Pre-Season Testing for Youth Soccer Athletes: A Guide for Clinicians and Coaches
As the soccer season draws to a close, pre-season testing will soon undergo planning and offers a golden opportunity to assess, individualize, and optimize training for youth athletes. For physiotherapists, strength and conditioning coaches, and coaching staff, these assessments are more than just numbers—they’re a roadmap to performance enhancement and injury prevention. The right battery of tests, timed well, offers vital insights into a player’s current capacities and future potential.
Why Does Pre-Season Testing Matter?
Youth athletes are in a dynamic phase of growth and development. They experience rapid changes in neuromuscular coordination, body proportions, and movement control. Pre-season testing helps with the following:
- Identify strengths and weaknesses to inform individualized programming
- Track growth and maturation, which directly affects performance
- Create athlete profiles for injury risk screening
- Monitor progress across pre-, mid-, and in-season phases
What Can You Do For Pre-Season Testing?
Whether you’re a physiotherapist, strength and conditioning coach, or a soccer coach looking after youth soccer athletes, the following domains are to be assessed in order to gain greater insight into the physical capacity of soccer players prior to the beginning of a new football season:
- Aerobic Capacity
- Strength
- Power
- Agility
Test 1
Aerobic Capacity – Bronco Test
Explanation: 5 x Shuttle Runs to 20m, 40m, and 60m (Total distance: 1.2 km)
Why: The Bronco is a simple, field-based test that reflects aerobic endurance and repeated-effort capacity—key for soccer’s high-intensity demands. It’s easy to administer and track over time!
Evidence: Studies over the last few years have shown the Bronco Test to be effective in identifying seasonal changes to aerobic adaptations, whilst matching high-speed running thresholds experienced within soccer games. (1,2)
Differentiating Results:
- >5:30 min in U16–U18 males may indicate below-average aerobic fitness.
- >6:00 min in U14–U15 suggests limited aerobic base.
Risk Indicators:
- Slower Bronco times combined with poor HRR may reflect low aerobic efficiency, increasing risk of late-game fatigue, poor recovery, and overuse injuries.
- Players with large performance drops between pre- and mid-season may be under-recovering or overreaching.
Test 2
Strength – Isometric Squat Hold (Force Plates)
Why: It is a practical and reliable method to assess lower-limb force production, whilst helping detect neuromuscular readiness and muscular asymmetry safely.
Evidence: Recent research has shown this test to be reliable in determining inter-limb imbalances and reduced force outputs, requiring less familiarisation when performed as a part of a testing battery. (3,4)
Differentiating Results:
- Peak force < 2.5 × bodyweight in U16–U18 males may indicate underdeveloped lower limb strength.
- >10% inter-limb asymmetry presents as a red flag for monitoring and further investigation.
- Low rate of force development (RFD) in the first 200 m/s may suggest poor explosive strength potential.
Risk Indicators:
- Athletes with low peak force or high asymmetry are at an increased risk for non-contact lower limb injuries, particularly during deceleration and landing tasks.
- Poor RFD may limit sprint acceleration and reactive agility, which may impact performance and increasing risk of overload during high-intensity efforts.
Test 3
Power – Countermovement Jump (CMJ)
Why: The CMJ is a widely used, low-risk test to assess lower-limb power, neuromuscular fatigue, and explosive performance in youth soccer players, when performed on force plates.
Evidence: It has also shown to detect game-induced fatigue, with changes in jump height and RFD reflecting risk of injury and readiness for training and games. (5,6)
Differentiating Results:
- Jump height < 30 cm in U16–U18 males may indicate suboptimal power output.
- >10% asymmetry in bilateral force production (e.g. impulse or concentric peak force) may signal neuromuscular imbalance.
- Low eccentric RFD or prolonged time to take-off may reflect poor stretch-shortening cycle efficiency.
Risk Indicators:
- Reduced CMJ height or power over time may indicate accumulated fatigue, increasing the risk of soft tissue injuries.
- Asymmetries or poor eccentric control may predispose athletes to traumatic lower limb injuries such as ACL injuries or hamstring strains, especially during high-speed actions like sprinting and change of direction.
