I will be stretching between running activities. I will be stretching the large muscle groups, such as hamstring, quadriceps, groin, calves, back, arms, and shoulders.
-The stretches that I will be following are, starting at the top of my body. First I will work out my neck, do this I will tilt my head right and hold it for 8 seconds. The repeat this tilting my head to the left for eight seconds as well.
-I will be folding my right arm over the back of my head touching my left shoulder, holding this stretch for 8 seconds. I will be repeating the same with my left arm this time touching my right shoulder. This exercise is to stretch my arm muscles that are biceps and triceps.
-The third stretch is called shoulder blade hug, which requires me to hold my arm across my chest. I will be holding my elbow and pulling it gently until I feel stretch across the back of shoulder.
For this, I will be stretching it for eight seconds.
-Then will rotate my hips in all directions working out my latissimus dorsi and gluteus muscles.
-Subsequently, I will be stretching my leg muscles. First, I place the right leg in front of the left leg, then stretch it, until I feel the gastronomies and hamstring muscles stretch. I will repeat this with my left as well, each holding for eight seconds.
-Next I will be holding my right foot with my hand stretching towards my beck causing my leg to fold, until I feel a gentle stretch along the front of my thigh this is to stretch my quadriceps. I will then repeat this with my other leg, each holding it for eight seconds.
-Lastly, I will point my feet up, and down, left, and right, again I will be holding each leg for eight seconds. This is to stretch the feet muscles.
Cooling down
After training sessions or competitions, it is important to decrease your body temperature gradually, until your normal body temperature is reached. The reason for cool down is that it has the opposite affect to the warm up. It is important to allow your heart rate gradually slow down. Light exercise makes sure that the blood continues to circulate well and prevents it pooling in the skeletal muscles. It will also delay on set muscle soreness and stiffness. To cool down after my training, I will begin with gentle jogging activities, followed by sustained stretching of the major muscle groups. This will take about 15 minutes and quarter of the time I will be spending on stretching.
Improving fitness level
There are many ways of improving fitness level, which are…
-Circuit training
-Weight training
-Continuous training
-Fartlek training
-Interval training
-Aerobic training
-Anaerobic training
-Endurance training
-Altitude training
Circuit training
Circuit training is made up of a number of physical exercise activities performed one after the other in form of circle or circuit. It improves general muscular strength, endurance, muscles tone, and posture. It also increases body density, metabolic rate and decreases body fat, so I chosen to do circuit training for my chosen sport. Circuit training can be designed for aerobic and anaerobic fitness depending on the exercise included. The benefits of circuit training are…
- Lack of boredom-due to the variety of activities
- Individual pace can be set
- Circuit can be designed to suit an individual’s sport
- Circuit can be set up almost anywhere.
I will increase the Difficulty of my circuit by:
- Increasing the number of exercise stations
- Increasing the time spent at each station
- Increasing the number of repetitions at each station
- Increasing the number of complete circuit
Application of theory
While I am planning my netball-training programme, I will ensure that I follow the principle of SPORT, in that way I will be training harder and become fitter.
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Specific
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Progression
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Overload
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Reversibility
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Tedium
Specificity
The affect of training has to be very specific. We cannot train the wrong group of muscles. For example if we want to develop strength to our legs muscles, then it will not help if we train our arm muscles. In other words, the training we do have to be specific to our chosen sport, the muscles that we are concerned stress. For netball, I am concerned with speed and agility, so I should be stretching big muscles groups such as hamstring, quadriceps, groin, calves, back, arms, and shoulders
Progression
It is important to increase the amount of exercise we do. We’ll find it boring if we do the same exercise and the same amount of time every time, so we need to progress our exercise level, at the same make sure that we don’t over exercise, because that can lead to muscle fatigue. In my training programme, I will ensure that I do not over exercise, but also work in a progression level. This means I will need to increase the time I spent in at circuit training. For example, the first circuit training I am doing will have eight different stations, but the time will all be the same, with 45 seconds spent on each station. However, the next circuit training that will have the same amount of stations, but the time will increase gradually.
