My six-week Personal Exercise Programme (PEP) will be specifically designed to improve my performance levels for my chosen sport – Goalkeeping in football. In my opinion, goalkeeping requires a wide range of fitness attributes such as strength, explosive energy, suppleness, speed, to a certain extent; stamina (Cardio-Vascular Fitness), and most importantly, agility. The task of this programme will be to increase my suppleness/flexibility and agility, because goalkeepers need to have rapid reactions in order to block swift shots form the opposing team and the ball could then be obtained again by the attackers and therefore the keeper needs to react swiftly to save the rebound which often occurs.
A goalkeeper needs flexibility for all aspects of the game to reduce the risk of injury and to allow movement to the ball when dealing with ‘hard-to-get’ shots. I will do some aerobic endurance activities to increase my ability of coping with intensely repetitive attacks on the goal. I will do resistance training with low weights but high repetition, concentrating mainly on the legs; my hamstrings and gluteus maximus in order to improve my drop-kicks and goal-kicks and explosive speed for running, diving and jumping. I the upper body, I will be looking to improve my biceps and triceps, my abdominals and deltoids.
Explosive leg power is probably more important than upper-body strength, as a goalkeeper often needs to quickly recover to standing position to block oncoming shots, run towards the ball or ball carrier and kick the ball. Upper body strength is required to enable the goalkeeper to muscle through players to get to the ball and arm strength is needed to have strong resistance stopping the oncoming ball. Strong muscles are less prone to injury and increase speed, agility and endurance. Muscular endurance is also needed for repetitive attacks on the goal.
After each training session, I will rest to minimise exhaustion and weariness. I will also warm up before each session and warm down after each to decrease the risk of pulling muscles and the later muscle soreness (D.O.M.S.), which could make complications for further training sessions and sporting activities, as it can affect you two days after the exercise.
As I have weak will power, I will need to create change in my routines to prevent tedium and keep me training with maximal effort. In order to combat this, I will; Listen to music when training Occasionally train with my friends Vary the exercises I do, eg. Go swimming when I can instead of cycling or jogging. I measured my Cardio-Vascular fitness level in the 12 minute Cooper run (19 laps and 75m) and will measure again in 6 weeks, sfter my P.E.P. . I will take the run again and be able to see whether my cardio-vascular fitness has improved.
The 12-minute run is obviously a good way to show progression of fitness throughout the 6-week period, as I can compare my results before and after. I can also do this with the testing of sit-ups and press-ups, to measure the development of my abdominals and arm and chest muscles. The sit and reach test will measure the change in my flexibility, and the standing broad jump will measure the development of my leg muscles.
Overall, flexibility from yoga stretching will become apparent as I hope to find it easier to adopt different positions.
My sit and reach results are in need of improvement, which is why I am including intense stretching in my training programme. My press-ups are above average, but I intend to train and get better results in the retest. I intend to do leg exercises in my P.E.P., and this should boost my ‘standing broad jump’ out of the below average zone.
I will carry out 4 training sessions a week, lasting for around 30 minutes without stopping, and extra time for warming up and cooling down. I will gradually increase the intensity and duration of my training as my fitness levels increase, and will always strive to go above my normal activity levels, otherwise known as overload, but not to push myself over the other end of the scale. As well as doing my Personal Exercise Programme, every week I will also participate in a football practise session and a match (including 30 mins warm-up training) for my club. This will be my P.E.P. timetable;