I am going to create a personal exercise program on football. Football is a team sport and, therefore, there are different positions. I play on the right of midfield. Midfielders have to have good stamina because they have to defend and attack. I play for a club called ‘Chiltern Rangers’. They have just been relegated to Division 3. I play in the Under 16s Chiltern Youth Leagues. There are about 16 other clubs in my division. I also play in a couple of cup competitions. I play in the Queensbury School team, who recently won the County Cup. Components needed When I play on the right of midfield, I need several components of fitness.
I will need speed because there will be times in the match I will need to sprint. I may need to sprint when I am trying to run after an opposing team’s player. I may also need to sprint when I have the ball at my feet and I am trying to run down the wing. In midfield I will need to have strength. I will need to have strength when I have to suddenly sprint, when I am trying to shield the ball or when I am trying to tackle. Endurance is one of the most important components of fitness that I will need. In Midfield you have to do a great deal of running from one penalty area to the other penalty area.
As the games are 80 minutes long for my age, I will need to have a high endurance. I will need to be agile, so that I can quickly change from one direction to another. On the right of midfield, you will often have to dribble down the wing. If you are agile, you will find it a lot easier to beat the opposition. There are other components that are used in football, but the components above are the main ones. My Training Targets I personally feel that I have a good endurance. I am going to try and improve my endurance because it is one of the best parts of my game and I think that it I very useful when I play.
To improve on my endurance, I am going to have to do some running. I want to be able to still be running at high speeds towards the ends of the games. I sometimes feel that by the last quarter of the game, I can’t carry on running. I feel that I lack strength because I am not naturally that strong. I am going to try and build up my muscular strength, so that it is easier to tackle the opposition and hold them off when I am in possession of the ball. I am going to have to do some sort of weight training. I want to build up my biceps and triceps. I want to work on my speed so that I’m quicker over 20 metres.
I want to be able to get away from the opposition. I am going to have to practice running 20 metre sprints. I will start the running from standing still. I am going to work on my agility so that I find it easier to change direction quickly. This will help me when I am dribbling. By the end of my program, I want to be a considerably stronger so that I can tackle the opposition more forcefully and so I can hold the ball away from them without being pushed of it. I want to be able to have a high enough endurance so that I can continue running my fastest till the end of the game.
I want to be more agile so that I can dribble to a higher standard and I want to be able to run faster so that I can get away from the opposition. I am not going to try and improve my power, composition, flexibility, balance, co-ordination and reaction time. Although some of these will improve slightly because they are similar to other components. I wont improve power because I am going to be improving strength and speed which are both going to improve my power anyway. I wont be improving my flexibility and balance because that is not very relevant to the position I am playing.
Balance, co-ordination and reaction time may be improved when I do my agility exercises. Types of Training Used I am going to use various types of training to help me attain my training targets. The results tables for each type of training are shown on pages 8 & 9. Continuous Training (results table pg 8) Continuous training will improve my endurance. It will help me to burn body fat. I will do a 30-minute run at a steady pace. The run will be around Bennets Recreation Ground. I have chosen there because it is pretty flat all the way round. I will do 2 of these per week.
At 5-minute intervals, I will take my heart rate. Once I have finished my program, which will be 6 weeks long, I will be able to tell if my endurance has improved. If my endurance has improved, my heart rate will have become less. Interval Training (results table pg 8) Using Interval training, I will be able to improve my speed. In a football match you will have to make a sudden sprint. It may be that you need to sprint back to defend or that you are attacking and need to sprint away from the opposition’s defenders. I will do 3 sessions a week of Interval training.
They will involve jogging for a minute and then sprinting for 10 seconds. I will repeat that sequence 10 times, and then I will take my heart rate. Each week I will increase the sprint I have to do by 5 seconds. So for the first week it would be 10secs, second week 15secs, 3rd 20secs, 4th 25secs, 5th 30 secs and by the 6th week I will have to do sprints of 35seconds. The jogging will remove the lactic acid in my legs. By the end of the program my speed should have improved. This would also improve my endurance. Muscle Training (results table on pg 9) In football you don’t just use your legs.
Your arms and other parts of your body are also needed. I feel that I lack muscular strength in my upper body. If I was stronger, it would help me tackle, hold onto the ball and even sprint to a higher standard. I am going to build up my biceps and triceps. I will use the isotonic method. This will involve sit-ups, press-ups and weight lifting. I will do 2 isotonic sessions a week. In each of these sessions, I will do 50 sit-ups, 50 press-ups and 25 pull-ups of weights on each arm. Each week I will increases the amount of reps I do on each activity by 5. I will record my heart rate at the end of each activity.