Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test
The Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test (Yo-Yo IR1) is the standard repeat-effort test in football codes worldwide. It is a beep test with recovery built in — which is what makes it a better model of a game than a continuous shuttle run.
For a community-level field-sport athlete, reaching level 17–18 on the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test 1 is a solid score, and level 20 and above is the range reported for professionals. Levels are written as speed level and shuttle count, e.g. 17.4. The score that changes your training, though, is your own previous one.
The Yo-Yo IR1 is not the beep test: it inserts a 10-second active recovery after every 2 × 20m, which makes it a test of repeat-effort ability rather than continuous aerobic capacity.
The point of the test
Your ability to repeatedly perform high-intensity running and recover between efforts. That second half is the whole point: a game is not a continuous run, it is a sprint, a walk, a jog and another sprint, for eighty minutes.
Why it is in the Train Smart battery: Repeat-effort capacity with recovery, which is how a game is actually played.
How to run it
20m shuttles to the beeps with 10s active recovery between. Two misses and you are out — record the level you reached.
- What you need
- A flat 20m running surface · Cones (20m apart, plus a 5m recovery zone) · The Yo-Yo IR1 audio track · A partner to record levels
Yo-Yo vs the beep test — they are not the same test
People use the names interchangeably and they should not. The multi-stage fitness test (the beep test) is continuous 20m shuttles that get progressively faster until you drop. The Yo-Yo IR1 is 2 × 20m shuttles followed by a 10-second active recovery jog, repeated at increasing speed.
That recovery window changes what the test measures. The beep test is mostly a proxy for maximal aerobic capacity. The Yo-Yo IR1 adds the ability to clear fatigue between efforts, which is closer to what a footballer, a soccer player or a hockey player actually has to do. If you are choosing one for a field-sport squad, choose the Yo-Yo.
What is a good score?
The honest answer is that the score that matters is your own previous one. But you want a number to sit against, so here is one — with its limits stated.
| Level reached | Approx. distance | Roughly indicates |
|---|---|---|
| Level 14–16 | ~440–680 m | Building a base. Common in junior and early pre-season athletes. |
| Level 16–18 | ~680–1,080 m | Solid community-level repeat-effort capacity. |
| Level 18–20 | ~1,080–1,600 m | Strong club to semi-professional range. |
| Level 20+ | 1,600 m and beyond | The range reported for professional field-sport athletes. |
What people get wrong
Most of the variation between two tests is protocol, not fitness. These are the faults that make one score incomparable to the last.
- Not touching the line.
- A turn taken short is a shorter shuttle, and it is the single most common reason a score is not comparable to the last one. If the line is not touched, the level does not count.
- Testing in the wrong state.
- A Yo-Yo run the day after a game measures your fatigue, not your fitness. Test on fresh legs, at the same point in the week, every time.
- Changing the surface.
- Grass, synthetic and a gym floor give different scores. Pick one surface and keep it — a 1.5-level "improvement" from moving indoors is not an improvement.
- Pacing the early levels.
- You cannot bank anything. The early levels are meant to feel easy; going slower does not save you, it just makes the turns harder.
How to actually move the number
Yo-Yo score is driven by two separate qualities, and most people only train one.
The aerobic base underneath it. This is what determines how fast you clear the fatigue in that 10-second window. It is built with volume you recover from — easy running and long steady efforts — not with more hard sessions.
The repeat-effort ceiling on top. Intervals at and above the pace the test finishes at: 15–30 second efforts with short, incomplete recovery, so the fatigue is still there when the next rep starts.
Train them in that order. A repeat-effort program built on no base produces an athlete who is fast for four minutes.
Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test — questions
What is a good Yo-Yo test score?
How is the Yo-Yo test scored?
Is the Yo-Yo test the same as the beep test?
How often should I test it?
Related tests and guides
Know your number. Now train for it.
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