The GIANTS continued their high intensity and strength-focused pre-season this week with the extended squad participating in the YoYo test on Monday morning.
Designed to assess an athlete’s aerobic and anaerobic fitness, the YoYo test is a high intensity interval running test that consists of running back and forth between two points 20 meters apart, with the pace gradually increasing at each interval.
Placing a strong emphasis on the physical conditioning, the YoYo test offers a valuable benchmark for players’ fitness levels, relative to their position.
Given its simple setup, compatibility with a netball court and the mimicked environment of the demands of a netball game, it’s been proven as the preferred test within netball for a number of years.
The results are used to track players aerobic capacity over both short-term and long-term and are used to help more accurately prescribe any running or conditioning sets that are included within the team training, individual training or talent identification.
Newcomer to the Academy Audrey Little recorded the highest score, with Amy Sligar ranking second and fellow Academy member Aimee Landrigan rounding out the top three.
GIANTS Netball Head of Strength and Conditioning and Sport Science Tom Reddin said he was relatively pleased with the results from Monday’s testing.
“For this time of the pre-season we were relatively comfortable with the results for the majority of the players – a number of whom set or matched previous personals bests.
“Several of the Academy players impressed.
“And we would look for improvement on the results for everyone at the next test.”
This was the first time the players have completed the YoYo test this pre-season and will likely undertake the test once again in January.
The focus of the club’s pre-season to date has been on athletic development and physical robustness.
“So far we have been aiming to improve the players' overall athleticism in terms of their speed, jump ability, strength and endurance.
“We assessed all players strength in some key lower limb areas and designed individual programs to get the players as robust and strong as possible.
“We then shifted our focus to more physical preparation for the upcoming trial games in Tasmania, so the court work and court loading progressions has become the priority. “
