It’s what you do with the results that counts.

Fitness testing is becoming common in the world of girls’ hockey.

Players are being tested by their coaches at the end of the season and are told that they are going to be re-tested in the fall.

In many ways, fitness testing is being used to hold the players’ accountable for their summer training. Every coach wants their players to show up for training camp in the best shape possible and telling players that their fitness will be tested in the fall will hopefully keep them thinking about staying fit throughout the summer months.

Why We Test
The primary purpose of fitness testing is NOT to get numbers that allow you to rank athletes from top to bottom.

The reason for testing athletes is to get results that you can use to DEVELOP TRAINING PROGRAMS PROPERLY.

Players must train to improve the weaknesses that are uncovered by the tests.

If a player does poorly on some aspect of testing and is told they must improve in some way in time for the fall, they need to be to told exactly how they can make those improvements.

It is critical to remember that the actual performance on the tests is not as important as what the results indicate in terms of athleticism and fitness. Ultimately, you aren’t having your athletes do a push-up test because you care about the number of push-ups they do. You are having them perform the push-up test so that you can assess the level of strength and stability in their upper body. If their test results indicate a weakness in this area, it will more than likely manifest itself in their performance on the ice by a weak shot or inability to battle effectively in the corners.

How To Strengthen the Weaknesses
Young female hockey players are ill-equipped, in terms of expertise and experience, to create and implement a training program that will help them to reach their goals. Coaches do a tremendous disservice to your players if you they don’t give them any guidance on how to improve over the summer months.

The plan that you give them doesn’t need to be overly complicated, but it should address their most fundamental needs as a developing player and help them to strengthen their weaknesses.

If you don’t have an off-season training program in place to help your players improve, then you can be sure that many of the weaknesses your uncover in your testing will remain unchanged.

Fitness testing can be an important part of your player development plan if you focus less on the scores and more on the plan you are going to use to help your players get stronger, faster and fitter this off-season.

Until next time,

Kim

PS: Stay tuned for an important announcement about how you can start taking your player’s game to the next level this off-season. Total Female Hockey will be launching a program that will change the way you approach your summer training next week, so keep you eyes peeled for details.