Upper and lower body strength: To be able to resist the force of the golf club and to be able to hit the ball further Power: To be able to increase length to my shots allowing me to hit the ball further with more control Flexibility: To be able to complete a trunk rotation whenever needed and to turn completely to make a follow though so that the body can then clear the way for the club, also allows straighter and more accurate shots. Balance: To be able to hold the golf swing and follow-through posture for the amount of time needed for the ball to come to rest, vital skill but I appreciate the fact that this is very hard to improve.
Co-ordination: To be able to focus on the ball and to get the head of the golf club on plane and to hit the ball in a striking area, which is different for all golfers depending on their ability, this is a vital skill but I also appreciate the fact that this skill is also very hard to improve. Muscular Endurance: To be able to last the amount of holes needed to be played. Identify your individual needs My individual needs are to be able to complete the sport in a way that betters my handicap to do this I will need to improve:
My upper and abdominal muscle strength as the test data shows that the strength in the muscle could be improved and therefore help my sport. My cardiovascular endurance as the test data shows that this could be improved but only slightly, I am happy with my bleep test results, as I have proved that I am fit for my sport. But this is a key to most sporting activities as you have to keep your muscles going until your sport has finished, that means for me on average 3-4 hours for a round of golf sometimes more if the competition is 36 holes.
So my cardiovascular endurance could be improved further. The main aim of my personal exercise programme is to improve my fitness level in specific areas applicable to netball. My position in netball is ‘centre’ so I have chosen to improve my cardiovascular endurance, which is concerned with ‘the ability of the CVR systems to supply oxygen to the working muscles’ (galligan et. al. ) Improving my cardiovascular endurance will enable me to obtain a higher continual work rate over longer periods of time required for my position.
In netball it is important to have good upper body muscular endurance so I intend to improve my muscular endurance which can be defined as ‘the ability of the individual to exercise muscle groups and repeat movements without fatigue (Galligan et al). I intend to improve my muscular endurance as upper body muscles are used quite frequently in netball in passing and catching the ball. My third fitness component I will focus on is speed ‘the maximum rate at which a person is able to move his or her body’ (Davies et al).
My position in netball consists of a series of short sharp sprints around the court so speed will strongly improve my performance. It is important to select the appropriate training method to improve my intended component of fitness. In relation to my cardiovascular endurance I will focus on continuous training, which will consist of steady continuous runs on the treadmill, the stepper, rowing machine and stepper not pushing myself to hard (overload).
To improve my speed I will use interval training ‘the exercise period is punctuated by period of rest’ (galligan et al) a repetition of short sharp sprints with a 45 second rest period and an acceleration sprint after every 5 sprints. By having a faster sprint every so often, I will also run and jog outside as it will ultimately improve my speed overall because I am practicing on different terrains and in different weathers. To improve my muscular endurance I also tend to use interval training in the form of circuit training. My circuit will consist of sit ups and pull-ups.
As I aim to improve my muscular endurance the intensity will be relatively low and I will focus on repetitions with 3O second rest periods. Therefore my training principles which are progressive overload ‘a gradual increase in workload that leads to physical adaptation according to the intensity, duration and type of training undertaken’. (Galligan et al) and also specificity ‘relevant to the demands of the sport and the relevant components of fitness must be trained appropriately’ (galligan et al) It is important that before I train I warm up and cool down afterwards.
My body needs to work at optimum levels in order to get the best out of my training sessions and it will also prevent injury, which brings with it regression and would seriously disrupt my training. A gradual and low intensity warm-up will obtain a state of physical and mental readiness. My warm ups will be approximately 10 minutes and will consist of heart raising exercises and a full range of muscle stretches. I will also apply this to the cool down, as it is essential to prevent the build up of lactic acid and reduce body temperature slowly.
In order to test any changes improvements or changes in my fitness I will need to conduct a serious of fitness tests. To test my cardiovascular endurance I will do the ‘bleep test’ which is a multistage shuttle test. An advantage of this is that that it is a good measure of my improvement or decline of my fitness within cardiovascular system. My previous scores for my test on the cardiovascular system before my 8 week training programme was 5. 6, therefore I am aiming for a score of around 6. 5 to 7. 5. To test my muscular endurance I will test the number of sit-ups and pull ups I can do in 1 minute.
This is also easy to measure and requires little time and facilities, however I am aware that there can only be so much improvement seen as the test is as I pointed out earlier only 1 minute long. The previous tests I have done for muscular endurance are 25 sit-ups and 3 pull-ups in 1 minute therefore my personal aim is to reach around 30-40 sit-up and between 6-10 pull ups per minute. The final test I will take will be a 30-meter sprint to indicate any improvements or declines in my speed. This is a good indication of speed over a short distance and will reflect the demands of my sport.