The Yo-Yo test, or the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery (YYIR) test, is used to assess the fitness of elite international athletes across sports; and India’s star midfielder and double Olympic medallist Hardik Singh believes the country’s hockey players are fitter than cricketers when assessed on YYIR.
“In cricket if anyone is scoring 19 or 20 on the Yo-Yo Test, people call it the fittest.Sreejesh, who is a goalkeeper, scores 21,” said Hardik on a podcast, a clip from which is doing the rounds on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).
India won a second consecutive bronze medal in the Olympics last month, when the team led by Harmanpreet Singh went on to beat Spain 2-1 in the third-place playoff to finish on the podium at Paris 2024. Veteran goalkeeper Sreejesh retired from the sport after that and was appointed the coach of the junior men’s team.
Virat @imVkohli can be India’s biggest sports person, but he is not India’s fittest athlete. Virat’s fitness is comparable to junior girls’ Indian hockey players. Actually, it’s the senior hockey players who are the fittest sportsmen in India, scoring 23.8 on the yo-yo test. So,… pic.twitter.com/GcwPdoUrFd
— TAJINDER 🏏🏑 (@Tajinder_13_13) September 26, 2024
In 2021, Indian hockey had made a historic return to the Games podium after 41 years.
Giving deeper details about how assessment on YYIR test is done, Hardik said: “The main level starts from 15, there are 8 sprints. It goes on like that, 23.8 is last. We have seven players who have achieved 23.8.”
The 26-year-old from Punjab, who has 142 international caps and scored 11 goals, added: “The junior girls (hockey team) score 17-18. Our (average) is 22-23.”
The Indian men’s hockey team will next be seen in action in a two-match bilateral series against Germany on October 23 and 24 in Delhi.
