The AQ protocol measures eight vectors because eight is the smallest set that describes an athlete's physical profile without redundancy. Add a ninth and you start measuring the same quality twice. Remove one and you create a blind spot a coach will eventually fall into.
Every vector is tested with the same instruments, in the same order, by certified testers, and scored against your age, gender and sport cohort. Below is what each one is, how it is captured, and the most common reason athletes under-perform it on the day.
1. Grip Strength
What it measures: whole-body neuromuscular output, expressed through the hand. Grip is one of the most stable markers across an athletic career and correlates with total-body strength more reliably than almost any other single measure of its size.
How it is tested: hand dynamometer, in kilograms, two attempts per hand, best of each recorded, with left–right asymmetry captured. Elbow at ninety degrees, no swinging, no bracing against the body.
Most common way it is under-performed: squeezing slowly. Peak force is reached in under two seconds — a gradual build never reaches it.
2. Lower Body Power
What it measures: the elastic, ballistic quality behind every jump, first step and change of direction. This is the vector that most strongly separates athletes who look explosive from athletes who look merely fit.
How it is tested: countermovement jump, best of three trials, with jump height and left–right asymmetry recorded. Hands on hips or arm swing standardised across the cohort.
Most common way it is under-performed: a slow, deep countermovement. The dip should be fast and shallow; sinking into a squat before jumping discards the elastic contribution entirely.
3. Acceleration
What it measures: the ability to produce horizontal force from a standstill — the first five to twenty metres, which is where the overwhelming majority of field- and court-sport actions actually happen.
How it is tested: timed 20 m sprint from a standardised two-point start, best of trials, electronically timed.
Most common way it is under-performed: standing up too early. The first three steps should have a pronounced forward shin and body angle; popping upright at step two turns an acceleration into a jog with a fast arm action.
4. Maximum Speed
What it measures: top-end velocity once acceleration is complete. Deliberately separated from acceleration, because plenty of athletes are quick over five metres and ordinary at thirty — and plenty are the reverse. Collapsing them into one number hides exactly the thing a coach needs to act on.
How it is tested: timed 40 m sprint, best of trials, with the back half of the run the section that carries the information.
Most common way it is under-performed: over-striding to chase the clock. Reaching the foot out in front of the body is braking, and it shows up as a slower second half.
5. Change of Direction
What it measures: the ability to decelerate, plant and reapply force in a new direction. It is the most under-trained quality in junior sport and the one that most often separates athletes who test well from athletes who play well.
How it is tested: timed 5-10-5 shuttle, best of trials, run in both directions so side-to-side differences are visible.
Most common way it is under-performed: rounding the turn. Every metre of drift is distance added, and it is the usual reason a genuinely fast athlete posts an average COD score.
6. Upper Body Strength
What it measures: pushing and pulling capacity relative to bodyweight — contact tolerance, wrestling for position, and the structural base that protects the shoulder under load.
How it is tested: standardised push and pull assessments scored on clean repetitions, with strict range and tempo requirements.
Most common way it is under-performed: partial range. Repetitions that do not meet the range standard are not counted, and athletes who have trained to a self-set standard often lose a third of their total on the day.
7. Lower Body Strength
What it measures: absolute and bodyweight-relative force production through the hips, knees and ankles. This is the foundation the power, acceleration and change of direction vectors are all built on top of.
How it is tested: standardised lower-body strength assessment scored in both absolute and relative terms, so a heavier athlete is not automatically advantaged.
Most common way it is under-performed: unfamiliarity with the movement pattern. Strength scores are the single most rehearsal-sensitive result on the protocol.
8. Aerobic Capacity
What it measures: the durability layer. It determines how much of the rest of your profile is still available in the last twenty minutes of a match, which is exactly when selection decisions tend to be made.
How it is tested: a standardised progressive running assessment, recorded as level or distance, run last in the session so it does not contaminate the speed and power results.
Most common way it is under-performed: starting too fast. The early stages are not the test — they are the warm-up you are being scored on.
How the eight become one score
Each vector is scored as a percentile against your age, gender and sport cohort. Those eight normalised values are then combined into a single AQ Score on a 0–1000 scale. Because the inputs are normalised first, a 700 means the same thing for a U14 netballer as it does for a U19 rugby player: the athlete is well above the population they are selected out of.
| Tier | AQ Score | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Under 550 | Developing profile. Usually one or two vectors are dragging the total — the report names them. |
| Silver | 550–699 | Solid all-round base. Competitive within cohort, with clear headroom in specific vectors. |
| Gold | 700–849 | Strong physical profile. Clears the baseline filter for most representative pathways. |
| Elite | 850+ | Exceptional against cohort. Physically ready for the level above. |
Because the whole protocol is fixed, your result is directly comparable to every other athlete tested in the network — and to your own previous result. That comparability is the entire point. Trend tracking unlocks on your passport once you have a second verified test.