Original articles  EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY AND BIOMECHANICS 

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 2004 December;44(4):375-82

Copyright © 2009 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Assessment of maximal aerobic velocity in soccer players by means of an adapted Probst field test

Labsy Z. ^{1, 2}, Collomp K. ^{1, 2}, Frey A. ³, De Ceaurriz J. ³

¹ Research Centre of Sport Science (CRESS) UFR STAPS d’Orsay, Orsay, France 2 National Laboratory on Doping Chatenay Malabry, France 3 Department of Sports Medecine

Aim. The aim of the ­study was to ­test the accu­ra­cy of 2 ver­sions of a spe­cif­ic soc­cer ­field ­test for assess­ing max­i­mal aero­bic veloc­ity (MAV) in soc­cer ­players. The orig­i­nal Probst ­field ­test con­sists of rep­e­ti­tions of 280 m ­runs includ­ing chang­es in direc­tion sep­ar­at­ed by a 30-sec­ond ­rest ­with an ­initial ­speed of 8.4 km . h-1 and a 0.6 km . h-1 incre­ment at ­each ­stage. The adapt­ed ver­sion was car­ried out ­with the ­same pro­to­col but con­stant stag­es of 2-min­ute dura­tions and a 1.2 km . h-1 incre­ment at ­each ­stage.
Methods. Trained soc­cer ­players com­plet­ed 4 out­door ­field ­tests: the orig­i­nal and adapt­ed ­field Probst ­tests, ­both ­with and with­out chang­es in direc­tion, in ­order to deter­mine the veloc­ities at exhaus­tion. They all under­went at the ­same ­time 3 labor­a­to­ry ­tests in ­order to deter­mine MAV dur­ing a clas­si­cal grad­ed tread­mill ­test, a labor­a­to­ry ­test ­with the ­same stag­es as the orig­i­nal Probst ­test and the adapt­ed Probst ­test.
Results. The veloc­ities at exhaus­tion ­with and with­out chang­es in direc­tion ­obtained dur­ing the adapt­ed Probst ­field ­test, and the MAV ­obtained in the labor­a­to­ry ­were high­ly cor­re­lat­ed. All ­were sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er ­than the veloc­ities at exhaus­tion ­obtained dur­ing the orig­i­nal ver­sion.
Conclusion. The adapt­ed ver­sion was a bet­ter pre­dic­tor of MAV in ­trained soc­cer ­players ­than was the orig­i­nal ­test.