Ideal Laboratory and Field Tests for Measuring Skill in Soccer and Netball (Essay Sample)

Ideal Laboratory and Field Tests for Measuring Skill in Soccer and Netball
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Performance and success in both complex and hybrid sports of soccer and netball rely on technical, tactics, mental aspects and physical capacities of the players. The five skill-related parts of fitness include: balance, agility, co-ordination, power and reaction time. With netball, the significant fitness requirement is to improve aerobic fitness and sprinting ability on the court. In soccer, the physical capacity of the player highly determines the technical and tactical skills. 90% of the soccer game relies on aerobic metabolism while the average intensity relies on the lactate anaerobic threshold. Therefore, it is important to note that the outcome of both netball and soccer matches are determined by aerobic and anaerobic capacity of the players, and it is therefore of significance to test their aerobic and anaerobic capacity. The focus of this report is therefore is to determine the ideal tests and measurements that can be conducted to test for skill or technique in soccer and netball and reflect whether the tests are ideal in a laboratory or field.
VO2max is reflected as the ideal standard for measurement of aerobic fitness in players. The most common laboratory test performed is usually the Bruce Treadmill Test while the field tests performed to measure aerobic fitness is the Yo-Yo intermittent recovery test (YIRT) and the 20-m multi-stage shuttle run test (MST). The Yo‐Yo tests consist of 20+20 m shuttle runs with incremental intensity. Both MST and YIRT can be significant in determining HRmax of the players. It’s to be noted though that MST has a strong relationship with VO2max and is therefore ideal for measuring it. Thus, MST can be argued to be a favorable field-based test for endurance, while YIRT may be more suitable in measuring intermittent endurance performance of the players.
The Anaerobic power of the players can be ideally measured using the repeat sprint test, which can also measure the player’s abilities to recover from short bursts. Both Netball and Soccer players are required to continually produce short bursts of high intensity work interspersed with lower intensity activity, therefore, the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test includes jogging, running and sprinting is ideal field test for anaerobic power. Repeated sprint ability (RSA), the ability to perform repeated sprints with brief recovery intervals is the called repeated sprint exercise. RSA uses two indices, fatigue index and the percentage decrement score. Fatigue index, is the relative drop-off in performance from best to worst sprint, while percentage decrement score compares actual performance to a maximized performance where the best trial is repeated in the formula. Intermittent sprint exercise (RSE) can be considered to be the player’s ability to perform repeated sprints with sufficient recovery intervals between sprints. These repeated sprints are measured as total time or average time of all sprints.
Other tests for soccer and netball are: agility, the 505 agility test, which measures the player’s ability to change direction in 180 degrees, is a field test that’s ideal. More complex tests designed for the demands of soccer and netball like the Balsom Run and the Arrowhead Agility tests are important since the ability to change direction is important in these games.
Body fat can be measured using the Skinfold test. It is to be noted that excess body fat affects a player’s ability to move freely around the field, and the extra weight will increase fatigue. This test is more laboratories based and the percentage of the total body fat can be measured by taking skinfold at selected points on the body with a pair of calipers. General fitness requires a field test called the Wilf Paish Rugby Football Tests. This requires the player to perform nine exercises, the copper 12 min run, 30m sprint, squats, sit-ups, press-ups, bounding, a zigzag run, an agility star run, and diagonal pitch runs.
Psychology can be measured by analyzing a player's response to a series of statements about how she/he feels in a competitive situation it is possible to determine their level of anxiety. A test that provides such functionality is the Sport Competition Anxiety Test (SCAT) (Martens et al. 1990). This test r...