Since coming to Ballyclare High School I have took an interest in a lot of sports. In my first year I took part in table tennis, rugby, badminton, cricket and athletics. In second an third year I decided to concentrate on 2 or 3 sports, I chose badminton, rugby and cricket. I attended training sessions at ballyclare rugby club for a few months but was unable to be selected for Saturday matches because of school commitment. Now in year 11 I am enjoying my badminton, rugby and cricket more and feel I can still improve. I try to do some exercise everyday.
Obviously some days are more vigorous than others, the main reason why I exercise because I would hate to be overweight and have health problems because I didn’t do enough exercise. I enjoy exercising, I like playing team sports but I also like going to the gym on my own to train. My life is structured mainly around exercise; if I wasn’t exercising I would be board and have nothing to do. Sometimes homework’s prevent me from going to badminton on Wednesday nights. I wanted to do GCSE PE because I wanted to learn more about my body and my different muscles.
I also like the practical side and exercising with friends I think GCSE PE will help with my fitness and therefore become a better sportsman Activity Profile Section 4 During my QUB tests I discovered one are in my fitness was lacking, this was in the VO2 max test. Although my result was good it didn’t keep up with the rest of my results. I feel all the techniques in my tests were the best they could have been as we were given test protocols before doing the test’s to show us how to carry out the tests and all recordings were done accurately and fairly.
I felt using mats to record our standing broad jump was a bit impractical and didn’t give us a highly accurate measurement. The floor in the gym is a bit slippery and so on our 5-metre shuttles the turn was very hard because your feet were slipping from under you, this can be a big influencing factor because the times between different points are so close together. My state of health during the test was fine I wasn’t having any problems apart from a minor cold but nothing too serious.
As I was regularly attending rugby twice a week, circuits twice a week and badminton twice a week my physical condition was good and I was fit and ready for the tests although I did a circuit training earlier that morning which could have made me a bit slow maybe in the 5-metre shuttles. My motivation wasn’t very high, I did want to do well and compete with the other boys in my class and I also wanted to compare my results with my predetermined ones and try and beet them but I felt my self-motivation could have been higher.
I did put in a good amount of effort into the tests, as I wanted to compare myself to the others who took part. When I compare my activity diary to my test results I am not surprised. As I don’t do a lot of endurance running my VO2 max test result was a bit low, but with my training in circuits before school my leg muscled have adapted to short explosive movements, this shows in my results in my standing broad jump. My grip strength was higher than expected because badminton involves griping a racket for a few hours, I think this helped my grip strength.
After my evaluation of my QUB tests I found that my weaknesses were in my V02 MAX test and in my sit and reach test. I have added in some extra activates into my schedule to try and improve on my poor results in the next testing. I will use the principle of progressive overload to quicken the pace of my jogging throughout the weeks. Eventually I aim to add in another jog somewhere into my schedule. Stretching session – 1. Calves – put one leg over the other in a standing position, reach down and try and touch your toes 2. Quads – bend your leg backwards at the knee and pull your foot towards your gluteus
3. Hamstring – put one leg out in front of the other in a standing position then with your foot still on the ground pull your toes up towards your shin and try and touch the ground with your hand 6. Triceps – put your hand up on your shoulder and pull your hand down your back 7. Biceps – put your arm across your chest and push your arm into your chest with the other arm 8. Trapezius – put your hand on the side of your head and press against the hand with your head but be resistant, don’t let your head move to the side easily.