and allows you to set goals for improving on theses times. When you beat a previous time for a certain test then you know that you have become a faster athlete.
Tests for Speed include the sprint test over 10 metres, sprint test over 20 metres, fan drill (used for the ITN Test), suicide sprints (speed – endurance, wave run speed and agility test and the 3 line speed and agility test.
Tests for Agility include the agility box run test, 5 ball pick-up, 4 cone sprint, “T” agility test and the bowtie drill.
Tests for Strength include 1 RM tests (bench press, 1 RM test (squat, handgrip strength test (hand grip dynamometer, abdominal strength test (sit-ups in 1 minute, isokinetic strength tests, total number of dips, pull-up test and total number of push-ups.
Tests for Power include medicine ball side-throw, medicine ball overhead throw, single-leg hopping test, squat, vertical jump test, standing broad jump test.
Tests for Flexibility include sit and reach, shoulder flexibility (use goniometer), hamstring flexibility.
Testing guidelines include testing prior to commencing your training program and conducting a thorough warm-up before you begin testing.
When testing you have to duplicate the exact testing procedures and variables in order to obtain valid and reliable results. You should also avoid excessive physical activity the day before testing. Perform the test at the same time of the day, perform the tests on the same surface and try to perform the test under similar weather conditions.
Other key points include performing the explosive tests first during a training or testing session. Be sure to clearly instruct the athletes on how to perform the test and allow for a trial run through of the test thus allowing for the “learning” factor associated with a new test.
Tests should be simple and easy to administer. Perform tests in the same order when re-testing. Have the athletes wear the same shoes and clothing. Test every 6 – 8 weeks. There is no need to test every month or few weeks and in fact this can be counter productive. You must allow enough time for the adaptational effects of your training to occur.
These tests should not be too time-consuming to set up and perform. There are many tests that you can perform that do not require special equipment. Most of these tests are not costly or difficult to set up.
Testing is a great way to monitor your training program and to see what changes need to occur in order to be more productive.
With any good speed testing program it is very important that you perform tests specific to your sport. In tennis speed occurs over very short distances. In other sports such as American Football you would test speed for wide receivers over 40 yards. This is where the needs analysis that you have conducted for your sport will identify these important variables.
How do speed traps work and why do I have an arrest warrant?
Isn’t technology wonderful. Until recently, if the police wanted to catch you driving your car too fast then they would have to follow you in a police car for a while to match your speed then stop you and write you out a ticket. You knew what was happening back then. There was no mistaking that you had just picked up a speed violation and you had to do something about it because a cop has just told you to.
Those were the days but it’s all different now. You can pick up speeding tickets and other violations while you are driving without even being aware that you were doing anything wrong let alone getting caught doing it. You only have to drive past a police radar speed trap a little too fast and that’s enough to trigger a citation. You will get it in the mail a few days or even weeks later. If you ignore the letter or it gets lost in the mail then it’s likely that you’ll end up with a warrant for your arrest.
Police radar speed traps can be detected
Have you ever stood at the side of a rail track when a train is approaching and noticed that the sound the train makes changes in pitch as it gets closer to you then further away again. This is called the “doppler effect” and the technique is used in radar speed traps to catch you exceeding the speed limit. The difference is that radar uses radio waves instead of sound but the principle is the same.
Radar speed guns send out beams of radio waves that tend to go in all directions not just directed at your vehicle. The radio waves can be detected by installing a simple device in your car which can alert you to the fact that there is a radar speed trap in the area and give you time to slow down and avoid getting a ticket.
Police Laser speed traps are harder to detect
Your radar detector won’t be any help to you against the new breed of laser speed guns which are fast replacing the old radar gun trap. Laser speed detector guns send out a narrow beam of light which shines on your car and the equipment actually measures the time that it takes the light beam to hit your car and return to the gun. This is a very accurate way of measuring speed and it’s also very difficult to detect one in operation because there is only one beam of light to detect.
There are no electronic counter measures that I know of that can effectively give you an early warning of a laser speed trap. This means that you could get a letter in the mail unexpectedly at almost any time. Don’t ignore it when it comes because it could turn into an arrest warrant if you do.
What can you do about this new technology?
Well you could try obeying the law and keeping your speed under the limit at all times. This is easier said than done of course. First you have to make sure that you know what the speed limit is at all times then you have to keep your speed under it all the time. It only takes one small mistake on your part and you’ve just picked up a ticket.
If you can’t avoid getting caught in a police speed trap then you must make sure that you pay the fine or protest your innocence as soon as possible. Yes the police do make mistakes so it’s worth making sure that you were actually there when they say you were. If for some reason the fine turns into a warrant then you can takes steps to find out about it as soon as possible and deal with it before you get arrested.
Use new technology to find out about warrants before the cops come to arrest you
It’s now possible to search the entire country to find out if you’ve got an arrest warrant. Only recently has new Internet technology been available to enable you to do this. It’s so simple that you can do a comprehensive search in much less than 10 minutes. This means that you can do it regularly to find out if you’ve picked up any warrants because you never got the letter or you’ve forgotten to pay the fine.
It’s becoming increasingly more difficult to avoid getting arrest warrants so make sure that you find out about them fast when they do pop up. Once you’ve found out that you have one, deal with it as soon as you can. Speak to a lawyer to make sure that you do things the right way. Trust me, this is a whole lot better than waiting until the cops come to arrest you.
