The quicker your recovery rate, i.e. the time it takes your heart to return to normal pace after you have done an activity, the fitter you are.
The aspect of fitness I will need for hockey is cardiovascular endurance, speed, and flexibility. I will need speed as I will have to dribble with the ball away from my opponent in order to remain in possession of the ball, I will need cardiovascular endurance to keep my muscles working to give my the strength I need to play the game, and I will also need flexibility to dodge my opponents and turn my stick.
2) Awareness of safety aspects/equipment/apparatus, physical/physiological.
We need to warm up for several reasons. One is to prepare mentally for the exercise we are about to do and to get our minds in the correct state to carry out the necessary physical exercises. The other is to warm up physically, to stretch the muscles so they are not all tensed up when we go to do physical activity. This makes our bodies a lot more flexible and a lot more prepared for a game situation. It is necessary to warm up the different muscle groups. For example, warming up your biceps and triceps by reaching for your toes and also warming up your hamstrings by doing squat thrusts to warm up your muscles. You should aim to warm up different muscles at different intervals, so as not to warm up your upper-body muscles all in one go whilst leaving out your lower-body muscles.
You should warm up your arms, then your legs, then your neck, then your ankles, then your shoulders and so on, so your are working on different areas of your body and different intervals. Another point to consider is that muscles have ‘memories’ so you need to familiarise each muscle with your warm up so it is able to perform to its fullest possible potential.
The reasons for doing all these warm ups is to greatly decrease the risk of injury when playing sport and carrying out physical activity. Injuries that could occur if you do not warm up are pulling muscles and tendons.
After a game of sport or any physical activity it is essential to warm down and not just stop being active altogether (i.e. after a long run, just stopping and sitting down) as this can be dangerous and cause damage to the muscles. Warming down prevents soreness and muscle fatigue by keeping the blood circulating and providing oxygen for the muscles after the activity to reduce the amount of lactic acid that can occur.
A warm down is essential for the maintenance of the muscles as it relives tightness. Looking after your muscles helps to keep them performing to a high standard next time you do physical activity or play sport.
Safety aspects, in relation to environment and equipment, include checking the area you are about to do your activity in, i.e. if you’re are going to play hockey, check there is no dangerous items such as large stones or glass on the pitch and to also check the equipment you are going to use to do your activity, to make sure it is all safe and provides proper protection, for example if you going to play hockey, check your stick, ball and goal posts and all in good condition, and ware adequate protection, for the game such as shin pads and possibly a helmet.
3) Appropriateness of chosen exercises/training methods to improve fitness/skills.
The reason I am doing a circuit is to improve my fitness levels and to enable me to work on all of my different muscle groups at different intervals, such as led muscles, followed my arm muscles. I will spend 5 minutes doing a warm up run, and then a further 40 seconds on each of my different stations, followed by a final warm down.
For my five minute run I will record how far I got around the track in five minutes, i.e. one and a half times rounds, two times round, etc. Then, for each of my 40 second stations, I will record haw many times I can complete the activity in 40 seconds, i.e. how many sit-ups I can do, and how many shuttle runs I can do. I will also have a 40 second resting period between each station so my muscles do not become over worked, reducing the level of my performance. Each week I will record my score and hopefully I will witness an improvement in my performance. Also, by varying the activities I do, i.e. skipping, sit-ups and bench ups I can work on each of my different muscles groups whilst doing the same circuit.
As we are approaching the summer period I will be able to conduct my circuit training on the school field and also the tennis courts.
The following is a results table, just like the one I will use to record my results, which shows the number of stations I will do, and the activity at the station. It also shows the five weeks I will be doing my circuit training for.
I am doing a 5 minute run so I can improve upon my endurance, which is needed in a Hockey situation as you need to dribble with speed for some time to avoid opponents. I am doing step ups to improve the stamina of my gastrocnemius muscles, as these are used in hockey for fast running. I am doing bench ups to improve biceps which are needed in hockey, for a firm grip on the stick, and a strong fast slap of the hockey ball. I am doing skipping to improve the performance of my hamstrings as I need to have strong leg muscles to dodge my opponents quickly and move fast. I am doing star jumps to improve the fitness of my triceps and quadriceps as these are both needed for strong physical action in a game situation. I am doing sit ups to increase the activity of my abdominals as these are needed for hockey for a good strong posture when facing opponents. I am doing shuttle runs to once again increase my stamina and speed for when I need to dodge opponents or run at speed down the hockey pitch.
