Following on from part one, where we looked at some of the basic concepts of energy system physiology, in part two we divert a little and dive into the practical application of ESD in teams sport environments.
When designing a conditioning program, it is not only important to understand the energy systems that contribute to the success of a particular sport. But also the time of the season as well as the athlete’s current fitness level. This is more commonly known as benchmarking or athlete profiling. It allows you as the coach to adapt the training according to each individual’s relative intensity. Benchmarking or profiling is an important step in the process as it allows you to identify clearly what the key physical characteristics are that may provide on-pitch performance benefits. It is important that the test chosen for this process is valid and reflective of the physical attributes required in your particular sport.
It is always a good option to use one anaerobic dominant test and aerobic dominant test to determine the conditioning profile of your athletes. Due to the myriad of possible tests that can be used for either anaerobic or aerobic performance tests, it’s beyond the scope of this post to discuss all of them. Thus our focus will be on how to make the most out of your data. From this, you will be able to individualize the relative intensity for individuals in your team to ensure the appropriate physiological strain is induced.
1. Maximal Aerobic Speed (MAS)
MAS is a useful metric that can be extrapolated from various aerobic-based tests using any cardiovascular modality of your choice. Tests commonly used in team sports such as the YoYo or 30-15, to name a few, are easy, yet highly relevant options to use. The vV02max of these tests would be the velocity of the final shuttle an athlete completes. However, for these tests, the below corrective equation is required to more accurately calculate MAS.
MAS (Shuttle Run) = Final stage speed (km/hr * 1.34) – 2.86
Other methods of obtaining a MAS score is by conducting either a time trial over a predetermined distance (e.g.1,2 – 5 km) or all-out effort over a predetermined duration (e.g 4 – 6 min). The simplicity of these tests makes it a very popular means of assessing aerobic capacity in athletes.
MAS (m/sec) = Distance (m) / Time (sec)
Some of the variables that you would need to record during these tests are as follows;
- Total Distance
- Total Time
- Heart Rate Max
- Average PPO
- Peak PPO
For simplicity, we will use the 2.4 km time trial run as the test of choice. Athletes would need to perform a 2.4 km run over a predetermined course. The time to completion as well as max heart rate should be recorded at the end of the run. Table 1 below is an example of data captured from a 2.4km based MAS test.