TAC COMBINE - YO YO TEST

For the next few days we're looking at the TAC Combine that I'll be assisting with again this year through Rookie Me and yesterday we looked at the 20m Sprint, with today's focus being the Yo Yo Test.

The Yo Yo test has replaced the dreaded Beep Test for the aerobic component for the AFL, but has actually been used in Soccer for years, s it more replicates team sports running patterns.

Wanna ace it?

LOCK IN PSCHOLOGICALLY

The beep test was a real man maker being 15 - 20mins long of gradually faster runs that when watched, seems to go forever, let alone while you're doing it. 

From a running pattern point of view it never made any sense (going faster each level until you drop out), but with so much data on it for players from over the years, it was hard to let it go.

The Yo Yo is only 7 - 8mins long and even though it ramps up much faster, it has a slightly less psychological aspect then the beep test so if you can lock in for that shorter time span (perfect for today's youth!), then you're half way there.

TOEING THE LINE

You gotta take every advantage you can get in these tests so when you toe the line, you wanna do so in the most efficient way possible. 

1 way to do this is to determine how far from the line you can be and still touch the line, and organise your steps around that. 

If you can stop and plant 30ms from the line, rather then go right yo to it, that will ave you huge in the long run wouldn't it?

FIND A RHYTHM

Finding a rhythm for your up and back sets is also crucial as you want to do at least some of the test on the autopilot, which will minimise early fatigue from a psychological aspect. 

Again get out and practice and try and count how many steps you need to cover the distance and try and hit that rhythm as soon as possible.

CHANGE OF DIRECTION

The change of directions at the midpoint of each rep is the big one here.

You must be able to decelerate into the turn, stop your body from moving in 1 direction, ad redirect it into the oposite direction.

This is hard work if you can't do it efficiently and makes up a lot of your payer load in your GPS readings, right up there with high speed running as far as load in concerned.

Practice your turns and if possible take some videos of yourself to have a look at your mechanics, in particular your shin angles, at some of te faster levels.

Your shin angles determine where your body goes (vertical v horizontal), so if you're too upright going in and out of your turns then you'll essentially be going up and down, rather then forwards.

DON'T CHECK OUT IN THE REST PERIOD

The course is your run from point B to point C (20m) in the time allocated, the the line, then immediately turn around and get back to point B (20m) , again in the allocated time.

At this point you have point B to point A (5m) of walking time where you  must walk around the cone and get back to point B and be in a stationary position in the allocated time (10secs).

Making sure you are in a solid starting position will be crucial at the top end of this test as your acceleration does heavily depend on your starting position, so any advantage you can get, take it.