Overload
I need to work harder then usually, to overload my body system, in that way I will improve my fitness level, and this will help the body because it will gradually adapt so it cope with the extra work. For my training, I will need to overload my body, by doing lot more challenging activities
Reversibility
If you stop, exercising then you will loose your strength. The reason is our bodies adapt more stress by becoming fitter, and in the same way, our bodies adapt to less stress. It does not take long time for our bodies to get out of condition. To ignore this I will make sure that all of my training sessions are at regular intervals and to too far apart, also carry on with my training even after the PEP.
Tedium
This means that I should vary the activities I am going to do, in order to prevent me from getting bored. I am going to do this by carrying out a circuit for my training as it has various exercise stations where particular activities are performed, therefore I will not have time to get bored, as I will be working hard to complete the circuit as quickly as possible.
The basic principles of fitness training are summed up in the acronym F.I.T.T
F- Frequency, how often we train this is the amount of time I spend on each session. I should train for a minimum of three times a week and make sure that I spread my training sessions out, however I am only going train once a week because of the limited amount of time, I have. I will also make sure that I spend equal amounts of time on each station therefore; I have decided to carry out my circuit every Thursday for the next six weeks.
I- Intensity, how hard we train this is how hard I train in each session. If I am to improve my fitness levels then I must make sure that each session I train a little harder. In the first session, I hope to get used to and complete the circuit; however, I will try to work harder and decrease the amount of rest time I have before each activity, every session.
T- Time, how long we train. This is the amount of time I train for, based on aerobic fitness. A normal training session should last for a minimum of twenty minutes; however, for netball, I am training mainly for strength and agility so the training time is less.
T- Type, the type of training we do. This is the type of training I carry out, as it should be specific to my sport. Circuit training is specific to netball because in one of the stations I will be doing sit-ups and press-ups, which will make my arms stronger; therefore, it will help me throw the ball further.
Appropriate Application
Before carrying out my circuit, I have slight idea of how my training should improve throughout the sessions. I will try to work harder after each session in order to improve my levels of fitness slowly and gradually. To do that I will increase the time this will increase the number of repetition. Below, I have explained how my training should improve and how I will try to work harder throughout the six weeks of training once a week.
To improve my fitness level, I will have increased my intensity, and frequency. In other word, I will increase my how hard I train, and how often I train, because in that way I will increase my fitness level for netball will increase. I will also look the type of training I will do and how long I do each sessions.
Circuit training
I have decided to have eight workstations. They will all have exercises that involve all parts of the body, and important to netball, so varies different muscles workout. This will prevent muscles from becoming fatigue. This is how I planned my circuit to look like.
My fist station will be press-ups. In which I will do as many press-ups as possible in the time given. I will be doing it in the following way. My knees and feet are resting on the mat, make a box shape with my arms, and then I will bend my elbows, lowering my chest down but not too low, aiming to make a right angle with arms. I will then keep straight line through my spine. This will however stay within my own limits. This test measures my arms and my whole body strength.
My second station will be sit-ups. This is to measure my abdominal and lower back strength. I will lie down on the mat, bending my knees, so that my feet are flat to the floor. My shoulders will be touching the mat, with my arm across to my sides. Then I will be raising my head, and then return to my relax position. My partner will be holding my ankles, so that my feet stays the floor My aim is to repeat this move as many times as I can within the time given. This measures my strength and endurance of my abdominal muscles.
My third station will be shuttle run. Placing some markers out to the front of me does this. I will lay zigzag. The aim is to sprint as fasts as possible to the markers going in and out of the markers. This will be done in 45 seconds
My fourth station will be skill that is related to netball Drills, this will be done- first I will throw the ball from one hand to the other across the body. Then I will try it above the head. Then try to throw and catch the ball to myself. Using two hands and then one, I will throw the ball above my head, behind my back, so I have to turn to catch it, to my right and then left side. I will clap before I catch the ball.
