The aim of this project is to improve my ability in basketball over a six-week period.

AS and A Level Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Page 1 + 2. Introduction

Page 3 - 6. Method – Week 1

Page 6 - 8. Method – Week 2

Page 9 - 11. Method – Week 3

Page 11 – 13. Method – Week 4

Page 14 - 16. Method - Week 5

Page 17 - 20. Method - Week 6

Page 21 + 22. Evaluation

The aim of this project is to improve my ability in basketball over a six-week period. I will be doing this by trying to not only practice skills involved in the game but to work at my stamina levels. My main goal is to improve my shooting as I feel this is my weakest quality in the game but I will be training in all aspects of the game, e.g. Dribbling and Defence.

I will improve certain components of fitness in my chosen skills and improve my muscular strength. A sportsperson will always require some form of static, explosive and dynamic strength for any activity. In basketball I will use a degree of each of these: Static for screening, explosive would be needed if I were to attempt a slam dunk and dynamic as I will be running for a long time in a low position so will need to be able hold my body weight in this position. I will improve my dynamic strength by testing myself with a simple but effective exercise. I will lean against a wall in a sitting down position (as if there was a chair there) with my legs in a 90o position and see how long I can hold my body weight for. (Picture) If I find this easy or am improving dramatically I will try it while holding a ball above my head.

Cardiovascular fitness is also very important in any game activity. At the end of each week I will do the Cooper 12 minute run. This is an exercise in which you run for 12 minutes and record the distance covered. 2800 metres is excellent for my age group so that is what I will be aiming for by the end of my programme, it will be a great achievement if I reach this goal.

Warm ups and cool downs are important before and after any game activity. This is something that is very often performed but not always taken seriously. Most sportspersons do not realise how much they help. In a warm up you will stretch your body, which improves flexibility. Flexibility will help your range of movement around a joint, it will also decrease your chances of injury. It will prepare your body and give you a better, more efficient performance and improve your body structure. All of that just from 5-10 minutes of stretching.

This section will aim to show what I will do and how I do it. I will describe each week separately and show how I have done each exercise. My main goal is to add principles of training to my programme. I am going to start off at a fairly easy rate of frequency, intensity and duration and increase all of these as the weeks go by. The training I will do, particularly the amount of overload will increase progressively if I want to improve my fitness, skills and meet my goals.

Week 1

As explained in the introduction the warm-up is very important. This will be performed at the beginning of every day as well as a cool down at the end. As basketball is the activity I will be doing special stretches, which will as well as helping all aspects of flexibility, will help my jump. These stretches must be performed at least 4 times a day to have an effect! (Picture)

I will try a different type of shot each week so that I can see what type of shot and what distance will be most rewarding in a game situation.

I will fill in the table each day the activity is completed.

My first type of shot is a standing shot. (Picture)

10 shots taken on each distance.

This graph is already showing improvement so this will be a good way to practice my shooting and at the end of the programme I will definitely be aware of my strengths and weaknesses.

As discussed in the introduction, to improve my dynamic strength I will lean against a wall in the seat position and see how long I can hold this.

I am also trying to improve my skills.

In a game situation it can be very useful to dribble the ball through your legs. This can help you start dribbling in another direction and send a slight confusion to the opponent.

I will try and see how many times I can bounce the ball through my legs whilst standing still. (Picture)

I will continue to fill in this table but found this exercise easier than expected so I will add another table and try walking backwards and forwards.