Hey REPers, Coach Christmas here! In my time as a coach, I’ve had the pleasure of facilitating group assessments for a variety of varsity and youth sports teams, as well as students.

Some of the challenges of assessing in a group include:

• Difficulty personalizing assessments to individual requirements

• Will likely need co facilitators (helpers) as you can’t and won’t see everything

• Taking athletes information to distribute results once completed

• Circumstances out of your control force you to make changes to your assessment selection (lack of equipment, limited space)

No coach/teacher is immune to these challenges. Most recently my team had the pleasure of conducting assessments for 140+ junior hockey players. And while we enjoyed it, we dealt with a few of these challenges. Most notably the lack of equipment (a pull up bar), as well as limited space to run a 40 Yard Dash.

Regardless of how many students or athletes you’re assessing, here are a few tips and trade secrets we can share that will help you execute a successful assessment.

The Warm-Up

You already know many of the benefits of an effective warm-up but do your students and athletes?

• Dilates blood vessels, making sure muscles receive appropriate amount of oxygen

• Raises internal temperature for optimal flexibility and efficiency 

• Helps minimize stress on your heart

• Helps reduce muscle soreness

REP coaches understand that it’s important for their students to know the WHY behind the WHAT. It promotes buy-in, which will help with the flow of the assessment as well as improve the overall outcome of each student.

Get Help (use a student)

Having a second set of eyes with you will help ensure the consistency of each assessment. It also provides each student the opportunity to ask questions from the co facilitator.

Assessment Selection and Order

How would you feel if after performing a max squat, you’re informed you need to do a mile run assessment? The selection of your assessments along with the order will have a huge impact on the overall outcome of each student. Taking energy systems into account, pick your tests by flowing from Endurance, Endurance/Strength, Strength, Strength/Power. 

With regards to orders, REP coaches/teachers have seen much success when they’ve organized their assessments in a clockwise/counterclockwise flow (depending on the space and orientation of your location). This makes the transition easier for students and coaches.

Bring a laptop/tablet/phone

Recording your results using a pen and paper then transferring the information is time consuming and redundant. Having your assessments premade and ready on REP will save you time and provide you with real time overall results immediately.

Lastly, and most importantly, try to have fun! You’ll make mistakes along the way but the best coaches and teachers learn from them and improve. Consider facilitating an assessment for your students as a way of evaluating yourself. You’ll find that there is always something for you to improve on!