Aerobic endurance test for Table Tennis : A correlation study between Cooper’s test and Critical frequency test amongst Swedish-ranked players

Abstract: Background: Table tennis is a complex sport, which uses both aerobic and anaerobic endurance. Whereby the aerobic endurance system is mostly used during the rest periods in order to maintain active and fully focused under the intense periods which occurs during ball rallies. The Swedish Olympic committee provides with a physiological profile where the aerobic endurance of the table tennis players is tested with Cooper’s test. The Cooper’s test is not sport specific and thereby a sport specific aerobic endurance test was developed, since player performance should be measured precise and sport specific. The sport specific aerobic endurance test is named Critical frequency test and is performed with a mechanical ball thrower. Aim: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the strength of the correlation between Cooper’s test and Critical frequency test with subjects national ranking. A second aim was to compare the strength of the correlation between Cooper’s test and Critical frequency test with subjects national ranking. Method: 14 subjects participated in this correlation study. Their aerobic endurance was measured with a Cooper’s test performed on a treadmill where their time to complete 3000m in seconds was gathered and with two critical frequency tests performed at different intensities (48 respectively 56 balls/minute) where their time to exhaustion in seconds was gathered. Results: A strong correlation was found between Cooper’s test and subjects group ranking, based on their national ranking (r=0.600 and r2=0.360, p=0.023. A weak non-significant correlation was found between Critf test and subjects group ranking at 48 respectively 56 balls/minute (48: r=-0.341 and r2=0.116, p=0.233) and (58: r=0.022 and r2=0.0005, p=0.940). Conclusion: The results in this study showed a strong correlation between Cooper’s test and subjects group ranking. This means, that in table tennis players ranked from 20-2700 in Sweden, the Cooper’s test could be used, in order to evaluate player performance. However, the Critf test could be questioned since a weak non-significant correlation was found. Future research is needed to evaluate the Critf test in this area, on a more homogenous group concerning the ranking list in Sweden.