My programme is well balanced as I am not working the same muscle group twice in a row, and I alternate the muscles groups well as I start with my quadricep endurance, move on to my biceps, then to my gastocnemius muscles, then to my abdominals, then to my hamstrings, then to my triceps, and then finally, my quadriceps endurance again as this is the most strongly used muscle when playing hockey.
After my training programme I will record my heart rate to see how long it takes me to cool back down to my resting heart rate, after doing my final activity. I will record this result in the ‘Warm down/Recovery Rate’ section of my results table. I am doing this because I hope to see a decrease in the time if takes my heart to return to its resting rate. This will indicate to me whether my heart is becoming physically more able to cope with the demands my activities are putting upon it.
4) Theoretical areas and principles of training.
Fitness is improved through training. So, by doing my five week training exercise, I hope to improve my level of fitness. Regular training makes the body work harder, become more familiar with different physical exercises, and increase the level of oxygen the heart can pump around the body when playing sport. There are four basic principles to training- Specificity, Overload, Progression and Reversibility.
Specificity means that each activity you do is working on a specific muscle group. This has been one of the main aspects of fitness I have concentrated on when planning out my training programme as I wanted to make sure I worked each muscle group at different intervals, so I can fully benefit my whole body by doing my training programme. By aiming to increase the intensity of the activities I do each week, (i.e. being able to do more sit ups, for example, than I did last week) my different muscles groups will benefit as this will build up their endurance levels and they will be able to perform more efficiently for longer. By working on each muscle group for five weeks I am frequently doing the activity, as the more often you train, the more fit you become. And finally by timing the activities I do I can be specific about whether I am improving, or not, which muscle groups are improving and which ones aren’t, and also which muscle groups are improving faster than the other muscle groups.
Progression means giving the body the time it need to adapt to my new training regime. Too much physical activity too soon in the programme can be bad for my body and my muscles. Therefore I need to gradually introduce myself into my programme, and not push myself too far until I have familiarised myself and my muscles with the exercises my circuit involves. By frequently doing my programme, I am allowing myself the time needed for my muscles to adapt to the programme I am doing, therefore I can eventually work to push myself as far as I can without damaging my muscles, to get the best results from my circuit. By doing each of my activities five times I hope to progress my muscular endurance levels, by using my muscle ‘memory.’ My muscles will become familiar with the activities I do and will then be able to perform to a greater level as they will be used to the physical activity I am putting them through. By timing my 40 second station periods I am giving my muscles the chance to adapt to the time limit and therefore, they will be able to work to their fullest potential with this time.
Overload is when you work the muscles too hard, and they become damaged. By doing each of my activities for 40 seconds only I will not over-work my muscles so that they become damaged. By gradually introducing my training programme I can avoid overload and conduct my circuit training in a safe and beneficial way. By frequently conducting my circuit training I can steadily work into the fitness levels needed to complete the programme successfully so as not to overload my muscles and cause great muscle fatigue. By only pushing myself to the safe limits I know I can reach I will not be doing my muscles damage by the intensity of my programme. As I am only doing each of my activities for 40 seconds I will not be pushing my muscles to work too hard for too long a period of time. This will decrease the amount of muscle fatigue I experience and prevent the appearance of lactic acid, making my muscles sore and tired after my physical activity.
Reversibility is when, through either illness, injury, or lack of dedication, you stop training and your level of fitness drops. To avoid reversibility occurring within my training programme I am going to make sure I have my games kit with me for each lesson and I will carry on with my programme regardless of the weather. By frequently doing my programme I will avoid reversibility as each week I will be doing the physical exercise and it will be continually having an effect on me, whereas if I left it one month between each circuit I wouldn’t really be benefiting from doing the programme. As I am spending at least 30 minutes on the entire circuit I feel this is a substantial phase of time for each muscle group to begin working, and also to improve within.
To work out what the maximum heart rate for my age range should be, I have to minus my age from 220. I am 15 so 220-15=205. This is my maximum heart rate. There are different thresholds for different training zones. For the anaerobic training zone, I need to work out 80% of the maximum heart rate. So 80% of 115 is 92. This is my anaerobic threshold. For the aerobic training zone, I need to find 60% of my anaerobic threshold. So 60% of 92 is 55 (2 s.f.) This is my aerobic threshold. I can use these thresholds to see whether my own heart is on target with the figures it should be, when doing my circuit training.