| Month | CMJ (cm) | RSI (m/s) | 10m (s) | 30 m (s) | vIFT (km/hr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 27 ± 3.91 | 1.3 ± 0.3 | 2 ± 0.07 | 5 ± 0.21 | 17.5 ± 0.94 |
| December | 27 ± 4.67 | 1.3 ± 0.32 | 2 ± 0.08 | 4.9 ± 0.24 | 17.3 ± 1.01 |
| September | 27.4 ± 4.24 | 1.2 ± 0.33 | 1.9 ± 0.07 | 4.8 ± 0.21 | 16.8 ± 1.12 |
RTC Fitness Testing Report
Overview
This report provides a brief overview of fitness testing performance after our April testing. When interpreting these data we should acknowledge some players were unavailable through injury or illness so the comparisons are not ideal and there is some unequal variance between time points. That said this does give us some broad areas to consider (below).
N.B. I have also looked at the data for all age groups combined - this is generally justified as there are no real differences in performance on the tests between age groups, with the exception of the counter-movement jump where the u16s jumped 2.8 cm higher than the u14s (0.2 to 5.5 cm) in April.
In the gym,
- Despite focusing a little more on concentric force development to target counter movement jump (whilst not neglecting movement skill and eccentric control) our jumping ability is plateauing - a good off-season programme would be useful (2-3 sessions per week).
On the pitch
A: we targeted maximal acceleration and maintaining a micro-dosed maximum velocity exposure but speed continues to decline, and acceleration has declined substantially - this may be due to fatigue but some summer “speed clinics” could be beneficial?
B: the work we have done to target football specific fitness seems to have had rewards with a consistent positive trend this year. This remains an area that is under developed in the female game and requires continual focus.
Counter movement jump (lower limb power)
As a squad the CMJ scores are slightly below where we would want to be (~29 - 30 cm) [with the exception of the u16s, 29.1 cm] and these have remained constant since September. Changes in jump height of between 2.1 cm to 3.4 cm are deemed practically important and our data was well inside this a 0.25 cm (95% CI -0.6 to 1.1 cm) increase from December and a -0.4 cm (95% CI -1.2 to 0.4cm) change from September. This is an area we need to continue to challenge the girls on in the off and pre-season.
Repeated jump test
(lower limb stiffness or “bounciness” [fast stretch-shortening cycle activity] )
There is less quality comparative data for repeated jumping. Our girls’ have a reactive strength index (RSI) of 1.3 m/s which is below our (slightly arbitrary) target of 1.8 m/s. The girls’ improved by 0.11 m/s in December, which was likely important (95% CI 0.01 to 0.20) but there is no evidence of this improving further. Again this is an area to keep developing.
Sprint ability
Our sprint time for 30 m (5.00 ± 2.1s) has been getting slower through the year and now well below target I have set (4.63 s - although this representeds the fastest 25% of an England u17s squad so the target is tough). We have seen a decrease in speed of 0.1 s from December and a decrease of 0.14 from September which could be practically relevant (~0.1 - 0.3s). It seems much of this decrease is down to poorer acceleration andcould negatively affect performance on the pitch.
Overall this trend is of some concern and I’m not sure why we see this, it maybe be a general issue with fatigue through the season- there may also be a trade off with the improvements we’ve seen in football specific fitness.
Football specific fitness
Overall our girls’ are comparable to other RTC but still a little under where we would like to be - girl’s football still sits well below boy’s in this area - and football specific fitness is the one physical predictor of progression to international squads. It’s really encouraging to see how the scores have continued to improve over the year by 0.6 km/hr (95% CI 0.3 to 0.9 km/hr) and importantly we have most players in and around 17.5 km/hr with fewer poor scores.
