For my G.C.S.E Physical Education coursework project I have been asked to design a six-week training program for myself and perform this program recording the results of the program. One of the requirements of the program is that it should be specified to one particular sport; I have picked football to focus mine on. I play football for my school and for a local team going by the name of St. Margaret’s Under 16’s. Both teams are very active both during season and pre-season, for my school we try to play one game a week against another local school or another year from our school. The school team also try’s to train once a week, during this we go over basic training methods including game scenarios and fitness training. St Margaret’s play every Sunday and this season are also entering into a tournament in Belgium. In the past we have taken part in many other overseas tournaments being successful in France winning the tournament convincingly.
I also regularly take parts in other sports this including squash, skiing and other sports being participated in school such as rugby, cricket, softball, basketball and I have also undertaken a weeks course in sailing. Football is a very physically demanding sport a game can be constantly moving meaning a player can get no real time for a long period of rest. Due to the constant stop start style of movement a player has during the game a competitors ATP system must be used a lot. This is basically the energy produced by the respiratory system, which is used by our muscles, the more ATP produced by aerobic respiration the longer our muscles can work at a higher level for longer, this being important in a game of football.
Football is of course a contact sport so not only is aerobic fitness necessary but so is strength. If a player has good strength it increases his chances of winning 50-50 challenges, which could be crucial to the teams progress in the game. Football is a sport that requires strength in all major body parts with particular emphasis on the shoulder girdle, back, hips, and legs. It is also a sport where most injuries are caused by too-tight and inflexible muscles, so stretching and flexibility routines are extremely important, not only to help avoid those injuries, but also to improve agility and speed. A football player, whatever position he plays, needs quickness and power.
What will be improved and worked on in the program: I will focus the training on three main aspects these will be stamina, strength and general aerobic fitness. To achieve this I must ensure that my program is based on this. Stamina Stamina is the ability of our heart and lung systems to cope with activity over a long period of time. We need to keep our active muscles supplied with energy and to get rid of waste products during prolonged periods of strenuous activity. The better our aerobic capacity the better we can keep going for long periods of time when playing football. Our maximum aerobic capacity is called our VO2 max. It is the maximum amount of oxygen that can be transported to, and used by, our working muscles during exercise. If we have a high VO2 max we can use much more oxygen than other people. We can work our body at a higher rate for long periods and will suffer less fatigue than others with a lower VO2 max.
If I can improve my stamina it will mean that I will be able to supply my muscles with oxygen for longer periods of time using aerobic respiration methods. This should significantly improve my performance in a match and it will help me perform better in later stages of a game and hopefully with this extra stamina I may have an advantage over the opposition. When designing my training program there are two acronyms that will be every important to consider and use. To complete the program adequately and efficiently I must make sure that I meet all points and efficiently I must make sure that I meet all points on both acronyms, the first one to follow is FITT:
F- Frequency of activity- how often we should exercise. For example if you just want to stay healthy you should exercise for at least twenty minutes twice a week. After each hard training session I should give my body at least 24 hours rest before I exercise again. I -Intensity of activity- how hard I should exercise? T- Time of activity- how long I am going to exercise. Aerobic training sessions tend to last for 20 minutes or longer where as strength training sessions are generally shorter and less sustained.
T- Type of activity- what exercise I should use. The second acronym I need to consider is SPORT: S- Specificity- Every person will need a different training programme – we’re all different and we all do different things. 1) Train the right parts of the body- there is no point making a weightlifter run 10 miles a day-it wont improve his weightlifting. 2) Train to the right level-if someone is unfit don’t start him or her with a long run. P- Progression- Steadily increase the amount of training that’s done-but only when the body has adapted to the previous training.
O- Overload- You’ve got to make your bodywork harder than it normally would. It’s the only way to get fitter. You can overload by increasing any of these three things: 1) Frequency of training (train more often) 2) Intensity of training (lift heavier weights) 3) Duration of training (training for 5 minutes longer each session)
R- Reversibility- Our fitness levels change all the time and it will down if we stop training. It takes a lot longer to gain fitness than to lose fitness meaning that we have to keep up with the programme of we will not get fitter. T- Tedium- We must make sure that what we are doing is not boring and tedious and that we are not doing the same thing everyday. If the programme is boring then it is unlikely that I will complete the programme to the best of my ability. It is essential that all these points are met for my program to be successful and I will ensure they are.
Stamina Test:
To see if my stamina is being improved I am going to use two tests. The first test I am going to use is the cooper 12 minute run but I will only carry out this test before my programme and then once after the programme has finished. This will show how much I would have improved over the six weeks. The Cooper 12 minute run is a very simple test all we have to do is see how far we can run around a marked area in 12 minutes, the distance we run is then recorded.
The other test I will use is the Havard step test. I will carry this test out once a week to see if I am making a gradual improvement. I will also do it at the start and end of the programme. To do this test our resting pulse rate is taken before the test begins. We then step on and off a 45cm high bench at the rate of 30 times a minute for a period of five minutes. We must start with the same foot each time and we must also fully extend our leg at the top of each step. At the end of the five minutes our speed of recovery is recorded. This is done by taking our pulse for 30 seconds at three different time intervals: one minute after the end: two minutes after the end of the exercise and three minutes after the end of the exercise.