Proposal for a Specific Aerobic Test for Football Players: The "Footeval".

The aim of this study was to evaluate the reproducibility and validity of the "Footeval" test, which evaluates football players' aerobic level in conditions close to those of football practice (intermittent, including technical skills). Twenty-four highly trained subjects from an elite football academy (17.8 ± 1.4 years, 5 training sessions per week) performed two Footeval sessions in a period of 7 days. Physiological variables measured during these sessions (VO2 max 58.1 ± 5.6 and 58.7 ± 6.2 ml·min-1 ·kg-1 ; RER 1.18 ± 0.06 and 1.19 ± 0.05; LaMax 11.0 ±1.4 and 10.8 ±1.1 µmol·L-1 ; HRmax 194 ± 6 and 190 ± 7 b·min-1 ; Final step 10.71 ± 1.2 and 10.83 ± 1.13 and the RPE = 10) highlighted maximal intensity and confirmed that players reached physiological exhaustion. Comparison of values measured in both sessions showed large to very large correlations (Final level; 0.92, VO2 max; 0.79, HRmax; 0.88, LaMax; 0.87) and high ICC (Final level; 0.93, VO2 max; 0.87, HRmax; 0.90, LaMax; 0.85) except for RER (r = 0.22, ICC = 0.21). In addition, all subjects performed a time limit (Tlm) exercise with intensity set at maximal aerobic specific speed + 1 km·h-1 , in order to check the maximal value obtained during the Footeval test. Statistical analysis comparing VO2 max, HRmax and RER from the Footeval and Tlm exercise proved that values from Footeval could be considered as maximal values (r for VO2 max; 0.82, HRmax; 0.77 and ICC for VO2 max; 0.92, HRmax; 0.91). This study showed that Footeval is a reproducible test that allows maximal aerobic specific speed to be obtained at physiological exhaustion. Moreover, we can also affirm that this test meets the physiological exhaustion criteria as defined in the literature (RER ≥ 1, 1; LaMax ≥ 8 µmol·L-1 ; HR = HRmax; no increase of VO2 despite the increase of speed; RPE =10).