Test 4
Agility – 505 Agility Test
Why: Assesses an athlete’s ability to decelerate, pivot, and reaccelerate, which is critical for soccer-specific change-of-direction.
Evidence: The 505 Agility Test was shown to have great reliability in tracking agility across athletes as they physically mature, with changes across the season being associated with increased injury risk. (7,8)
Differentiating Results:
- Time > 2.8s in U16+ males may indicate underdeveloped CoD ability, particularly in eccentric strength and braking control.
- >0.1s asymmetry between left and right turns suggests unilateral neuromuscular deficits
Risk Indicators:
- Athletes with poor deceleration control are at increased risk for non-contact knee injuries, especially during high-speed directional changes.
Testing Timeline for Best Results
Below is an example of how testing can be incorporated throughout the season:
| Phase | When | What to Do | Why It Matters |
| Week 1 (Pre-season) | Day 2–4 | Baseline full test battery (see above) | Evaluate post-offseason state, tailor programs |
| Week 4 | Reassessment | Repeat full testing battery | Monitor neuromuscular adaptations |
| Monthly In-Season | Ongoing | Selective monitoring (e.g., CMJ, Bronco) | Identify fatigue, overtraining, injury risk |
Using the Data: A Collaborative Approach
There are many ways data after testing can be compared to and analysed, with the following an example for each type of person, whether a clinican or a coach:
- Physiotherapists: Use asymmetry and mobility findings for prehab design and return-to-play benchmarks.
- S&C Coaches: Program high/low training loads based on CMJ and strength trends, on field performance, and growth profiles.
- Soccer Coaches: Adjust technical/tactical drills based on athlete conditioning and maturity profile.
Conclusion
Pre-season testing, when tailored, becomes a launchpad—not just a checkpoint. The insights gained empower practitioners to anticipate performance ceilings, reduce injury risk, and support youth players as they navigate the demanding road of competition. A well-executed test battery can be the difference between a reactive season and a proactive one.
References
- Asimakidis, N. D., Beato, M., Bishop, C., & Turner, A. N. (2025). Evaluating the Reliability and Seasonal Sensitivity of a Fitness-Testing Battery in Elite Youth Soccer. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 1(aop), 1-12.
- Kavanagh, R., McDaid, K., Rhodes, D., Alexander, J., Harper, D., Oliveira, R., … & Morgans, R. (2025). The relationship between individualised speed thresholds and changes in aerobic fitness in elite professional youth soccer players. A case study. Baltic Journal of Health and Physical Activity, 17(1).
- McGoldrick, C. D., Iacono, A. D., Morgan, O. J., Nayler, J., Buchanan, J., McCart, C., & Unnithan, V. B. (2023). Reliability, familiarization effect, and comparisons between a predetermined and a self-determined isometric-squat testing protocol. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 18(7), 718-725.
- Wagner, C. M., Warneke, K., Bächer, C., Liefke, C., Paintner, P., Kuhn, L., … & Keiner, M. (2022). Despite good correlations, there is no exact coincidence between isometric and dynamic strength measurements in elite youth soccer players. Sports, 10(11), 175.
- Lyons Donegan, M., Eustace, S., Morris, R., Penny, R., & Tallis, J. (2022). The effects of soccer specific exercise on countermovement jump performance in elite youth soccer players. Children, 9(12), 1861.
- Badby, A., Comfort, P., Ripley, N., Cuthbert, M., Robles-Palazón, F., Mundy, P., & McMahon, J. (2025). Which Metrics Can I Monitor? Test-Retest Reliability of Countermovement Jump and Countermovement Rebound Jump Force-Time Metrics in Youth Soccer Players In-Season. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, 5(1).
- Dugdale, J. H., Sanders, D., & Hunter, A. M. (2020). Reliability of change of direction and agility assessments in youth soccer players. Sports, 8(4), 51.
- Altmann, S., Forcher, L., Ruf, L., Beavan, A., Groß, T., Lussi, P., … & Härtel, S. (2021). Match-related physical performance in professional soccer: Position or player specific?. PloS one, 16(9), e0256695.
Written by: Navraj Bhogal
