I will be designing a six-week personal exercise programme specifically for pre season football. I currently play football for the school 1st XI. I do also enjoy playing many other sports such as cricket, badminton and athletics, which I participate in regularly. This personal exercise programme is for me as an individual, and me only, because all athletes are different. I may play at the same level as someone else, however I may need to work on something totally different which possibly will happen to be my weakness.
I need to design a pre season football training regime, because, as I do not play for any other club and therefore during the long summer break I play no football at all. When I do play after the school break, I tend to find that my fitness levels more than anything else are nowhere near the same level as they were before the break. During the break, I do not take a complete break from all sport. I continue to play at a fairly high level of cricket and badminton throughout the summer. Both of these however are done only once a week.
The aim for this exercise programme is to keep fit during the summer while no football is being played. To make the programme effective, and to see if I have made any improvements, I will need to take some fitness tests before the programme starts. (I will take a two-week break once school has finished) These will include: Test These will also be done after each week of training is completed. During the six-week programme, there will be many things I will need to consider if it is to be successful. These include, possible training methods, principle of training and diet.
I do not have any health or injury problems. I consider myself to be a fit and healthy person. The fitness requirements for football are as follows: Aerobic and anaerobic fitness/capacity is needed because in a 90-minute football match an average player runs at least 4 to 5000m and most of this running is covered by the players’ anaerobic capacity. A footballer needs all round flexibility. I decided to design the training programme for football. The training programme would improve my cardiovascular fitness, muscular endurance. Cardiovascular refers to the heart and blood vessels. Regular training and a little bit of work on my agility and flexibility improve cardiovascular fitness.
In football you need a good fitness level to keep up your work rate for the full 90 minutes. I will try to include all the training methods in my training programme Circuit Training Circuit training is a method of training. A circuit usually has 8 to 15 stations, where at each station a different exercise is carried out for a certain amount of time. Circuit training can improve muscular endurance, cardiovascular endurance, aerobic fitness, muscular strength, speed and agility. A circuit-training program may also be designed for a certain sport. Circuits for this purpose will include exercises to improve all the muscles and skills associated with the sport. Example: A circuit training programme for football should include skills, like jumping, kicking or dribbling.
Continuous Training We exercise without intervals for resting. There are two types of continuous training: Long, slow distance training. For this type of training we work at between 60-80% of our maximum heart rate. High intensity continuous training. For this type of training we work at between 85-95% of our maximum heart rate. Fartlek Training Fartlek training involves training over distances far greater than our actual competition distance. It is a method of training in which we vary our pace and training conditions. It is a very good method for games players as they are involved in short intense activities followed by brief periods of recovery.
Interval Training Fixed patterns of slow and fast exercises are used in interval training. It means alternating between strenuous exercise and rest. The rest time give us time to recover from each period of exercise. Each repetition of a pattern is called a ‘rep’ and you have to finish a ‘set’ before a rest. Weight training Weight training improves muscle strength and tone. There are three types of weight training: Isometric training in this type of training, the muscles contract but there is no movement. Isotonic training in this type of training, Muscles contract and shorten producing movement. Kinetic training in this type of training, muscles contract and shorten at a constant speed.
I will try to include all the principles of training that may help me during my training programme. The first one is the FITT principle. 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. This means that I will have to decide how often every week I will have to train and how often I will train on each of the two areas stamina and speed. I will also have to make sure that I am training at the right intensity it will be important to make modifications to my plan while I am doing it if I feel that I am not being pushed hard enough. I will also have to decide how long each training session should last, the best way to do this will probably be to start off with shorter sessions and as the programme goes on increase the length of time for each session.
The main thing I will need to decide is the type of activity I do and make sure that it is relevant and improve my fitness in the way I want. Specificity My training programme is for football and it is based over a six-week period. The exercises are specifically suited to what is needed to play football. The training program is specified for me as a midfielder, so there are no goalkeeping skills involved in this circuit.