We hear quite often that Pakistani athletes are naturally gifted, talented and skillful. They also show occasional brilliance internationally. But if we look at their overall output in the last three decades, there is a consistent decline in our performances, especially in the team games.

Let’s admit at the first place that physical fitness and sports are not our national priorities. Whenever I discuss this matter with professional athletes in the country, I notice a consistent non-seriousness about the subject.

The introduction of gyms has brought some improvement in the overall fitness standards, but even then the focus is on general fitness and not the fitness which is a prerequisite for modern-day athletes’ participation in competitive sports.

The situation becomes more complex when management at the helm of affairs is unaware of the modern trends in fitness and fails to apply the latest fitness tests to bring transparency in selection and training processes of professional athletes and teams. Such ignorance is suicidal, because it gives unfit players a chance to occupy important places in teams and contingents, who later fail to deliver during competitions.

In modern sports the testing of athletes is essential for their objective growth. These tests generally fall into three categories. The first are those tests that target some facets of the health-related fitness components. The second are those that target skill-related fitness and the third are sports-specific tests.

The coaches must pick the tests that are most critical to their athlete’s performance and select metrics most valuable to their training goals. Ideally, tests representing the gold standard of the measure will be selected. This entails proper selection of equipment, testing methods, and testing staff.

A very important aspect is the competency of testing staff. Unlike our environment where a bio-mechanical lab remains inoperative for years due to unavailability of qualified staff the tests should be conducted by qualified staff.

Testing of health-related fitness is part of the testing battery for athletes. This includes body composition and anthropometry, muscular strength and muscular endurance, aerobic endurance, and flexibility and posture.

Body composition and anthropometric assessments are standard practices for coaches and athletes. Valuable information regarding percent body fat, fat distribution, lean body mass (LBM), limb and segment lengths and ratios, somatotypes and circumferences is gained through body composition assessments.

For example, an increase in LBM contributes to increased strength and power and may contribute to speed and agility depending on how much mass is gained. Reduced body fat can help enhance muscle and aerobic endurance, speed, mobility and agility.

This proves that body composition assessment and improvement significantly increases athletic performance, especially in aerobic endurance athletes and athletes who require high strength-to-mass ratios.

Another important test is girth measurement. This test provides useful information regarding changes in muscle size and body composition. It is an easy test that doesn’t require any specialised equipment. The tape measure is applied tautly in a horizontal plane, and the circumference is read to the nearest half of a centimeter while minimal clothing is worn.

Measurements and changes are noted in chest, shoulder, abdominal, thighs, calf, waist, hip, upper and forearm.

Professional sportspeople should also be subjected to Dual Energy X Ray Absorptiometry commonly known as DXA. The DXA test is considered as a gold standard for body composition.

A DXA can generate pertinent information regarding the mass of fat in grams, lean tissues, and bone mineral content and density for the total body and specific regions like the head, trunk, and limb.

Before the advent of BXA the underwater weighing was for a long time considered as the gold standard for body composition analysis and Archimedes principle for body density was applied.

Skinfold assessment is also used extensively to estimate the body fat percentage. Air Displacement Plethysmography (ADP) that measures body volume via changes in air pressure within the closed two compartment chamber and Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) is also used for determining body composition.

Sports scientists and coaches also use Somatotyping to categorise athletes into various types of physiques using anthropometric and photoscopic measures. Ratings are given for each somatotype, and athletes are placed into one of 13 categories, including balanced mesomorph, mesomorph-endomorph, mesomorphic endomorph, and endomorphic mesomorph.

Muscular strength and endurance of players is a matter of great concern for coaches and strength trainers. The gold standard of dynamic strength testing is one repetition maximum or 1RM, that is, the maximal amount of weight that can be lifted once for a specific exercise at a given velocity performed with free weights and machines. Partial curl up, sit up, push up, pull up, dip, squat, inverted row and burpees are also part of tests to assess players’ endurance.

Aerobic endurance or capacity assessment is vital as it determines lactate threshold and other critical variables of athletes. This test involves direct measurement or estimate of VO2 max or VO2 peak. Many more tests have been developed to assess the most important aerobic capacity of players.

Our coaches and trainers who are either unaware of these sophisticated tests or are in search of shortcuts can use certain field tests including running assessments of fixed length, in a specified time, or a combination of fixed distance and progressive reductions in time, such as a 1.5 mile run (2.4 km), 12 minute walk/run, multistage 22 yard or 20 meter shuttle run popularly known as PACER or beep test, Yo-Yo test, and 30-15 intermittent fitness tests.

To put it in simple words for the consumption of readers, there is no shortcut or substitute to fitness in modern day sports. Whenever an athlete is subjected to injuries or displays below par performance under stress and in the face of fierce competition, it is not just the lack of skill or exposure, but also the difference of physical and mental fitness among the competing athletes, and the scientific development and preparation of athletes by the coaches and trainers in the light of modern testing technologies available.

A careful assessment of our cricket, field hockey and squash players reveals the fact that despite skill the players bog down in pressure situations against physically better assessed and prepared teams and individuals. Unfortunately, physical fitness and its objective assessment and preparation are not our priorities.

The time has come when we should demand and expect top-level physical preparation from our athletes. Physically unfit players should not be part of teams because unfit athletes are not only a liability and excess baggage, but they also breed despondency among the young and budding performers.

Chance, hope and best wishes are only empty words that have little value in today’s sports where performances are tangible, measurable and absolutely predictable.

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