Bronco test vs beep test: what is the difference?

Two different questions

The beep test asks how fast you can keep running. It starts slowly, speeds up every minute or so, and stops you when you can no longer keep up with the recording. The last full level gives your MAS.

The Bronco asks how quickly you can cover a fixed distance with turns. Five sets of 20, 40 and 60 m out-and-backs, 1,200 m in total, 30 turns. The result is a time. There is no audio and no pacing.

Side by side

	Beep test	Bronco
Format	graded, 20 m shuttles, stopped at failure	fixed distance, 20-40-60 m shuttles, timed
Distance	1,880 m to the end of level 10, 2,360 m to level 12	1,200 m for everyone
Duration	about 10 min 30 s to level 10, about 12 min 40 s to level 12	4 to 6 minutes for most players
Audio track	required	none
Pacing	set by the recording	set by the player
Result	level, then MAS	total time, then average speed
Turns	one every 20 m	30 in total
Published rugby data	none on this site	Super Rugby averages, ten years

Distances and times for the beep test come from the 247-shuttle table on this site. A player who stops at level 10 has run 1,880 m in about 10 minutes 30 seconds. At level 12 the total is 2,360 m in about 12 minutes 40 seconds.

What the research says

No study we could find compares the Bronco with the beep test in rugby union. The closest is Sella and colleagues (2021). They tested 156 professional players: 23 rugby sevens players did the Bronco and a multistage shuttle run, and 133 rugby union players did the Bronco and the Yo-Yo IR1.

The Bronco and the shuttle run correlated at r = −0.57 and 0.53, which the authors call large. The sign flips because a faster Bronco is a shorter time. The authors also point out that the shared variance is low. The scores measure related things, not the same thing.

A player who is quick on the Bronco is likely to be above average on the beep test, but the Bronco will not tell you which level.

When to use the Bronco

You want a rugby-shaped check. Rugby is made of short runs, braking and restarts. The Bronco has 30 turns in under six minutes. A steady run does not test that.

You have little time. One player takes less than six minutes, and you need only cones and a stopwatch. See the Bronco page for the course and the published times.

You want to repeat it often. The test is short enough to run every four to six weeks without eating a session.

When to use the beep test

You need running paces. The beep test returns a MAS in km/h, which the beep test page and the pace calculator turn into 85, 90 or 100 % paces. The Bronco gives an average speed that includes the turns, so it is lower than any running speed and cannot be used for paces. A formula can estimate MAS from a Bronco time, but it is an estimate.

You coach younger players. Reference values for school-age players exist for the 20 m shuttle run. The Bronco has none on this site.

You test a mixed group. A beep test lets players of very different fitness take part in the same session, because each one stops when they fail. The Bronco has no built-in difficulty ramp.

A simple rule

1. Do you need a MAS to program conditioning? Run the beep test.
2. Do you want a fast check that looks like the game? Run the Bronco.
3. Do you want to compare players across seasons? Pick one test and keep it.

Keep the surface, the time of day and the warm-up the same from one test to the next. Switching from one test to the other mid-season makes every earlier result useless for comparison.