Two handed catch. Is one of my skills related for netball that I want to improve. Catching is very important for netball because netball is very fast game, and the rules of netball says that you can only handle the ball for three seconds, in that short time you have to catch the ball, control it, and send it safely. To catch the ball, I will have to do the following. First my body has to be well balanced, and should be watching the ball carefully. Then drive out my arms to meet the ball, and extend the arms to take the catch, at the same time, I will be bending my elbows slightly, and spreading my fingers wide to put my thumbs behind the ball, and will firmly grip the ball with my fingers. To follow through, I will pull the ball towards my chest, and will be preparing to pass or shoot the ball
The third skill related session that I will carry out in netball is shoulder pass. Passing is important skill in netball no matter where you playing whether in the centre or on the goal line or even in the mid-court. For the reason in the game you need to pass the ball and to play successfully, you have to pass the ball accurately. Each time you have the ball, you will have to pass (except if you are a shooter; then you will have to shoot as well). To prepare shoulder pass. I will be doing the following. First, I will be handing the ball behind, ball on fingertips, and the ball will be protected by non-throwing hand. My weight will down, and my knees slightly bent, and the opposite foot will be forward. My shoulder will have to be open and providing speed with my arms and my body. I will then release non-throwing hand, and will extend my arm to help guide thro. These will include propel with wrist, direct with fingers and eyes on target. To follow through, I will follow the ball with throwing hand, move back foot through, and transfer weight forward
One of the other stations I will be doing is star-jumps. From squatted down position, I will jump up taking my hands and legs out to the side. On the landing, I will make sure both feet together, lowering down back into the squat position, remembering not to allow your knees to pass over your toes.
Jumping side to side This is when you jump side to side on a line, as many times as I can in 45 seconds. This improves my agility, and improving my agility will mean that my netball performance will improve. Jumping side to side has a side affect on my whole body, mostly on my lower body muscle groups, such as hamstring.
My first circuit training will start with 45 seconds, then I will increase 5 seconds for the next circuit training, and 5 more seconds for the after that, and so on, for up to six circuits training. In each circuit, training will have eight stations. All these exercises will take place on Thursdays and Saturdays. I will do two circuits training each week. One circuit training will be completed by Thursdays, and the other on Saturdays, in addition, each time I will increase the time so my fitness level can increase.
Training session one:
The aim for me is to do this circuit training successfully, because today is my first training session, I will take it easy, because I want to improve my level of fitness gradually.
Resting heart rate – 86
Recovery time – 3 minutes and 55 seconds
This is my first session and this session I will be carrying out a warm up at the beginning and a cool down at the end. The warm up will consist of five minutes jog on the treadmill, and dynamic running activities such as forward, backward, and sideways running.
I will then carry out the above stations. Each station will last 45seconds, in those 45 seconds I will try to do as many as I can in each stations.
When I carried out the above sessions, I had one-minute break in between each stations. By the end of the eight stations, I was tired, especially at the end of the training, the last few stations was hard for me. The first ones was easy because I wasn’t tired at all at the beginning, and I thought this was going to be easy as it is my first circuit training. I had problems in doing my sessions because I was wearing sweatshirt, and that limited my movements and was extremely hot, even though that it was raining and cold that is why I wore the sweatshirt in the first place.
As I finished my first training circuit, I did some slow jogging, and some stretches to cool me down.
Considering my next training session for next week, I thought this session was not challenging enough for me to improve my level of fitness. For next training session, I will make it bit more challenging by increasing the number of seconds, and I will have to as many stations as I can in 50seconds. I will also concentrate more on doing the activities and I will not be wearing sweatshirt
Training session two:
This is my second training station. The aim for this circuit training is to do my activities within the time limit, no less, plus to do more then what I did before.
Resting heart rate – 85
Recovery time rate-3 minutes and 41 seconds
I will start my session by carrying out a warm up at the beginning and a cool down at the end. The warm up will consisting five minutes jog on the treadmill. . My running will also include dynamic running activities such as forward, backward, and sideways running.
I will then carry out the above stations. Each station will last 50 seconds, in those 50 seconds I will try to do as many as I can in each stations.
