Running fitness tests

Running fitness tests capture each athlete's MAS, VIFT and MSS — the running anchors that drive Conditioning and the speed profile — plus the Yo-Yo aerobic benchmark. You run them pitch-side from the coach app: timing happens on your phone, and the whole session works offline.

Who can use it: admins and coaches, in the coach app (the Testing tile). Results are read-only on the desktop dashboard.

The tests

Several protocols are supported, grouped by what they produce.

MAS (fix the distance, time the run):

2 km time-trial — a straight-line run; MAS = 2000 ÷ time. Same scale as straight-line sprint speed.
1.2 km shuttle — an out-and-back run; MAS = 1200 ÷ time. The turns cost speed, so a shuttle MAS reads ~5–10 % lower than a straight-line one — the two are not interchangeable.

VIFT:

30-15 IFT — Buchheit's intermittent beep test (30 s run / 15 s walk, speed steps up 0.5 km/h each stage). We start at 12 km/h rather than the textbook 8 km/h — Buchheit sanctions a higher start for well-trained squads to skip the trivial early stages, and because VIFT is the absolute speed of the last stage reached, the higher start saves ~6 min per group without changing anyone's result. The last stage an athlete completes is their VIFT.

MSS (a controlled max-velocity test — feeds the sprint anchor directly):

Flying 10 m — a 20 m run-up then a timed 10 m at top speed; MSS = 10 ÷ time. Use gates or two phones for the split.
GPS max sprint — a controlled flat-out effort with MSS read off the GPS unit (best of 2–3). No gates needed.

Yo-Yo (aerobic benchmark — no anchor):

Yo-Yo IR1 / IR2 — beep-paced 2×20 m shuttles with 10 s recovery, run to exhaustion. The score is the total distance, and we show an estimated VO₂max from it. Deliberately a fitness screen only — it never feeds the conditioning engine (an aerobic-capacity score isn't a runnable speed). IR1 suits most squads; IR2 is for a well-conditioned panel.

Because the two MAS tests aren't interchangeable, your org nominates one as its MAS test (an org setting) and the system never mixes them. The 30-15 is separate: VIFT is its own construct and never moves the MAS anchor — it's used directly, not converted into a MAS number.

Running a testing session

From the coach hub, open Testing and:

Pick the protocol — 2 km, 1.2 km shuttle, 30-15, an MSS sprint test (Flying 10 m or GPS) or Yo-Yo IR1 / IR2.
Select who's testing. Anyone already tested for that protocol in the last 7 days is badged and left out of Select all, so you don't double-test by accident — tick include them to redo someone.
Ready — line them up.
Capture:
- Time-trials (2 km / 1.2 km): a stopwatch/countdown runs on your phone; tap each athlete as they cross the line. For the shuttle you can tap as they finish and assign the name afterwards.
- 30-15: your phone plays the beeps; tap an athlete the moment they drop out to record the stage they reached as their VIFT.
- Yo-Yo: your phone plays the beeps; tap an athlete the moment they fail a line to record the distance they reached.
- MSS (Flying 10 m / GPS sprint): enter each athlete's time or top speed — MSS computes live as you type.
Reconcile — anyone you selected but didn't record is handled before saving.
Save — the whole occasion saves as one batch.

Beep tests: sounds & interruptions

The 30-15 and Yo-Yo are paced by beeps on your phone. On the Ready screen, the Sound panel lets you set the volume and tone (Punchy = loud, cuts through wind; Soft = gentler indoors), mute it (if you're playing the official audio separately and just want the on-screen pacer), and play each sound so you can brief the players on what to listen for first.

What the sounds mean:

Test	Sound	Means
30-15	Single mid beep	Be at a marker line — hold the pace
	Rising triple beep	New level — the pace steps up
	Falling low beep	Stop and walk — 15-second recovery
Yo-Yo	Rising triple beep	Set off — run out and back
	Single mid beep	You should be turning at the far line
	Falling low beep	Be back at the start — 10-second recovery jog

Don't let a call interrupt it. Before a beep test, the app reminds you to put the timing phone on Do Not Disturb (or Airplane mode). An incoming call or notification can background the browser and break the beep timing — and a beep test can't be fairly repeated the same day, so this matters. The app keeps the screen awake automatically while a test runs, but it cannot block a phone call (no web app can) — DND is your safeguard. If the phone does leave the test mid-run, the app flags the result as interrupted so you don't save a ruined one by mistake; re-run it instead.

Timing is taken on your device (a monotonic clock, never the server's), and the session buffers offline — capture on a pitch with no signal and it flushes automatically when you reconnect.

What it produces

A MAS anchor per athlete, auto-derived from their most recent result in your nominated MAS test. It works like the MSS override: a manual value always wins, but the auto-derived figure stays visible underneath.
A VIFT per athlete (latest result), shown on their profile.
An MSS per athlete from a sprint test. MSS resolves in precedence order manual override → tested → observed (GPS): a controlled sprint test beats the passively-observed GPS figure, and a manual override beats everything. A tested MSS survives the next GPS ingest.
A VO₂max estimate per athlete from a Yo-Yo result — for trend and squad benchmarking only; it does not feed conditioning.

MAS, VIFT and MSS feed straight into the conditioning engine and the speed profile; Yo-Yo stays a benchmark. To review results on desktop, go to Testing → Running.

Good to know

Don't mix MAS tests. Shuttle and straight-line MAS measure different things; pick one per org and stick with it. Switching the nominated test re-derives every athlete's anchor.
VIFT ≠ MAS. The 30-15 reflects intermittent, change-of-direction fitness; we surface it as VIFT and never fabricate a MAS from it.
Re-testing within 7 days is allowed — the athlete is just badged as recently tested so a round-two session doesn't include them by default.

Conditioning — turn these anchors into sessions.
Conditioning: evidence base — the science behind MAS, VIFT and the 30-15.
Jump testing — the strength/power testing counterpart.
Metrics reference — MSS, HSR and the derived metrics.