UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH-HUMBER
Guelph-Humber instructor publishes first study on physical fitness Yo-Yo testing in Canadian soccer players

University of Guelph-Humber (U of GH) Kinesiology instructor Dr. Richard Bucciarelli recently published research that's the first of its kind in Canada, blazing the trail for professional soccer players in the country. 

The soccer aficionado published "Relationship Between the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Test and Match Running Performance in Canadian Male Professional Soccer Players" in a journal called MDPI Sports in February, which examines physical fitness/performance and how much Canadian Premier League (the nation's top professional soccer league) players run during games. Dr. John Srbely, who also teaches at U of GH, served as Dr. Bucciarelli's thesis advisor for this research. This work is significant because up until now, Canadian organizations only had data from other countries to rely on, which might not be accurate due to different factors that can impact player training and performance such as climate, skill level, and season length. Having accurate testing data informs the way training can be optimized for athletes.  

"[As a coach] we would tell players, 'This is the standard for Europe. This is how much high intensity running you would need to be able to do to play in the top league in Europe'," Dr. Bucciarelli said. "Now we can start to quantify what the demands are in our domestic league, and we can tell them, If you want to play in the Canadian Premier League, this is the level of fitness that you need. These are the demands that you need to be prepared for, and this is the level of training that you need to do to get there."

And with the FIFA World Cup coming to Toronto in June 2026, where matches are not so far from the U of GH campus, the spotlight is on soccer.

Getting the data

The Yo-Yo intermittent Recovery Test involves players performing two 20-metre shuttle runs, followed by a 10 second recovery period, with the shuttle run performed at progressively increasing running speeds. The 10-second recovery period mimics the type of stop-go movement when playing team sports like soccer. This test, which Dr. Bucciarelli said is the most reliable and popular test in soccer, measures an athlete's ability to recover between fast or high-intensity runs.

The idea for this research came to him in 2021. As a former soccer coach and player, Dr. Bucciarelli's interest in this research was sparked when he realized it has never been conducted in Canada, although similar data has come from across the world in Europe, South America, and Africa, he said. 

Dr. Bucciarelli was working a contract role in Halifax as a fitness coach and sports scientist for the Halifax Wanderers in the Canadian Premier League. Part of this role included collecting fitness data from the athletes, which prompted him to think of ways to use the data productively. This ultimately became his PhD thesis and the basis for this research.

In 2022, he began collecting the data, and in 2023, he wrote the thesis, defending it in 2024. While the result was a success, getting the data wasn't always easy.

A frightening turn

At one point, Dr. Bucciarelli was supposed to spend a week with the team in Halifax, with the trip being booked far in advance. He had heard rumblings of a hurricane hitting the city, but they were "down to the wire" with testing, so he went. 

Hurricane Fiona hit while he was in Halifax, so he experienced the raging storm, blackouts at the hotel and the training facilities, and a lot of stress. But the testing was completed and he remained safe.  

"That's what I had to go through just to get the data!" he said of the harrowing ordeal.  

In conclusion ...

When conducting the research, Dr. Bucciarelli used two different levels of the Yo-Yo Intermittent Recovery Tests, with level one focusing on the player's capability to perform high-intensity aerobic work repeatedly and level two focusing more on the player's capacity to partake in intense stop-go exercise with more of an anaerobic element.

The study found that the level one test "strongly correlated" with high-intensity running and high-speed running seen in a soccer game, pointing to the test's ability to predict high-intensity running outcomes. The level two test showed only a moderate correlation with high-intensity running, but a weak correlation with high-speed running. But when the tests are taken together, the research concluded that they have the validity of the tests. 

"Precise, valid, and reliable fitness assessments can help coaches and fitness coaches to better clarify the physiological characteristics of their athletes, and such assessments can also be used to predict the performance of high-intensity actions during match play and significantly impact the outcomes of match play," the research paper said.

Bringing it back to the classroom 

The experience is one Dr. Bucciarelli shares with his students, whether they aspire to work with athletes or regular people who simply want to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

"The best way I can relate my own research to the courses that I teach is that I try to use examples from athletes to tie it in there," he explained. "And I would say, Athletes have to train to meet the physical and physiological demands of their sport. And if they don't meet those demands, either they can't keep up, or worse, they get hurt. In a similar way, non-athletes have to meet and keep up with the physical and physiological demands of aging'."

After all, maintaining cardiovascular fitness activities can help with the ageing process and keeping muscles strong. Optimizing training methods is beneficial to athletes and non-athletes alike. Dr. Bucciarelli aims to inspire his students and instill a strong education in kinesiology so their career pathways from Guelph-Humber are vast.

"I try to encourage [my students] to go as high as they can and as far as they can with their education, because that allows them to keep their options open," he said. 

During the 2026-2027 academic year, Dr. Bucciarelli will teach KIN*2010 Health Promotion and serve as a research advisor for students enrolled in KIN*4400 Independent Research Study in Kinesiology. 

Explore the University of Guelph-Humber's Kinesiology program here.