When I carried out the above sessions, I had one-minute break. Each station lasted 50seconds.
When I did this training circuit, I was tired as before but felt bit better. At the beginning of the session, I felt that it was hard and harder then before, but as I went down on my list, I felt better and easier then the first training session. The first training it was the other way I felt relaxed in the four stations, but the last four tired. The main stations that were easy were the skilled related, the first four stations were hard at this point, I felt I should do the easy ones first, then the harder ones.
For my next training session, which is, next week, I will concentrate more, and push my self-bit more. I felt confident and relaxed and the skill related sessions I did with a partner and I worked well with her
Training session three:
The aim for this training session is to do more then what I did before because my time is increased.
Resting heart rate – 84
Recovery time – 3 minutes and 26 seconds
I will start my session by carrying out warm-up. This warm-up will consist of five minutes run on the treadmill. My running will also include dynamic running activities such as forward, backward, and sideways running.
For this session I carried out the above stations, and had I minute break and each station lasted 55 seconds. At the end of the training, I did my cool down, by gentle jogging activities, followed by sustained stretching of the major muscle groups. In the circuit training I have increased the time by five seconds, so I could do as many numbers of each station as I can and that will help my level of fitness. This is the progressive stage because I increased the intensity by increasing the time. That way it was a challenge for me.
I felt quite tired, but felt good at the same time, because I finished the training within the time limit, which gave me a confidence and positive attitude towards my next circuit training. Out of all the stations, shuttle run was the hardest. Even though I increased the number of times, I run in and out of the cones. It was not easy station because by the time, I finished shuttle run and I was going to start, I felt fatigued I could feel my legs in pain and I was out of breath.
By the time, I finished my training session I felt that I have concentrated more and was looking forward for my next circuit training. To do better I will have to make sure that I concentrate even more and work well with my partner for skill related sessions and to have a positive attitude towards the training.
Training session four:
The aim for this training session is to do more then what I did before because my time is increased, so I will increase my intensity.
Resting heart rate – 85
Recovery time – 3 minutes and 35 seconds
I started my session by carrying out warm-up. This warm-up will consist of five minutes run on the treadmill. My running also consists of dynamic running activities such as forward, backward, and sideways running.
For this session I carried out the above stations, and had I minute break and each station lasted 60 seconds. At the end of the training, I did my cool down, by gentle jogging activities, followed by sustained stretching of the major muscle groups. When I finished the session then I then cool down by gentle jogging activities, followed by sustained stretching of the major muscle groups.
Looking at my result table, I can say I have not worked as hard as I did in my previous sessions and my results reflect this. As you can see even though time in seconds increased, the number of each stations done decreased. That happened because I was not concentrating probably, and I was not wearing correct Pe kit, I was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a jumper. This slowed down my level of exercise, also it was raining that day and most of my exercises were carried out outside.
Considering my next circuit training, I will make sure that I concentrate 100%, and wear correct kit
Training session five:
The aim for this training session is
Resting heart rate – 83
Recovery time – 3 minutes and 19 seconds
I will start my session by carrying out warm-up. This warm-up will consist of five minutes run on the treadmill. My running will also consist of dynamic running activities such as forward, backward, and sideways running.
For this session I carried out the above stations, and had I minute break and each station lasted 65 seconds. At the end of the training, I did my cool down, by gentle jogging activities, followed by sustained stretching of the major muscle groups.
As you can see, I have improved from last times training. This is because I concentrated more. My shuttle running increased and so did my press-ups. I also wore the correct PE kit, which helped me to ease my movements
Training session six:
My aim is do better then before. I increased the time therefore will increase my intensity.
Resting heart rate – 81
Recovery rate – 3 minutes and 15 seconds
I will start my session by carrying out warm-up. This warm-up will consist of five minutes run on the treadmill. My running will also consist of dynamic running activities such as forward, backward, and sideways running.
For this session I carried out the above stations, and had I minute break and each station lasted 70 seconds. At the end of the training, I did my cool down, by gentle jogging activities, followed by sustained stretching of the major muscle groups.
