My name is Luke Cuthbert, I am 16 years old, and I am studying GCSE P.E at Sawyers Hall College. I suffer from slight back problems due to a car accident that can hinder exercise at times. -Each week I participate in a two hour karate class and as I have been a black belt for nearly six years, so training is to a very high intensity and standard. Also I train once a week with my football team, Ferns Juniors for an hour and a half and we play a match on a Sunday for eighty minutes. Further more I participate in two to three practical P.E lessons a week doing a number of activities for an hour per session.
-Firstly for football my expertise is my technical ability, muscular speed and muscular endurance. However my muscular strength is not that great as I sometimes get pushed off the ball. Also my muscular strength and upper body flexibility is not that good so it reduces my capability to produce a solid long throw. I have good lower body flexibility due to years of karate training however my upper body flexibility is not that good, so that is what I would like to work on during my personal exercise plan. Secondly for my karate I compete at a very high level and my muscular speed and technical skill once again is my strong point.
This may come across as arrogant, but the level that I am fighting at in karate is international and I am very dominant in my weight categories as I have won numerous titles. Therefore I feel that I do not need to work too hard on improving at the moment. My coach who happens to be my father is In agreement with me. This is also because I would like to concentrate on my football as that is my main focus right now. However I will still attend karate classes during my personal exercise plan as it is good cross training for football. In addition I as a minor target for karate I would like to work on my right leg kicks as they are my weaker techniques and it would be beneficial to work on that.
My aims: 1st – Football -To aim to improve my flexibility and muscular strength, so that I can throw the ball further in matches, because as I usually play full back or on the wing I have to take a lot of throw ins so it would be specific to my game. 2nd – Football – To aim to improve my muscular speed and endurance, so that I can sprint faster and for longer in training and matches. Also this is my cardio vascular fitness and that is very specific for football, as I do a lot of running in a game.
3rd- Karate (minor target) – To aim to improve my flexibility and muscular speed in my kicking, especially on my right side as that is my weaker leg. Training methods: To reach my first target, of improving my throwing ability, I will practice my technique after football training. Further more to get the throws to go longer I will use my weights machine at home and particularly work on my upper body in order to develop my muscular strength. So it will be weight training. I will do all of my upper body and do 3 sets of 15. I will do this twice a week.
To reach my second target, of increasing my muscular strength, endurance and cardio-vascular fitness, I will do resistance training using viper bands and do sprinting with the bands, 2 sets of 20, and then do a contrast to get rid of the lactic acid in my body. This would be aerobic because it would be sprint then jog, sprint then jog etc. Secondly for my cardio vascular fitness, I would do continuous training of 3 laps round a football pitch at a reasonably quick pace, 2 laps with a ball and 1 without this would also be good for my ball control. I would do this once a week after a weights session.
Secondly I would do some fartlek training once a week after a weights session. This would consist of jogging for 20 seconds, sprinting for 20 seconds, then walking for 30. Each week I would try and increase the sprinting and jogging time but keeping the walking times the same. So I would be doing progression training over the 6 week period. This fartlek training would probably be for about 5 to 10 minutes and I would also hope to increase the overall time of this exercise session.
Finally to reach my last target, of improving my kicking in my right leg for my karate. The training method I will use for this will be weight training and resistance training. The weight training will be once a week and will be lower body, I will do 2 sets of 15 for each exercise as there is quite a few. I will also do these on my weights machine. Secondly the resistance training I will do at one of my karate classes for 45-60 minutes. The resistance training for this will be once a week.
Further note- The warm up I will do for all of my activities is a dynamic flex warm up, which is used by many top premiership teams including arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd. Also it is used by the England Rugby team. It was pioneered by the SAQ Company, who also manufacture the viper resistance bands, it is a progressive warm up that starts with small mobilising exercises then gradually they increase in intensity, and then some dynamic stretching because it has been proven that static stretching is not good before sport. Finally after the stretching some bigger and more intense movements that completely loosen your body up and then 3 quick sprints and then some static stretching as you are now warmed up.
This warm up will not take any longer than 20 minutes, and the call down is a shortened version of this. This is a very good warm up as it is not only good for football but for karate and other sports alike. I have been doing this warm up for over 5 years and I know it very well. Also at every karate training, I will do abdominal work as this is generally good for core stability and general fitness. Just one last point all the karate training I do is excellent cross training for football and to a lesser degree vice versa.