JOHOR BAHRU, July 28, 2015 – Fitness testing is crucial for sport performance optimisation, particularly in sports like football, which requires high speed performance in the form of running, stopping, accelerating and changing directions that all take place interchangeably every few seconds. Profiles from fitness tests may be used to enhance players’ physical training in order to remain at the top of the football league. Thus, it is imperative that a valid and reliable fitness test be used.

Towards this endeavour, UTM researchers from the Faculty of Biosciences and Medical Engineering, led by Prof Dr Abdul Hafiz Hj Omar, have taken the initiative to meet up with representatives of the Johor Darul Ta’zim (JDT) and Borussia Dortmund (BVB) football teams to discuss possible collaboration in the sharing of expertise related to football players’ fitness tests.

Deliberation between the parties revolved around the sharing of expertise and facilities towards identifying fitness tests able to discriminate varying fitness level and playing abilities of the two teams’  football players.

It was proposed that a fitness research study be conducted on the teams’  under 19 (U-19) and under 21 (U-21) players, who will be subjected to a battery of tests such as the ‘Blood Lactate Analysis’, ‘Spirometer’ and ‘Speed Gate’ test.