Jockey Club Youth
Football Assessment
Methodology & Results
Hardaway Chan
Sports Scientist
Hong Kong Jockey Club Sports Medicine and Health Science
Centre
Physiological demand in soccer
• 8 – 12km of distance
• 100 – 250 intense movement include heading, passing, change
of direction
• Sprint 10 – 30m in every 90 seconds
• Give great force to protect ball under defensive pressure
StØ len et.al. Physiology of soccer: an update. Sports Medicine 35: 501-536, 2005.
Jockey Club Youth Football Fitness
Assessment
• To generate database on Hong Kong youth football players
fitness level
• To establish a benchmark for local coaches and players
• To provide coaches with the findings for training optimization
• To allow comparison between other countries
Methodology
U14 (n = 117)
HKFA youth league
players (n = 386)
U16 (n = 140)
U15 (n = 129)
Assessment Day Protocol
0
• Health Screening
1
• Warm up
2
• Countermovement jump
3
• 20 metres sprint
4
• Arrowhead agility test
5
• Yo Yo Intermittent Recovery test Level 2 (YYIR2)
Countermovement Jump test
Equipment
An electronic jump mat
Procedure
1.
2.
The player must squat down and jump up
explosively with swinging arms.
The best result from three attempts is used.
Remarks
1.
2.
The player should be encouraged to jump as high as
possible.
No step or movement may be made before the jump.
Notes
1.
2.
A direct indicator of a player’s jumping ability.
Reveals lower-body power, a predictor of performance
in explosive actions.
20 metres sprint test
0.5m
Procedure
1.
2.
The player must begin from a standing start.
The player should run at full speed towards the end point.
Remarks
1.
2.
3.
The test is conducted on an artificial turf.
Time is recorded by infra-red speed gates at the
20m points.
The best time of two trials is used.
Notes
1.
2.
Gaining possession in a match often depends on a player’s
linear speed to the ball.
Analysis shows that players are required to sprint repeatedly
for periods of 2-4 seconds on average in a match.
20 m
Finish
Start
Equipment
Infra-red speed gates
Arrowhead Agility Test
Equipment
Infra-red speed gates
Procedure
1.
2.
3.
The player must begin from a standing start.
The player should complete one right and one
left route.
The total combined time taken for both the right
and left routes is used.
Remarks
1.
2.
The test is conducted on an artificial turf.
Players are encouraged to undergo a “trial run”
in each direction before the actual assessment
session.
Notes
1.
2.
Football demands frequent changes of direction and
speed from players.
Agility is becoming one of the most sought-after
attributes in talent identification.
Yo Yo intermittent recovery test level 2 (YYIR2)
Equipment
Heart rate monitors and audio speakers
Procedure
1.
2.
3.
4.
Repeating 20-meter circuits’ at an increasing speed, with a
recovery zone of 5 meter interjected at the starting point,
during which the player must walk or jog and return between
every shuttle in a period of 10-second.
The player runs the circuit upon hearing the beeping signal, and
returns to the starting point.
The running speed is gradually increased in stages according to
the pre-set pacing audio beep.
The result is measured according to the number of stages
completed and the total distance covered.
Remarks
1.
2.
3.
The test is conducted on an artificial turf.
The test ends when the player fails to keep up with the pacing
beeps twice, or voluntarily withdraws from the test.
The test result is based on the last stage achieved by the
player.
Notes
1.
2.
An indicator of a player’s ability to execute and recover from
repeated high-intensity movements.
Increasing the duration and intensity of training sessions will
help to improve both aerobic and anaerobic capacity.
Bangsbo, J., et al. (2008). "The Yo-Yo Intermittent
Recovery Test: A Useful Tool for Evaluation of
Physical Performance in Intermittent Sports.“
Sports Medicine 38(1): 37-51.
YYIR2 (cont’)
Hong Kong Youth Football Fitness
percentile rank table
•
•
Allow comparison
of physical fitness
among players in
HK
Identify areas for
individual training
enhancement
Hong Kong UK Players Comparable
1. Countermovement jump (cm)
•
•
•
UK players jump 12 – 15cm higher than HK players
>½ diameter of a soccer ball
Disadvantage in Heading to the ball
70
CMJ (cm)
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
U14
U15
U16
UK
HK
Hong Kong UK Players Comparable
2. 20 m sprint (seconds)
HK players are 0.11 – 0.15 seconds behind UK players
About 0.7 – 0.9m of difference after complete 20m sprint
Disadvantage in gaining ball possession when running toward the ball
3.50
20m sprint (sec)
•
•
•
3.40
3.30
3.20
3.10
3.00
2.90
U14
U15
UK
HK
U16
Hong Kong UK Players Comparable
3. Arrowhead agility (seconds)
HK players are poorer in agility than UK
players that may result disadvantages in
situation like,
– defensive moves against attacker
– breaking away from defender
– dribbling through defender
Arrowhead agility (sec)
•
18.00
17.50
17.00
16.50
16.00
15.50
U14
UK
HK
U15
U16
Hong Kong UK Players Comparable
4. YYIR2 (m)
•
HK players has poorer endurance than UK players that may result
disadvantages in
– Sustaining short term high intensity performance
– Recovering from fatigue after high intensity performance
•
Hence, HK players may perform comparatively less high intensity movement and
sprinting throughout the game than UK counterpart
700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
U14
U15
UK
HK
U16
Performance Difference between HK
and UK players by %
%
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
• HK train 1.5 times per week
• UK train 4 times per week
33.6
28.9
41.9
33.1
30.9
3.5
Countermovement
jump
45.4
4.7
3.4
20m sprint
U14
2.9
4.3
3.2
Arrowhead agility
U15
U16
Yo Yo Intermittent
Recovery test lv. 2
Positional Difference Among Youth Players
Countermovement Jump
(cm)
Average
Forwards
Midfielders
Defenders
Goalkeepers
U14
42
45
42
40
43
U15
43
43
44
44
41
20m sprint
U16
46
47
46
45
45
Arrowhead Agility Test
U14
Average
“17.81
Forwards
“17.42
Midfielders “17.79
Defenders “17.89
Goalkeepers “18.24
(Seconds)
•
•
U15
“17.57
“17.79
“17.42
“17.49
“18.03
U14
Average
“3.39
Forwards
“3.31
Midfielders “3.40
Defenders “3.42
Goalkeepers “3.36
(Seconds)
U15
“3.28
“3.27
“3.27
“3.29
“3.37
U16
“3.18
“3.17
“3.15
“3.18
“3.26
U15
389m
362m
413m
401m
290m
U16
430m
478m
459m
418m
332m
Yo Yo IR 2
U16
“17.12
“17.04
“17.00
“17.17
“17.37
U14
Average
331m
Forwards
341m
Midfielders 350m
Defenders 323m
Goalkeepers 271m
(meters)
Majority, there is no significant difference in physical performance among
all outfield players
Goalkeepers has the lowest result in the test, mainly due to the difference
physiological demand in the game
– Run 4km only
– Sprint <10m