Physical performance testing

With FIT4FUNCTION testing and profiling systems, athletes can compare their physical performance with specific athletic development tests for strength, speed, power, and injury risk. You’ll even be able to see where the top 1% and top 10% of athletes internationally score and compare yourself to their results. Just think of the confidence and motivation you’ll get seeing your physical performance ranked against the data from elite, world-class, and professional athletes you have always admired.

The ability to measure your vertical jump, your elastic, reactive ability, or, what the average 5K time is. We make sure that your scores are put to the test by using an extensive database to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Think about this as identifying your limiting factors and highlighting your strengths. This is a guide to help you as an athlete achieve your athletic high-performance goals.

Objective data (numbers and values) when used to analyze your performances allow you to have truly individualized recommendations for specific training that guarantees results.

Types of tests you’ll receive and benefit from

Movement, Mobility & co-ordination

This is more than nonsense use of the functional movement screen which has been disproved and shown to have little to no relationship with injury risk hundreds of times in the last 10 years. Oh no! - this is about using experience in biomechanics, anatomy, and sports performance to design specific interventions that don’t just increase range of motion and reduce muscle tightness. These are interventions designed to impact athletic performance. Remember, nothing in sports is an isolated joint action. So just assessing a single joint alone isn’t providing any valuable data. Every time the hip moves, so does the knee, and so does the ankle and if they don’t physically move, the muscles will contract or relax. That’s why the Frans Bosch Training System inspi’red so much of my rehabilitation approach. Co-contractions across joints are the key to movement control and the ability to use your strength. This is much more than just advising you to foam roll. This is about a life-changing transformation.

Lower Body strength, speed, Power & reactivity

Jumps — Countermovement jump, Squat jump, and Loaded jump profiling. These are the tests that hold a huge transfer to qualities like max strength. They also allow us to understand whether you can effectively produce maximum force across the whole movement. For example, are you a basketball or volleyball athlete who needs to jump high, but also needs to do it fast? Maybe you’re confused about why you’re getting stronger but can’t jump higher. Maybe you’re looking to increase your sprint speed and have the same question.

Plyometrics — Pogo Hop assessments like the 10-5 or drop jump variations indicate your ability to both produce large amounts of force and your reactive strength ability. Using video analysis of your jumps means I can gather data on jump height, contact time, and force produced to develop programs that target your specific weakness.

You’ll either be a tortoise or a hare. Strong, but slow, or Fast, but weak. That’s why I developed the power protocol for athletes. It allows for an in-depth assessment of athletic ability.

Injury Risk Screening — Using a combination of the jumps and plyometrics I already mentioned. However, we use single-leg variations to identify specific imbalances in your power output ability which will likely explain why you don’t perhaps feel as strong jumping off one leg, and prefer two. It might explain why you feel you run strangely with differences from left to right. We can use these single-leg jump tests in combination with range-of-motion testing and single-leg strength testing to create a clear view to inform injury risks and how we can use the latest research and my experience to reduce those risks as quickly as possible after assessment. This is about combining your opinion and experience of pain with data.

Overcoming Isometrics — These are the ultimate test of how you use your hips, knee, and ankle to produce maximal force. These are only able to be performed with high-spec technology. However, this is available with the FIT4FUNCTION Physical Performance MOT. This will give us the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to what you need to maximize performance, reduce pain, and reach the next level of athletic performance.

Acceleration & Speed

With the data we have already collected, seeing your top speed over 30m, compared to your top across 10m and 20m is a valuable piece of information. It might explain why you think you’re fast, but keep being beaten over the first steps, or why you feel you can’t use your speed in sports. It’s because the sport doesn’t happen in straight lines and very few sports allow you to sprint without slowing down for more than 20m, usually, it’s around 10m. We use this not only to prescribe specific sprint distances and speed mechanics drills. It also allows me to increase intent behind speed or conditioning drills with a specific focus on your weak link when it comes to speed and acceleration.

Conditioning (cardio) assessment

Controversially we avoid the classic tests like Bronco’s or suicide’s and shuttle runs. These are not specific to the demands of the sport. I prefer off-feet methods like a bike, or reduced impact of an athletic track or grass field for tests that truly assess the ability of the athlete to be “fit for purpose”, not just generally fit. I’ll assess heart rate, and blood lactate and compare your fitness level to the standards set by athletes in your sport from recreational to the top 10%. This is a true test of athletic cardio. Not punishment or lazy coaching disguised as conditioning like many old-school tests.