A portion of the Newcastle Jets A-League squad underwent fitness testing at Newcastle University’s Forum Gym on Monday.
Following a week-s break, a portion of the Hunter Ports Newcastle Jets A-League squad returned to training on Monday, undergoing pre-season fitness testing at Newcastle University-s Forum Gym.
Jets strength and conditioning coach Karl Dodd said fitness testing is a key element of pre-season training.
“We do the testing to find out their baseline measures and get some physiological markers of where they-re at,” Dodd said.
“We-ll do conditioning work throughout the pre-season and see their improvements, but the testing results also let us see deficiencies as well and tell us what areas certain players need to work on and specialise in.
“The key thing is to make sure our players- physical capabilities match the head coach-s playing philosophy.”
Defender Scott Neville proved once again he is one of the fittest members of the Newcastle Jets squad after excelling on the gruelling VO2 Max test, which gauges the maximum capacity of an individual’s body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise.
“It was pretty tough. The test goes for about 15 minutes of just flat out running on the treadmill,” Neville said.
“I-ve always been fairly naturally fit and it-s important for the position I play to be able to get up and down the field.
“The testing is good for all the boys to see how they-re travelling and it gives Karl a good gauge of where everyone is at physically, so he can cater for that and manage everyone-s workload appropriately.”