This is my last circuit training that I will have to do. For this one I will do the each session in 1 minute and 10 seconds, which means I have increased the time.
I thought this session went well, learning the mistakes I have made in the previous sessions.
Conclusion of my Performance:
Looking at my result, I can tell that I have improved my level of fitness to the level I was required. This is because as the weeks have gone by I have done more repetitions in the time given and my recovery time has shortened. I started to get used to the circuit in the first week and I carried out my circuit for 6 sessions in total. The only problem I had during my circuit was that I could not do many press-ups. This may be because I do not enjoy doing press-ups as I found them hard, therefore, I did not try hard enough. My warm up helped me prepared, both physically and psychologically. The most important part (s) for me wasn’t just doing the actual training, but also warm-up, and cool-down.
Evaluation of my Planning:
My program was effective, because I did a pre-test at the beginning of the training to see my level of fitness, and I did a post-test at the end of my training, to see if I improved my level of fitness. Both tests have same amount of activities and same activities, in order to compare my results.
Post-tests after carrying out the circuit
At the start of the training, I rate my self as an intermediate netball player. When I started my training, I gave my self one-minute break to rest after each session. As I went along the training, I decrease the resting time. This was good in a way, because my body was getting use to the activity; my level of fitness was increasing gradually. It was also a challenging training exercise, and made helped me concentrate on the training more than anything else make. Whilst doing my exercise I made sure that I exercise in order of muscle, starting from head to toe, also I made sure that a muscle was not to be put in action more than once in a row. For example if I was exercising my abdominals, by doing sit-ups, then I made sure the next exercise followed wasn’t the same exercise, but different one that was concentrating on a different muscle. Because I wanted to improve my stamina, agility, speed and flexibility, I chose activities that were required if I was to play netball game. For example, the activity that I chose was press-ups to improve my arms and whole body strength, sit-ups to improve strength and endurance of my abdominal muscles. These activities and many more are specific to netball game
Before planning my personal exercise plan, I made sure that I carried out the principles of training, which is S.P.O.R.T
Specific
While I was planning my circuit, I explained that I wanted to improve speed and agility, stamina, and flexibility, so I should be stretching big muscles groups such as hamstring, quadriceps, groin, calves, back, arms, and shoulders. This is because a netball player needs to improve their S.P.O.R.T if they were to become successful in netball. Therefore, I chose activities such as shuttle run, press-ups, and sit-ups
Progression
I carried out progression in my circuit this is because so I can increase my level of fitness gradually. By increasing the time, I spent in each circuit training. For example, the first circuit training I am doing will have eight different stations, but the time will all be the same, with 45 seconds spent on each station. However, the next circuit training that will have the same amount of stations, but the time will increase gradually. In addition, I decreased the amount of rest time before each activity. Allowing my body and my muscles to get used to the amount of physical activity necessary. My
Result table show me that I have improved my fitness level slowly and gradually.
Overload
Because I needed to work harder than usually, I overload my body system whilst carrying out my circuit. I did this by decreasing the amount of rest time before each activity. This led me into having less time to recover from my previous activity. Therefore, I motivated myself to work harder, and my body gradually adopted extra work
Reversibility
I can only achieve reversibility if I carry on with my exercise after this project is finished.
Tedium
During my exercise training, I did not get bored. Reason being I made sure that I had challenging with several of different exercises. This prevented me from getting bored, also because the time in each station that I carry out my exercise is short; this also prevented me getting bored.
Before carrying out my exercise plan, I decided to carry out different types of exercises that are particular to netball, so I decided to have three specifically netball related exercises (stations) and three other exercises that will improve my level of fitness over all and in particular areas.
Evaluation on my Performance
During my exercise sessions, I used the principle S.P.O.R.T and F.I.T.T.
