Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test: protocol and benchmark tables for team sports

If you train athletes in soccer, basketball, handball, rugby, or any sport where short sprints alternate with recovery pauses, the Cooper test or a continuous 12-minute run won't tell you the whole story. That's where the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test (YYIRT) comes in, designed specifically to replicate the real intermittent demands of these sports.

It's one of the most widely used field tests at the professional level for assessing the ability to repeat high-intensity efforts with short recoveries — exactly what happens during a match.

What does this test measure?

It measures an athlete's ability to perform repeated high-intensity intermittent efforts, interspersed with short active recovery periods, until exhaustion.

There are two main versions:

• Level 1 (YYIR1): aimed at intermediate/amateur athletes, starts at lower speeds
• Level 2 (YYIR2): aimed at higher-level athletes, starts faster and progresses more sharply, ideal for already-trained profiles

The result (total distance covered) correlates closely with VO2max and, above all, with the ability to recover between repeated high-intensity efforts — something a continuous test doesn't reflect well.

Equipment needed

• A space of at least 20-25 meters in a straight line (plus a recovery zone)
• Cones to mark the two 20-meter lines and the 5-meter recovery zone
• An audio player with the official Yo-Yo test audio track (the beeps set the pace and progressively speed up)
• A speaker loud enough for the whole group to hear clearly

Test protocol

1. Mark two parallel lines 20 meters apart, and a third line 5 meters behind one of them (recovery zone)
2. The athlete runs the 20 meters out and back at the pace set by the audio beeps
3. After each out-and-back (40 meters), they get 10 seconds of active recovery, walking or jogging lightly to the recovery line and back
4. The pace progressively increases every set number of shuttles (levels)
5. The test ends when the athlete fails to reach the line in time on two consecutive occasions, or can't continue
6. Record the level and stage reached, and convert it to total distance covered (meters) using the test's official tables

Common mistakes

• Not calibrating the audio properly (a poorly synced beep throws off the whole test for the group)
• Letting athletes "cheat" by anticipating the start before the beep
• Applying level 2 to poorly trained athletes (the start is very demanding and can cause premature dropouts that don't reflect their true capacity)
• Not leaving enough space in the recovery zone, causing collisions between athletes

How to interpret the result

Reference table for total distance covered in YYIR1 by level:

Distance covered (YYIR1)	Approximate level	Typical profile
< 1,000 m	Low	General population, start of season
1,000 - 1,600 m	Medium	Regular amateur
1,600 - 2,200 m	Good	Semi-professional
> 2,200 m	Very good	Professional / elite

In YYIR2 (a more demanding test, for already-trained athletes), reference distances for professional players typically range around 800-1,400 m, with much higher values for elite profiles.

Beyond the absolute value, the most useful thing is to compare the same athlete's progression between pre-season, mid-season, and end of season, and spot performance drops that could indicate accumulated fatigue or the need to adjust loads.

Relationship with other tests

The Yo-Yo test pairs well with other aerobic capacity and field tests:

• Course Navette / Léger test — also intermittent and progressive, but without active recovery phases, useful as an alternative or for comparison
• Cooper test — to also have a continuous aerobic capacity reference, complementary to the intermittent one

Track the whole team's progress

Applying the Yo-Yo test to an entire team generates a lot of data: level, distance, final heart rate for each player... and usually several times per season. Keeping this on paper is chaos. With Movalytics you can record each athlete's result for every assessment, compare between players, and see individual and team progress in automatic charts, without losing a single data point between pre-season and end of season.

Frequently asked questions

What's the difference between level 1 and level 2 of the Yo-Yo test? Level 1 starts at a lower speed and is better suited for amateur or intermediate athletes. Level 2 starts faster and progresses more aggressively, designed for well-trained athletes for whom level 1 would be too easy. Can it be applied to individual sports? Yes, although its validity is greater in sports with intermittent patterns (soccer, basketball, hockey, tennis...). For continuous endurance sports (running, distance cycling), a continuous test like the Cooper test or a threshold test makes more sense. How often should it be repeated with a team? It's typically done at the start of pre-season, mid-season, and at the end, to assess the progression of the group's general fitness and identify players who need individualized work.