I take great pride in representing my school by playing on the women’s soccer team. I enjoy being around my friends and working together as a team with our coaches to accomplish a common goal. But there is this one shadow that hovers over me throughout the year, poking at me, causing me anxiety and taunting me. It laughs at my pain, struggle and causes me to question the french fry I’m about to eat. It’s the dreaded fitness test. When I think about fitness testing, my stomach begins churning, my palms become sweaty and my forehead begins to sweat. Being tested throughout the year for soccer gives me more anxiety than taking any exam or giving any presentation. What puzzles me is that fitness tests are so simple, when it comes to our running tests all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other and repeat at a fairly fast pace. But along with my teammates, the thought of a fitness test begins to consume all of our attention, we become distracted from the goal of being fit for a game with a ball at our feet. The day of our fitness test you could cut all of our anxiety with a knife, some girls shut down and become quiet, some begin to pace, others practice their breathing and strides. Regardless of how many times we’ve passed our fitness tests in the past, it continues to scare us and give us unhealthy anxiety.

I understand that fitness tests hold us accountable for staying in shape and preparing us for our season games. But I sometimes question if testing us is the most effective way of ensuring our health and athletic ability. We are the “tested generation.” We’ve gone through class tests, standardized tests, driving tests, college acceptance tests, college exams and quizzes, reading quizzes, pop quizzes, fitness tests, law school tests, medical school tests and so on. The real question is when are we not being tested? As new adults to this world we’ve been tested more than our parents ever were, and we’ve grown a fear to the word “test” or “exam” or “quiz." When those words are even mentioned, anxiety is the immediate emotion that consumes us. Has anyone ever thought that if we aren’t constantly tested we might perform better? I think our coaches, professors, parents, and administrators would be pleasantly surprised.

With that said, I’ve decided that there should be an end to fitness tests, we should abolish all fitness tests. What should be focused on is the performance of athletes in the game with a ball in their hands, at their feet, hitting with a racquet, bat or stick. However I don’t think our coaches will be adopting my idea any time soon. Halfway through August my teammates and I will be running 300 yard sprints at 8 a.m. If you want to see a bunch of anxious men and women running and working together to ensure every teammate crosses the line before time is up, come out and watch, because there is one thing that a fitness test is truly good for: bringing us all together to encourage one another to achieve a common goal - to witness that every year, multiple times a year, is a beautiful thing.