Children's Yo-Yo Test (YYIR1C)
In addition to the six official yo-yo test versions as created by Jens Bangsbo, there are a few modified versions of the yo-yo test that have made changes to the original protocols for a specific purpose, such as this children's version where the participants run a distance less than the original 20m, making the test more suitable for younger athletes who would not be able to last very long on the standard version.
A modified version of the yo-yo test has been created to be more suitable for children - the Intermittent Recovery Level 1 Children's test, or YYIR1C (Ahler et al. 2012). This test version uses the same audio recording as the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Level 1 test, though 2 × 16 meters shuttle runs (rather than 2 × 20m) and 2 × 4 meters for active recovery (rather than 2 × 5m) in 10 seconds.
In a pilot study by Ahler et al. (2012), 8 of 11 children performed only 120–400 m when using the original Yo–Yo IR1 protocol, and therefore only exercised for less than two minutes. Using the modified protocol, with 32 participants aged from 6-9 years, the total duration of the test varied from 3 to 12 min.
References
- Ahler, T., Bendiksen, M., Krustrup, P., & Wedderkopp, N. (2012). Aerobic fitness testing in 6- to 9-year-old children: Reliability and validity of a modified Yo-Yo IR1 test and the Andersen test. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 112(3), 871–876.
- Bendiksen M, Ahler T, Clausen H, et al. The use of Yo-Yo intermittent recovery level 1 and Andersen testing for fitness and maximal heart rate assessments of 6-10-year-old school children. J Strength Cond Res 2013;27:1583–90
- Póvoas, Susana & Castagna, Carlo & M. C. Soares, José & Silva, Pedro & Vieira Lopes, Mariana & Krustrup, Peter. (2015). Reliability and validity of Yo-Yo tests in 9- to 16-year-old football players and matched non-sports active schoolboys. European Journal of Sport Science. 16. 1-9. 10.1080/17461391.2015.1119197.
- Castagna C, Krustrup P, D'Ottavio S, Pollastro C, Bernardini A, Araújo Póvoas SC Ecological validity and reliability of an age-adapted endurance field test in young male soccer players. J Strength Cond Res. 2018 Jan 11
More Resources
- Purchase the YoYo Intermittent Recovery Test Level 1 mp3 file
- Other modifications of the yo-yo tests, including the wheelchair version which also uses a shortened version of the yo-yo test.
- About the six variations of the yo-yo fitness test
- How to determine which version of the yo-yo test you did
- Alternatives to the Yo-Yo Test
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