Death to 110s and 300s

Earlier this month there was conversation on S&C twitter, I mean S&C X (sorry Elon) about conditioning tests for football. For too long football (sorry again to our international readers) American football, had used 110s and 300s as means for measuring conditioning. Enter Keir and the William & Mary crew with the Tribe Test. For those not familiar with the OG test CLICK HERE TO LEARN ALL ABOUT IT.
For purposes of this blog we assume you know all about the OG test. We are going to talk about some considerations with the test and spin offs that we have heard other members talk about.

Tribe Test considerations

Stopwatch or Human?

When using the test you need to consider are you using a stopwatch app or are you the stopwatch? Are you calling out the time until they go(3-2-1- go)? Or just blowing a whistle when it is time? What will the app do? Will it count down or just go? The reason these matter is you need to think about the logistics of the test. This is American football we are talking about. The athletes will be trying to anticipate the "snap count". You need to standardize it. The reason why you would not want to be the one blowing the whistle is - you are now the limiting factor. In order to be reliable you need to always be there. This does not serve the athletes if you leave the school, have to take care of your family, etc...So, get an app and make sure the athletes know how the countdown will work.

*PRO TIP*

Test out the app on the speaker you will use. Yes you need a speaker outside to make sure that everyone can hear the count down. Otherwise the lack of hearing will be a limitation. That's not the pro tip. The pro tip is making sure the app and the count down work on the speaker. I know, sounds crazy to think that - but it was the case for me. Our app countdown would have 3 beeps until the would say go. But when it connected to the speaker outside it only had 2 of the beeps. Why? No idea. But we knew this BEFORE we ran the test so it was not an issue.

People Scoring

Rather than allowing the athletes to score for a friend - grab the coaches, GAs, and QCs. Let them score the players. And rather than scoring the guys they coach. Have them score a different position. This will have them interact with a different group of players. And it will help ensure the scoring is not biased towards too far of a rep. It might biased them being too short - but that is something you need to talk with the coaches about. Also - get the ATC and their students to help. Hopefully you have a healthy team and members from the ATC staff and their students can help score. Both of these are situations we used at Towson when running the Tribe Test.

Spin offs from the OG Tribe Test

As Keir said in the OG Tribe Test presentation - the 12 reps adds a layer of suck to the test which makes the sport coach happy. Some members have shared with me that they took the idea of :05 on and :25 off with measured distances - but changed the reps. Rather than 12 reps in a row - which we all agree RARELY happens in a game - they changed the rep scheme. They did this for multiple reasons. One, it allows for a more accurate representation of the athlete fitness. Two, allows for the coach to see decay from series to series. And three, it allows for the coach to tailor the test to their team. It also allowed for the coach to handle the new rule of 50% conditioning test volume with new athletes.

For example. One member did 4 sets of 4 reps with 2 minute rest between the sets. Now there are 16 reps - but it is spread out. Same work to rest ratio - but now this shows more of the alactic-aerobic nature of American football. It also allows for the coach to see progress from set to set. Not only can the coach measure progress rep to rep - he or she can see what sets the athlete fades. This then allows the sport coach to see a "4th quarter" finish and do so in a legit way.

Another example from a team was the coach assessing 3 reps, 5 reps, 5 reps, and 10 reps. This is 23 reps - much bigger test. Almost twice the size. This allowed for the coach to be able to run 10 reps on day 1 with any new athlete. This way 10 reps is less than 50% of the documented 23 reps of normal conditioning test. Now sport coaches and high performance team can see where the new athletes are with their peers. All they did was take the measurement from the last 10 reps of the veteran players and were able to compare that to the score from new players. Additionally - it allowed for the coaches to see the players fitness is ideal conditions (three reps). Average conditions (five reps), and worst case reps (ten reps).

Wrap it up

In conclusion - do what is best for your team and athletes with respect top the Tribe Test. Just don't run 110s and 300s to asses the fitness of the team. It is 2024 - the sport of football has evolved. Why on Earth would you do the same conditioning from the 1980s when the sport isn't in the 1980s. You know better now - do better.


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