“Fitness Testing” has been around since the early 19th century with initial focus on health and strength however performance tracking goes back much further to the mid 1800’s where human races were first timed by Oxford University using a chronometer model invented by Abraham-Louis Breguet.  As technology and science of sport, movement and human behaviour have advanced as have the needs for more accurate and reliable testing to be performed.

The NFL draft combine was initiated in the early 1980’s and it was adopted by many other sports including the AFL in the mid 1990’s with fundamental test protocols such as acceleration, agility, power and strength with additions around endurance to suit sport specificity and skill ability.

One area that remained unchanged and hidden until the late 2010’s was the inconsistency of testing protocols and quality assurance at the moment of testing.  This was highlighted under the development of Global Performance Testing Quality Assurance (GPTQA) and observation of Graham Dudley during high scale screening of athletes for talent identification internationally.

“Testing services for performance are fundamentally flawed around the world as each sporting code uses different protocols and techniques for basic human measures.  Added to this is poor practice using different methods of assessing the same protocol i.e. on grass v’s on a court, with accredited sport scientists v’s unqualified trainers and interns, with technologies v’s subjective equipment, in poor conaching environments v’s unbiased testing environments etc etc. In conclusion nobody was being assessed apples for apples” Graham noted.

Internationally the moment of “testing” in schools and sporting clubs continues to be performed by coaches or teachers who are, by default, wired to motivate and provide cues for improvement whereas the moment of testing is simply to understand the persons current capabilities either for a baseline, a measure of change or for a broader assessment of a group or team’s range.  You can’t coach and test at the same time.

Global Wellness Tracking provide services that are controlled under the procedures of GPTQA:

• Validated protocols with an intended purpose
• Verified equipment that meets the needs of the assessment
• Trained and accredited staff that provide unbiased, consistent and reliable assessments
• Controlled and consistent conditions for the athlete or client to ensure it can be repeated identically in the future