The 20m Run Aerobic Fitness Test was developed by Canberra (Australia) physical educator, John Miller.
After conducting hundreds of ‘beep’ tests and putting up with
– lugging a cassette or CD player around
– cassette and CD players with flat batteries
– tapes that were stretched
– compact discs that ‘jumped’ a beat when someone ran too close to the recorder
– hours wasted waiting for fit people to finish the test and
– recognizing that the test wasn’t discriminating enough for people who failed to keep up with the beeps for 2 minutes,
… John decided there must be a better way.
The time of 5 minutes was selected after watching thousands of people go through the test and getting the feeling that completing 41 laps (level 6.1 on the ‘beep’ test) was a good standard of aerobic fitness for all comers, particularly ‘regular folks’.
Rounded down and based on experience, 40 laps is a good score for men and 38 a good score for women.
The 20m run has a much better distribution curve of results than the ‘beep’ test which has been modified so participants, from regular folks and elite athletes of all levels of aerobic fitness can register how aerobically fit they are by the number of laps they can complete in 5 minutes.