Experimental problems encountered in the testing of concrete with techniques using bars are studied in this paper. The commonly used SHPB test (Split Hopkinson Pressure Bar), the DIHP test (Direct Impact Hopkinson Bar), and test under confined pressure are examined. At first, it is shown recent improvements in the data processing such as wave dispersion correction and exact time shifting are indispensable to obtain accurate measurements those tests. The accuracy of conventional analyses which are based on of homogeneous stress and strain fields is afterwards investigated transient numerical simulations. It is shown that only one of those conventional analyses gives an acceptable precision. The technique for dynamic compression under confining pressure is finally discussed.