RTC Fitness Testing Report

Overview

This report provides a brief overview of fitness testing performance across the year. Please be aware that some players were unavailable through injury or illness at various points, which we’ve tried to account for, but can still affect the comparisons.

Here all players from all age groups are combined - there were no substantial differences in performance between the age groups (apart from the counter-movement jump) so combining players gives us a better picture of what has happened through the year.

Players will receive their individual reports alongside this in their final review meetings.

Counter movement jump (lower limb power)

This is a test of maximal lower limb power, relative to body mass.

A jump height of around 30 cm is about where we’d want players to be when leaving the programme and our u16s who have jumped a little higher than the other age groups are around this mark (~29 cm) .

You will see from the graph players maintained, but did not improve jump height through the season. However, it is worth noting that players who came in to S&C over the off and pre-season improved over that period - so maintaining this in-season is not too bad.

Jumping ability does not necessarily improve naturally across the age groups so this is an area we need to keep trying to develop and improve - along with landing, which is really important from an injury prevention perspective.

Graph shows where most (75% of the players) scores sit and the grey dots show individual player scores.

Repeated jump test

This tests lower limb stiffness or “bounciness” [fast force production] and we report a measure called reactive strength index - this takes into account the jump height and the time the players spend on the floor. This is an important test as the ability to apply force quickly is vital for most actions on the pitch.

On the whole there has been an clear improvement between September and December which has been maintained in April. There is a wide spread of scores on this test with some players’ reaching excellent values of >0.8 m/s where others have struggled. Practicing landing as well as plyometrics like hopping, skipping and pogo jumps are great ways to improve in this area.

Graph shows where most (75% of the players) scores sit and the grey dots show individual player scores.

Sprint ability

Our sprint time for 30 m has been getting slower through the year and is now a little below where we would like it to be as a group, with some noticeable exceptions. We have seen a decrease in speed of 0.1 s from December and a decrease of 0.14 from September.

One explanation for this is that the girls are tired after a long season but this is definitely an area we will look to target moving forward.

Graph shows where most (75% of the players) scores sit and the grey dots show individual player scores.

Football specific fitness (30:15 intermittent fitness test)

As far as predicting future progression, this is the best physical indicator - players in England age groups were more likely to progress to senior squads if their football specific fitness was higher. Performance on this test is linked to the ability to perform high-speed running in matches and better teams tend to be capable of doing more high-speed running.

The average score here is now close to 18 km/hr and you will see from the graph that there are no longer any players with particularly poor scores on this test. So we are in a good place here and this is testiment to the girl’s efforts and dedication to the running (which is never much fun!). There has been steady progress through the year (almost 1 km/hr which is substantial) and we know that this does not happen with out a dedicated effort. Considering last year’s testing with the FA showed RTC players across the country (an our own players) averaged 17 km/hr this is a really good result.

Note: whilst this is great to see it is worth pointing out that this is an area where girls’ are still a long way below boy’s academy football and still an area we should look to keep improving in.

Graph shows where most (75% of the players) scores sit and the grey dots show individual player scores.