Chapter 13 of the Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning builds on chapter 12 which covers the principles of testing. This chapter takes a dive into the details of testing processes and how to analyze the data gathered during testing.

Key Items:

• Know all of the testing procedures down to the detail. You will be asked questions about which foot and hand to place forward during specific drills.
• Know what each test is used to test specifically. You will be asked if a particular test is good for measuring power, speed, etc.

Administration, Scoring, and interpretation of Selected Tests

• To help athletes perform to their best, strength and conditioning coaches need to be able to administer, analyze, and combine the results of selected tests to form an athletic profile.

Measuring Parameters of Athletic Performance

• Athletic Performance - the ability to respond effectively to the various demands of the sport.
• Low-Speed Muscular Strength - the maximum force that a muscle or group of muscles can apply. Often tested with 1RMs. Minimal equipment needed and reflect the kind of dynamic ability needed in sport.
• High-Speed Muscular Strength - the ability of a muscle to exert high amounts of force while also moving at a high speed. Tested with 1 RMs of explosive resistance training exercises like the power clean, snatch or height of a vertical jump.
• Power output is a measure of both force and velocity. Do not forget that an athlete who has gained weight but, still runs at the same speed has increased power. She is now moving a heavier object at the same rate.
• Maximal Anaerobic Muscular Power - Another term for High-Speed Muscular Strength.
• Anaerobic Power - Another term for High-Speed Muscular Strength.
• Anaerobic Capacity - the maximal rate of energy production combined from the phosphagen (ATP and CP) and anaerobic glycolytic (breakdown of carbohydrate into pyruvate and then into lactate) energy systems for moderate duration activities. Maximal power during activities of 30-90 seconds.
• Local Muscular Endurance - the ability of certain muscles or muscle groups to perform repeated action against submaximal loads.
• Aerobic Capacity - the maximum rate that an athlete can produce energy, expressed an oxygen consumption rate (VO2 Max)
• Aerobic Power - another term for aerobic capacity.
• Agility - the ability to stop, start and change directions rapidly in response to an external stimulus. An example of this is a coach pointing the athlete to sprint another way.
• Speed - the amount of distance covered over a unit of time. Generally no farther than 100 meters for testing purposes.
• Flexibility - the range of motion about a body joint.
• Balance - the ability to maintain steady position over the bodies base of support.
• Stability - the ability of the body to return to balance after a disturbance.
• Body Composition - the amount of fat, body, water and bone in the body.
• Anthropometry - the science of measuring the human body.
• In order for tests to be reliable, testing conditions should be noted and kept as consistent as possible in retests.

Statistical Evaluation of Test Data

• It is important to measure the differences between the athlete and the group as a result of the program by using a pretest and retest.
• Difference Score - the difference between an athlete's score at two different testing times.
• Percent Change - Another measure to calculate the difference between testing scores.
• Statistics - the science of mathematics dealing with collecting, classifying, analyzing, presenting and interpreting numerical data.
• Descriptive Statistics - used to describe the basic features of the data in the study.
• Central Tendency - a middle value about where the data tends to cluster.
• Mean - the average of all the scores, the most commonly used central tendency.
• Median - the middlemost score. When there are two, the average of the two middlemost scores.
• Mode - the most common score.
• Variability - how spread out a set of data is.
• Standard Deviation - a measure of how spread out the numbers are.
• Range - the difference between the lowest and highest numbers. Easy to understand but, may not be the most accurate measure of variability.
• Percentile Rank - the percentage of test takers who scored below that individual.
• Inferential Statistics - a sample of statistics that allow you to draw a general conclusion about a population.
• Magnitude Statistics - a measure of the size of an effect.
• Smallest Worthwhile Change - the ability of a test to determine the size of the smallest important change in performance.
• Effect Size - a statistical measure of the difference between two groups. Can be used to show the difference in results between a pretest and posttest.
• Athletic Profile - a group of test results that are related to quality performance in a sport or sport position.