My name is Terry Steadman and I am a keen sports player. At present I have no injuries or major health problems. I play competitive matches and tournaments in: cricket, football, rugby, cross-country running and middle-distance running. I represent a club and my district in all of these sports except for rugby, which I only play at school level. I regularly play matches twice a week and train for these sports 2-4 times a week.
A typical football training session would include jogging for 20-30 minutes, shuttle runs and a shooting or passing drills. Therefore I mainly work on stamina, speed and football skills in these sessions. When I train for cricket, I mainly do batting and bowling in practice nets as well as fielding drills. This training develops speed (in the fielding drills), cricket skills and co-ordination. As a consequence of this training, stamina, speed and co-ordination are my greatest strengths.
My health promoting exercise programme will be circuit training. Circuit training involves around 6-10 exercises or activities being performed at different points called stations. In between the stations there can be intervals for rest or the exercises can be done non-stop. The different exercises can be done for a certain time or a certain amount of repetitions. Circuits should be designed to avoid working the same muscle groups at stations that follow one another and to include exercises that work opposing muscles around a joint. This training method can be designed to improve fitness (aerobic and anaerobic), sport specific actions, and to help you achieve personal targets. Circuit training improves muscular strength, endurance, muscle tone and posture. It increases bone density and metabolic rate; it decreases the percentage of body fat.
The sport, which I will be training for in my circuit, is football. For the purpose of this circuit, I will train for the position of central-midfielder because it involves almost all the skills that are used in football more than any other area on the football field. The aim of my circuit is to improve both anaerobic and aerobic fitness, and to increase the muscular strength of my legs. To achieve this I have to improve the relevant fitness factors. The fitness factors that I need to improve are: stamina, speed, agility and explosive muscular strength. Stamina is needed so that the body can continue to perform at the highest level for the whole 90 minutes of a football match.
I hope to improve speed because it is needed in football for sharp bursts of speed. These sharp bursts of speed are required to enable you to catch up with or get away from an opponent. The speed at which your leg can move through the ball helps to increase power on a shot. Agility is needed by football players to perform sharp twists and turns. Twists and turns are needed for dribbling around opponents and losing markers in dead-ball situations.
By doing the training correctly, I hope to increase the explosive muscular strength of my legs. This strength is necessary in football for strong tackling, powerful kicking; these both require a maximum force in one movement. I’m going to exercise the muscles that are most needed for football specific actions in all my activities. These muscles are: hamstrings, gastronomies and quadriceps. After doing this circuit I hope to improve the power of my kicking, the strength of my tackling, the speed of my dribbling and my ability to work at the maximum of my potential throughout the match.
Before I performed the circuit I carried out some fitness tests. My bleep test score is currently 13.7, by improving my stamina, I hope to get up to level 14(5. My time for the 50-metre sprint is 8.0 seconds, my speed training should get my time down to 7.5 seconds. For the Illinois agility run I took 7 seconds, I think I could get this down to 6 seconds after my circuit training. I will decrease the risk of injuries from my circuit by doing a thorough warm-up and cool-down. My warm-up will consist of a pulse-raising activity, stretching and joint mobility. To raise my pulse I will do a series of different types of jogging in and out of cones, like groin sidesteps, for example. I will then do 2 shuttle runs. After this activity I will stretch my pectoral, deltoid, quadriceps, hamstring and calf muscles. For joint mobility I will do 30 seconds of skipping and then rotations of all the joints, such as, neck, arms, hips, knees and ankles.
After doing this warm-up, my body will be ready for increased demand. For my warm-down I will do exactly the same but in reverse order. All exercises must be done with the correct technique, to lower the risk of injury. For example, the neck rotations in the warm-up should be done so that the neck does not rotate all the way round, as that can cause spinal damage. To avoid incorrect technique, I have researched how each station in my circuit is performed. During the time that I am doing my warm-up, circuit and cool down, I have to wear appropriate kit. This consists of trainers, shorts and a t-shirt. Wearing other clothing, such as baggy trousers, could be a safety risk and will affect your performance.
My circuit will be performed in a gymnasium, which can often have a dusty surface, therefore I need to ensure that my trainers have sufficient grip to avoid slipping and injuring myself. I will ensure the safety of others and myself by not leaving equipment around. When setting up my circuit I will create my own working space and not move into others, to avoid accidents and collisions that could lead to a risk of injury.