Sports researchers criticize SOK's physical tests: "Outdated and unscientific"

For over 20 years, the same set of physical tests have been used on Swedish athletes.

The test battery is called the "physiological profile" and is developed by the Swedish Olympic Committee, SOK.

It consists of simpler exercises such as bench press, chins, squat jump, cooper test and various running intervals.  

Among elite athletes, the tests are well known.

The physical profile is the SOK's test tool in the support program Topp och Talang and several special sports associations use the physical profile to measure how well trained their athletes are. 

SOK: is about measuring basic physics

The purpose of the profile, according to SOK's director of operations Peter Reinebo, is to measure the basic physics of Swedish athletes over time.

He believes that it is important for SOK to measure athletes' basic physics in order to bring out the best Olympians possible.

But from the researchers' point of view, the physical profile and how it is used is questioned.

SVT Sport has spoken to seven Swedish sports researchers from five different universities/colleges.  

The core of the criticism is that the tests are too general and that there is a lack of evidence in research that they work as a measurement method.

Words that recur in the criticism are "outdated" and "unscientific". 

"Trained chins for a whole summer"

The risk that the researchers see is that athletes are selected because of worse results in the physical profile, despite the fact that the tests do not measure abilities that are crucial specifically for their sport.   

- It's the same exercises for everyone.

"One size fits all".

A handball player told us that he practiced chins for a whole summer just to pass the tests.

He wanted to show that as an elite athlete he measured up.

But the question is: did it make him a better handball player?

says a researcher who wishes to remain anonymous. 

Christer Malm, professor of sports medicine at Umeå University, was the supervisor of a thesis in 2019 that showed that the physical profile tests had a limited ability to predict the performance of female elite alpine skiers. 

- I don't really understand the purpose of the physical profile.

I have emailed SOK several times and asked if I could have access to the large amount of data they have accumulated over the years.

But without an answer.

As far as I know, no scientific report has ever been presented, he says. 

The suggestion: drop the physical tests

Tommy Lundberg, associate professor of physiology at the Karolinska Institutet, describes the physical profile as old-fashioned.

A lot has happened in research in the last 20 years and the physical tests that are developed today are, according to Lundberg, more individually adapted and sport-specific.

For example, an alpine skier does not train in the same way as a discus thrower.

The ice hockey association, with which Tommy Lundberg collaborates, is currently discussing the possibility of developing new ice-specific fitness tests.

- The physical profile can steal precious energy and training time from other things.

Then the training will not be effective.

SOK should take a serious look at how elite athletes in Sweden can be supported in the best way.

One way might be to just put the physical profile down for a while and evaluate how to use testing in the future.

And modernize the whole approach to physical training. 

According to the SOK, it's about measuring basic physics and comparing sports over time, isn't there a point in that?  

- It is clear that there is value in having standardized tests over a long period of time so that you can compare.

But that doesn't outweigh the downsides we're seeing right now.

I usually take Leo Messi as an example.

In any case, it is said that he has never touched a barbell in his entire life.

And no one would think to complain about his training.

He is the world's best soccer player, says Tommy Lundberg.