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

• 386 youth team players competed

in the youth league organized by

HKFA

• Aged 13 – 15 years old

• 1 day test with standard

sequence

HKFA youth league players (n = 386)

U14 (n = 117)

U15 (n = 129) U16 (n = 140)

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. The player must squat down and jump up

explosively with swinging arms.

2. The best result from three attempts is used.

Remarks 1. The player should be encouraged to jump as high as

possible. 2. No step or movement may be made before the jump.

Notes

1. A direct indicator of a player’s jumping ability.

2. Reveals lower-body power, a predictor of performance

in explosive actions.

20 metres sprint test

Sta

rt

Fin

ish

0.5m 20 m Equipment

Infra-red speed gates

Procedure

1. The player must begin from a standing start.

2. The player should run at full speed towards the end point.

Remarks 1. The test is conducted on an artificial turf. 2. Time is recorded by infra-red speed gates at the 20m points. 3. The best time of two trials is used.

Notes

1. Gaining possession in a match often depends on a player’s linear speed to the ball.

2. Analysis shows that players are required to sprint repeatedly for periods of 2-4 seconds on average in a match.

Arrowhead Agility Test

Equipment

Infra-red speed gates

Procedure

1. The player must begin from a standing start.

2. The player should complete one right and one

left route.

3. The total combined time taken for both the right

and left routes is used.

Remarks 1. The test is conducted on an artificial turf. 2. Players are encouraged to undergo a “trial run” in each direction before the actual assessment session.

Notes

1. Football demands frequent changes of direction and speed from players.

2. Agility is becoming one of the most sought-after attributes in talent identification.

Yo Yo intermittent recovery test level 2 (YYIR2)

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.

Equipment

Heart rate monitors and audio speakers

Procedure 1. 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.

2. The player runs the circuit upon hearing the beeping signal, and returns to the starting point.

3. The running speed is gradually increased in stages according to the pre-set pacing audio beep.

4. The result is measured according to the number of stages completed and the total distance covered.

Remarks 1. The test is conducted on an artificial turf. 2. The test ends when the player fails to keep up with the pacing

beeps twice, or voluntarily withdraws from the test. 3. The test result is based on the last stage achieved by the

player.

Notes 1. An indicator of a player’s ability to execute and recover from

repeated high-intensity movements.

2. Increasing the duration and intensity of training sessions will help to improve both aerobic and anaerobic capacity.

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

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

U14 U15 U16

UK HK

22cm

CM

J (c

m)

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

2.90

3.00

3.10

3.20

3.30

3.40

3.50

U14 U15 U16

UK HK

20

m s

pri

nt

(se

c)

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

15.50

16.00

16.50

17.00

17.50

18.00

U14 U15 U16

UK HK

Arr

ow

hea

d a

gilit

y (s

ec)

Hong Kong UK Players Comparable

4. YYIR2 (m)

• Yo Yo IR test lv 2

– evaluates the abilities to perform and

recover from intense exercise

– correlates with the highest distance

covered in a 5 mins period in a game

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

U14 U15 U16

UK HK

• 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

28.9

3.5 2.9

33.133.6

4.7 4.3

41.9

30.9

3.4 3.2

45.4

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

Countermovementjump

20m sprint Arrowhead agility Yo Yo IntermittentRecovery test lv. 2

U14 U15 U16

Performance Difference between HK

and UK players by %

%

• HK train 1.5 times per week

• UK train 4 times per week

(meters) U14 U15 U16 Average 331m 389m 430m Forwards 341m 362m 478m

Midfielders 350m 413m 459m Defenders 323m 401m 418m

Goalkeepers 271m 290m 332m

(Seconds) U14 U15 U16 Average “17.81 “17.57 “17.12 Forwards “17.42 “17.79 “17.04

Midfielders “17.79 “17.42 “17.00 Defenders “17.89 “17.49 “17.17

Goalkeepers “18.24 “18.03 “17.37

(Seconds) U14 U15 U16 Average “3.39 “3.28 “3.18 Forwards “3.31 “3.27 “3.17

Midfielders “3.40 “3.27 “3.15 Defenders “3.42 “3.29 “3.18

Goalkeepers “3.36 “3.37 “3.26

(cm) U14 U15 U16 Average 42 43 46 Forwards 45 43 47

Midfielders 42 44 46 Defenders 40 44 45

Goalkeepers 43 41 45

Positional Difference Among Youth Players

Countermovement Jump 20m sprint

Arrowhead Agility Test Yo Yo IR 2

• 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