What is a good shuttle run time for your age?

4x10m Shuttle Run Standards by Age (seconds)

The reference times below are based on the widely published youth fitness standards for the 4x10m shuttle run, expressed as average (50th percentile) times for each age and sex. Lower times are better. The "Good" column shows roughly the 85th percentile threshold, so times at or below it place you well above average for your age.

For adults, a 4x10m time under 10 seconds for men and under 11 seconds for women is a solid mark of good agility. Youth times improve steadily because coordination and strength both climb through adolescence.

Reading Your Shuttle Run Result

Your 4x10m shuttle run time measures agility, which is really four skills stacked on top of each other: acceleration, top-end speed, braking, and change of direction. Lower is better. The calculator rates your time against the average for your age and sex.

• Excellent / Good: meaningfully faster than the average for your age. A score in the top range, typical of athletes and active kids.
• Average: around the 50th percentile, a healthy typical score for your age.
• Fair / Poor: slower than the average. Common in sedentary kids and adults, and very trainable.

The shuttle run is one of the best youth field tests because it captures several fitness components in one short effort, and it transfers directly to sports that involve cutting and pursuit. A tenth of a second is a real difference on this test, which is why you should time it with a proper stopwatch and not a phone app that starts late.

The 4x10m Shuttle Run, Explained

Set two parallel lines 10 meters apart on a flat, non-slip surface. Start behind one line and, on the signal, sprint to the far line. Plant one hand on or beyond the far line, turn, and sprint back. Touch the near line with one hand, turn again, and sprint out and back once more, for four touches and 40 meters of total running. The clock stops the moment you cross the line on the final leg.

The hand touch is not a formality. It forces a real deceleration and a real re-acceleration, which is what separates this test from a plain 40m sprint. Without the touch, you could round the turns and shave a second, and the score would no longer mean what the norms say it means. Rest 2-3 minutes between trials and record the faster of two attempts.

The Agility vs Cardio Split

Two very different tests wear the shuttle-run name, and confusing them produces nonsense comparisons. The 4x10m version is an agility and speed test. It lasts about 10 seconds, runs on fast-twitch fibers, and rewards braking, turning, and re-acceleration. The 20m PACER, sometimes called the beep test, is an aerobic test. It runs until your maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) gives out, which can be ten minutes or more, and it is scored in levels and shuttles rather than seconds.

The two predict different things. The 4x10m predicts how well you will dodge, cut, and chase in a game. The PACER predicts how long you can keep playing at high intensity. A powerful winger can win the 4x10m and finish mid-pack on the PACER, and a distance runner can reverse that exactly. Both matter, they just matter for different reasons. Convert your PACER score to a VO2max and rating on our beep test calculator.

The EUROFIT and President's Challenge Background

The shuttle run has roots in two of the most influential fitness-testing programs of the last century. The Council of Europe's EUROFIT battery, published in 1988, standardized physical fitness assessment across European schools and included a 10x5m shuttle run as its agility test. In that version you cover 5 meters per leg and 10 legs total, about 40 meters of running but with twice as many turns, so scores land higher (a 10-year-old boy typically runs it in about 23 seconds, and a 17-year-old in about 19).

On the American side, the President's Challenge, which grew out of national fitness testing that began in the 1950s, used a timed shuttle run as one of its core events. Different programs, same idea: a short course, a line to touch, a clock, and a score that rewards the kid who can stop, turn, and go faster than the rest. The 4x10m table on this page follows that family of standards.

What Makes a Fast Time

• Acceleration: how quickly you reach top speed over the first few strides, the biggest factor on short shuttles.
• Turning technique: planting the outside foot and cutting without slowing down saves 0.2-0.5 seconds per turn.
• Lower-body strength: stronger quads, glutes, and calves generate more force for each push-off.
• Coordination and footwork: clean, quick foot placement around the line improves consistency.
• Age and sex: agility improves through adolescence, and boys average faster times than girls from about age 10.

Notice what is missing from that list: endurance. On a 10-second test, conditioning barely matters. What matters is how much force you can put into the ground on each of the four or five accelerations, and how little speed you lose through each turn.

Training to Cut Your Time

• Practice the test: do 4x10m reps 2-3 times per week with full effort and full rest to sharpen turning mechanics.
• Add agility drills: cone taps, T-drills, and the 5-10-5 pro agility drill build the same cutting skills.
• Strengthen the lower body: squats, lunges, and calf raises twice a week increase push-off power.
• Do short sprints: 10-30m sprints with 2-3 minutes of rest improve the acceleration that shuttles demand.

Shaving half a second is realistic within a season of focused work. Most of it comes from the turns: practice planting and driving hard off the outside foot until the movement is automatic. For the aerobic version, follow the training guidance on our beep test page to raise the VO2max that powers the 20m PACER. Agility and power scores sit alongside other fitness markers, so check how your walking speed and your core endurance rank for your age too.

Shuttle Runs in Team Sports

Coaches lean on shuttle tests because they replicate the actual demands of play. In a single soccer match a midfielder changes direction hundreds of times, and most of those changes happen at distances between 5 and 10 meters. The 4x10m is a compressed version of that reality. Basketball runs the same principle with line sprints, tennis players use the 4-corner drill, and gridiron programs use the 5-10-5 pro agility at every combine.

The lesson for players is that shuttle training is sport-specific work, not generic conditioning. If you want to be quicker in the game, you have to train the actual movement pattern: accelerate, decelerate, plant, re-accelerate. That is what the drills above do, and it is why shuttle times are a better predictor of on-field quickness than a straight-line 40-yard dash.

How to Perform the 4x10m Shuttle Run

1. Set up two parallel lines 10m apart on a flat, non-slip surface.
2. Start behind one line; on the signal, sprint to the far line.
3. Place one hand on or beyond the far line, turn, and sprint back.
4. Repeat until you have touched the line four times (out-and-back twice); stop the clock on the final crossing.
5. Rest 2-3 minutes and take a second trial; record the faster time.

Wear shoes with good grip, test on a dry surface, and warm up with light jogging and a couple of practice turns. A slipping start or a late stopwatch costs more than most training can add in a month.