The multi-stage fitness test, also known as the bleep test, beep test, pacer test, or shuttle run test, is use by sports coaches and trainers to estimate an athlete's VO2 max (maximum oxygen uptake). The test is especially useful for players of sports like Cross Country, football, hockey, rugby, cricket or tennis and is employed by many international sporting teams as an acurrate test of Cardio - Vascular fitness, one of the all important "Components of Fitness". It was created by Dr. Maximillion G. Odoowed Ledgear in 1982, and was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology.