I am a keen footballer and compete competitively, on a regular bases for my local side. It is currently the off season, but with the new season commencing soon I have a lot of pre-season training to do to be in peek physical condition for this. I have 8 weeks until the start of the new season and am going to start a personal exercise plan (PEP) in order to prepare myself to be able to compete at a high standard. Introduction In the game of football there are multiple roles that can be taken up on the pitch; each role has different criteria which is necessary to enable the person to be successful.
Certain fitness related skills are compulsory to compete competitively; for example CV for a midfielder, whereas in other roles these skills are not as important; for example CV fitness isn’t important for goalkeepers. This example just shows how important it is for an athlete organizing a pep; especially in football, to analyze the skill components needed for there positions and focus the PEP on the improvement of these, as this will improve the overall performance.
Also when organizing a PEP the participate must take into account the current skill level at each component, as this will show what is in most need for improvement. Both of these aspects should have had an influence in the aims of my PEP; as it show both what I need and what I need to improve, to obtain my optimum level of performance. I play as a striker when competing, and I am of the belief that there are three key features that are needed to be successful in the game and that most of the top players are at very high levels in.
these are three of the component of skill; speed, strength and endurance ( both local muscular and cardio-vascular fitness). Speed; is needed as a striker has to run onto ball, take the ball around defenders, and to get into attacking position in order to pose a threat. As a striker is furthest forward they are always the main outlet to pass the ball and there main job on the pitch is to score goals, but to be able to do this they must have the speed to get into certain positions away from marking defenders.
Strength; as previously stated a striker is the main outlet for over players being furthest up the pitch, and are often left up the pitch allow meaning they need to hold the ball up for support to arrive. To do this they have to have strength to eases away from defenders tackles. Also they have to have strength in the air to brush of the defenders tackles. Combining this skill with speed gives power (speed * strength=power) this is key in run passed defenders who try to tackle you and pushing players of the ball. It is also key in shooting as you need good power in your shoot to enable them to get passed the keeper.
Endurance; local muscular fitness is needed to enable the musicales that shoot, pass tackle and run, continue working at the high level of performance for the whole game. Cardio-vascular fitness is needed as the lungs need to supply the muscles with oxygen efficiently so that I can continue running and moving in gernal for the whole 90 minutes. Without both of theses at a suitable level my performance will drop rapidly as my movement is impeded. Underneath you can observe a graph with my current preserved level in each component of skill and the level that is needed at a high level of competion.
For a Striker. As you can see from the chart the key components are Endurance, Strength, Speed and Power as these are needed at the highest skill level. You can also observe that my perceived level in each of these is in the greatest deficit to the desired level. Take into account the information above and the research done previously into the needed components for somebody in my position, it clearly shows that the main components that are needed are Endurance, Strength, Speed and Power and they are also the ones that are in need of the most improvement.
Therefore I am aiming to improve each component as I believe that they will have the most effect on my performance. I now have the key components I have to improve and have 8 weeks to do so, in order to do this I must organize a PEP that focuses on each aspect. To organize my program I took a concept called periodisation which enables me to split my program into different sections enabling me to focus on different components of skill to improve, which suits the task I have to do; improving multiple components.
I split my program into 4 microcycles each one focusing on a different component. Firstly I’m going to do two weeks on endurance, for the next two weeks im going to focus on strength, weeks 5-6 I will focus on speed training, Then for the last two weeks, the final microcycle I will train all the previous components and tests to see if I’ve improved.
Week 1-2; endurance is the main focus and I wish to improve both local muscular and Cardio-vascular fitness to do this I have chosen to use continuous training to increase my heart rate to 75-85% of my maximum heart rate ( 220-17=203/100=2.03*75=152) so my target zone for these weeks is 152+. If I get my heart rate up to this 3 times per week for at least 20 minutes then my CV will improve and in getting it up there through running etc my local muscular endurance will improve. I choose 75% of max Hr because this is of high enough intensity to improve aerobic capacity as it is the production of energy with oxygen I wish to improve primarily; in weeks 5-6 I will develop this into increase my anaerobic threshold.
I will also use interval training as a form of improving both as it will simulate the game situation for a striker and the game is majority stop, start with a burst of high energy; running onto a ball. Followed by rest; waiting for the ball to come back down the pitch. Finally I will do a session a week on specific local muscular endurance, this will be a weigh training session using low weighs with a high number of reps these will be focused on the lower body as this is what is in most use e. g. squats, whereas a goalkeeper would focus on upper body.
Week 3-4; this will be done through the use of weigh training but in comparison to the weigh training done in the first week it will be done on both upper and lower body; as the legs enable you to kick the ball and your shoulders are use especially for a striker to push your way passed defenders, also it will use higher weighs and lower reps. Week 5-6; this will use the training method of interval training, I will use sprint sessions to increase my anaerobic threshold as this will be of very high intensity.
I will also try to improve my flexibility as with and increase of flexibility you gain and increase in stride length, and speed can be expressed as stride length * stride frequency. I will also use plyometrics to improve my speed this will be done through bounding etc. it works on the principle of reflex contraction. If you take into account the fact that in the previous week I trained to improve my strength and these two weeks I improved speed this should thus give an improvement to not just them two components but also power (strength *speed = power) and this was one of the key feature highlighted in the previous section.
Week 7-8; this is where I will recall everything that has been done and do two session on each component over the two weeks ready to be tested in the last week to observe whether I have improved. This microcycle will be the finial in my mesocycle and will involve skills training which will involve actually playing football, which will improve all of the above components and will also bring into the training a competitive edge to the training, preparing me for real competition mental as well as physically.
Principles of Training Due to the periodisation of my PEP the principle of specificity is implemented throughout, which is of great advantage as it improves the exact components needed therefore my performance in the sport will too. In between each session I am going to have a days rest this decision was affect by the principle recovery and reversibility, since it will give enough time to prevent burn out/over training and also its not too long that the training effect start to wear off.
And finally throughout my program I will have a continuous theme of progressive overload which gradually increase the work load every session and therefore maintains the work load and the general intensity so I will improve. Also I will implement the FITT principle, I will train regularly (frequency) at high enough intensity (intensity) for long enough to have and effect ( time ) and I will make the training specific to what I’m try to achieve (type) Testing As previously stated in the last two weeks I aim test myself to observe if I have improved.
I will test endurance and power, I will not test strength and speed individually as a strength for power will show if there was an improvement in both of these. I have already tested for both of theses as I had to have an original starting point to show any improvement. For endurance I chose to do a bleep test in which I scored a 9. 5, this was not at an adequate level, and may have been down to the lack of training in the off session; an I wish to improve this drastically ready for the new season.
I chose to do a sergeant jump in which I achieved 2. 51 meters. Which is of a suitable standard but I which to improve to over 2. 60 meters. I believe that the test results gained are very reliable because they are both valid in the fact that they tested endurance and power. Diet Due to the increase in physical training that I had partaken in I had to increase the calorie intake to ensure that I had a constant supply of energy to enable me to train to the level I wanted to and therefore get the desired results.
For the increase in intake I tried to eat as much carbohydrates as possible eating paste etc for most of my main meals, this enable the best release of energy without using up fats. Which may have resulted in the loss of weigh which would not have been positive for my performance as it could have had an effect on my syomata-type. Being a mesomorph is the preferred body shape of a football, specifically a striker. I also tried to stick to a balanced diet protein(23%), fats(30%), carbohydrates(57%), fibre, water, minerals and vitamins.