Even so, my result showed me that in my fourth session I did not improve much, in fact I did not improve my skilled related exercises at all in that week. However, I increased some of my other exercises, but not a lot. I think this happened because as I mentioned it before, that I was not concentrating probably, and it was raining on that day. Nevertheless, I increased the amount of repetition in my next circuit training, and decreased the amount of rest time before each station. This proves that, even though I had less time to recover, still I motivated myself to work harder in order to improve my level of fitness.
I think the activities that I chose were appropriate to my exercise plan. The reason is that as I said I wanted to improve my speed, agility, and stamina, the reason why I want to improve these is that because netball requires agility, speed, and stamina to be a successful player you have to meet these required. For example, I chose shuttle run as one of my activity, because shuttle run improves agility, and stamina. I also chose press-ups and sit-ups; they both help me increase my strength in my arm and abdominals.
My diagram shows that my circuit training was easy to manage, because I did not have any heavy equipment to set up. Every time I started to do my circuit training, I made sure that the area I was using clean and nothing that will cause an injury or prevent me carrying out my training about. In addition, I made that whilst I’m doing my training someone else time me with stop watch.
My warm up was in correct order, starting from my head to toes; also, my circuit was in correct order, so the same muscles were not in action for more than one activity in a row.
I enjoyed carrying out my circuit training once I was use the intervals. The best thing I liked about this circuit training was the fact that I had variety of activities to do, and not once did I get bored. However, I didn’t like the idea of shortening the rest periods after each session because I felt tired and out of breath. In addition, my muscles felt sore, especially in the first few sessions. Nevertheless, that showed me that I was just working harder and muscles were getting use to the training.
Evaluation of Monitoring
The activities I chose for this training was the correct ones to do, because at the beginning of my PEP I decided to improve certain physical fitness, (e.g. strength, speed, flexibility, and agility) and the game I chose to improve (netball) both match.
My exercises were in appropriate order, starting from head to toe, even when I was doing my warm-up, I did in correct order, from head to toe. This was needed because I didn’t want to stretch any muscles during my training also because is a fair way of training. During my training exercises, I made one change to my circuit plan, which was the amount of ret time decreasing. I did that because so I had little rest and my body got used to it eventually.
The best thing about my circuit training was, I enjoyed the activities, and every week I was looking forward to do them. However because my rest time shorten after each session, I felt tired and out of breath, my muscles felt
sore. Nevertheless, I kept on going, knowing that my muscles were working harder, and the fact that shortening the rest time was good in a way because that meant my training got more challenging as I went along, and was helping me get fitter.
The result that I got was good I said this because I didn’t think I was going to do that good because get bored easily in the first two sessions, but as my rest time shorten I was not bored anymore, reason being I had more challenging circuit than before. In other words, I had same sessions with less amount of time to recover.
Final evaluation:
Over all I thought I worked well by my self and with others. I worked by my self when I was doing the first four stations then I worked with a partner for the last four stations. I also thought that I improve my level of fitness over all and I improve my skills in netball, because as my results table show that I have improved fitness level, also if you compare my pre-test to my post-test, you will see the difference. For example, did 23 press-ups in one minute during my pre-test; however, I did 31 press-ups in one minute during my post-test. This proves that my strength have in increased, especially in my arm. In addition, my recovery rates have decreased dramatically.
My next target is to join the year netball team. I also notice that I can last in a game much longer and I am lot faster then before. In the court, I also feel more confident now I can play with my opponent in fair, and I like to take the lead in games. For each session, I record my heartbeat, and below there is the graph.
The first session my heart beat was 70 and it increased each sessions up to session four where it start to decrease, and then it increase again. I think this happened because session four, I was not concentrate probably and was not wearing correct PE kit, This limited my movement and therefore causes my circuit training to be slower then the rest of my other circuit training.
In the first training session, I worked very hard and did not pace my self at all, causing me to feel muscle pain and sore after the session. However, my next session was different, because I had an experience so I paced myself and knew when to slow down and when to work faster
In addition, my circuit was safe because I did not injure myself during the training sessions and I used the equipment safely. I learn many things from the training like how important it is warm-up before a game and cool down after a game, because I did not use to pay much attention before.
Ms J Spread bury personal exercise plan