Testing Junior Soccer, Rugby & AFL Players: Five Dock

Why we test before we program

Junior athlete strength testing in Five Dock starts with a simple problem: a 15-year-old soccer midfielder, a 16-year-old rugby prop and a 14-year-old AFL half-back all turn up asking for "strength and conditioning", and a generic program serves none of them well. The demands differ, the injury patterns differ, and the numbers each athlete walks in with differ enormously between two kids born in the same month.

So we measure. Our Five Dock gym has VALD ForceFrame for isometric strength testing and AxIT force plates for jump and landing data. Both give numbers we can write down, compare left to right, and retest later. Without that, programming for a teenager is guesswork dressed up as coaching.

What we look at for soccer players

Groin and hamstring dominate the soccer picture. On the ForceFrame we test adductor and abductor squeeze at multiple hip angles, then look at the adductor to abductor ratio and the left-right difference. Adductor strength that sits well below abductor strength on the kicking side is common in players who kick almost exclusively with one foot, and it gives us something specific to train rather than a vague instruction to "do some groin work".

Hamstring testing matters because soccer is a repeated high-speed running sport, and most junior programs never build the eccentric hamstring capacity the sport asks for. We also look at single-leg calf output, since a 90-minute game plus training plus school sport adds up quickly through the lower leg.

On the force plates we run countermovement jumps and single-leg hops, watching for asymmetry in how force is produced and, more usefully, how it is absorbed on landing. Decelerating and changing direction is where soccer players spend a lot of their non-contact injury exposure.

What changes for rugby league and union players

Rugby adds contact, so the testing shifts. Upper body and neck strength come into it, along with trunk control under load. A junior forward who can squat reasonably well but cannot control a single-leg landing is going to struggle in contact where the ground contact is rarely clean or planned.

We still test hamstring and adductor strength, because rugby players sprint and kick too, but we weight the program differently. More time goes to accepting force, holding positions under fatigue, and building the raw strength base that lets a growing athlete handle collisions from bigger opponents. For a 16-year-old playing up an age group, that base is often the first thing we build.

What changes for AFL players

AFL is the highest running-volume sport of the three at junior level, with repeated accelerations, one-legged kicking under pressure and constant changes of direction. Kicking-leg versus standing-leg differences show up clearly on ForceFrame hip testing, and force plate data often shows a preferred leg doing more of the work in bilateral jumps.

We also pay attention to running load across the week. A junior AFL player who trains twice, plays a game, and then does school athletics or cross-country is carrying a running load that has nothing to do with how strong their legs are and everything to do with how much they are asking of tissue that is still developing.

Growth, maturation and why numbers help

During a growth spurt, coordination and strength often lag behind limb length. Athletes who were fluid movers at 13 can look mechanically awkward at 15. Retesting gives us a way to track that instead of guessing, and it gives the athlete something honest to look at. Telling a teenager their left leg produces 18% less force on a single-leg hop lands better than telling them to be more careful.

We generally retest every 8 to 12 weeks, or after an injury, and use the results to adjust the program rather than to hand out a grade.

What a 1:1 session actually looks like

Sessions are one athlete with one coach, no double-booking, in the gym space at our Five Dock clinic. A first appointment covers training and playing history, current weekly load across club, school and representative commitments, injury history, then the testing described above.

From there we build a program that fits the athlete's calendar. Pre-season, that might be two structured sessions a week focused on strength and running mechanics. Mid-season, it often drops to one session that maintains strength without adding fatigue on top of games and training.

Coaching in the room is hands-on. We teach the lifts properly, load them progressively, and film movement when it helps the athlete see what we are describing. Parents are welcome to sit in, and most do for the first session.

When it is worth booking

Common reasons juniors come in: recurring niggles that settle and return, a first serious injury, a step up to a higher grade or representative squad, or a coach flagging that a player is struggling physically against bigger opponents.

If you want an objective picture of where a junior soccer, rugby or AFL player currently sits, come in for an assessment at Five Dock and we will talk through the numbers with you.

Read more about our youth services.

We go deeper on youth at sydneyathleticdevelopment.com.au.

If you would like it assessed at our Five Dock clinic, you can book an athletics strength & conditioning.