Rick L. Sharp (personal communication, 30 August, 1994).

It seems that an appropriate effort for your sport scientists [Australian] and for ours would be to test the reliability and validity of this and other similar training concepts. "Testing for testing sake" is a problem that, in my opinion, has also been a major problem with our approach in Colorado Springs. But simple studies like evaluating the validity of "critical maximum velocity" would be useful. Simply testing athletes whenever they're available is fine if the research has already been done to determine 1) the relative importance of physiological and biomechanical capacities in performance of our sport [swimming], and 2) the validity and reliability of the tests that are purported to measure these capacities. Unfortunately, these necessary steps are too often overlooked.