Fitness Testing
Fitness Testing > Tests > Aerobic Endurance > 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test
30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test (30-15 IFT)
30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test (30-15 IFT) (and the similar Interval Shuttle Run Test (ISRT)), are designed to more closely replicate the demands of intermittent sports. Unlike the beep test, where athletes run continuously with increasing speed every minute, this test involves 30 seconds of running alternated with 15 seconds of walking. The Yo-Yo intermittent tests are other intermittent type beep tests.
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purpose: To assess the ability to recover and repeat intermittent activity, similar to the sporting situation.
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equipment required: clear flat area for conducting the test at least 40m long, audio recording of test (make you own!), marker cones.
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description: Mark out a 40m area with markers at either end and at the midpoint (20m). Also place markers 3 meters before each end line and either side of the mid-line (tolerance zones). The test involves 30 seconds of running alternated with 15 seconds of walking. Participants start behind one of the end lines, spaced from each other by one meter minimum. They begin to run on the first "beep", pacing their effort to be in the area around the midline at the second "beep", then arrive at the opposite end at the third "beep". This continues until there is a double beep, indicating the end of the 30 second period, and which point they stop running. This will not necessarily be at either end line. They then walk forwards to the next line, waiting for the start of the next level in 15 seconds. The starting speed and stage length is unclear - it may be an initial velocity is 8.5 km/hr or 10 km/hr, with increments of 0.5 km/hr every 45 or 90 seconds. The test ends when the athlete does not make it into the tolerance zone three times. See video examples.
- scoring: The speed of the final phase completed in full is taken as the score (VIFT). Use the following formula to estimate VO2max based on the final running speed, where VIFT is the final running speed, G stands for gender (female = 2; male = 1), AG for age, and W for weight.(Buchheit et al. 2009)
VO2max (ml.kg-1.min-1) = 28.3 – (2.15 x G) – (0.741 x A) – (0.0357 x W) + (0.0586 x AG x VIFT) + (1.03 x VIFT)
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target population: This test was developed for team sport players, players of sports which are intermittent in nature.
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variations: the Interval Shuttle Run Test (ISRT) appears to be a very similar test, with periods of 30 secs running and 15 walking.
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advantages: this test is more relevant to intermittent sports rather than the commonly used beep test.
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disadvantages: the test is not commonly used so normative values are hard to find. Also the audio recording would be hard to create or purchase.
- references:
- Lemmink KA, Visscher C, Lambert MI, Lamberts RP. The interval shuttle run test for intermittent sport players: evaluation of reliability. Journal of Strength Conditioning Research. November, 2004.
- Lemmink, K.A., Verheijen, R., Visscher, C., The discriminative power of the Interval Shuttle Run Test and the Maximal Multistage Shuttle Run Test for playing level of soccer (2004).
- Buchheit, Martin, March 2008, The 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test: Accuracy for Individualizing Interval Training of Young Intermittent Sport Players, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: Volume 22 - Issue 2 - pp 365-374.
- Buchheit M, Al Haddad H, Millet GP, Lepretre PM, Newton M, Ahmaidi S. Cardiorespiratory and cardiac autonomic responses to 30-15 intermittent fitness test in team sport players. J Strength Cond Res 2009; 23(1):93-100.
Related Pages
- Video examples of the 30-15 Intermittent Fitness Test
- See also the Yo-Yo Intermittent Tests and the Loughborough Intermittent Shuttle Test which was designed for testing soccer players.
- about Testing for Intermittent Sports
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