What do selectors actually test at trials?

Selection is never only physical: skill, decision-making and how you play are what a selector is watching for most of the session. But the tested numbers are the part with a known protocol and a known date, which makes them the part you can train for deliberately.

Practise the protocol, not just the quality. A first attempt at a Yo-Yo test is almost always worse than a second, because pacing it is a skill. Running it cold on the day costs a level or two for no fitness reason at all.

Know your own numbers first. An athlete who has tested themselves knows whether they are close and what to work on. One who has not is guessing.

Train Smart matches a five-test battery to your sport — one conditioning test, two upper-body and two lower-body — and re-runs it every eight weeks, so the number on trial day is not the first one you have seen.