The comparison between Football, Javelin and Weight lifting.

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The comparison between Football, Javelin and Weight lifting

        As you can see from the comparing graphs all the sports require quite similar fitness and health components (especially between football and javelin which are both dynamic sports whereas weight lifting is a static sport). This is clear to see in terms of the requirements they need to be an effective player of each particular sport because football and javelin both dynamic sports require much more all round fitness and skill whereas weight lifting is static and much more specific and this is why it has lower requirement ratings than football and javelin.

        Football is also a team sport, which requires a much wider range of types of training because the player must be well rounded a passer/tackler/shooter and team player. Whereas individual sports such as javelin and weight lifting are individual and much more specific in terms of the training they will do. A weight lifter can train very specifically by simply lifting weights because that is the sport, this gives them a psychological advantage over team sports players because they either know they can lift a certain weight because they’ve achieved it previously in training, or they can’t; so they can set their goals much more easily than a football player.

This may make weight lifting sound like a very simple skill but because it requires such a specific body type it is very hard to become successful as everyone’s body ahs it’s genetic limitations, only someone born with a very high percentage of fast twitch muscle fibres will ever be successful in the weight lifting world. This is stated by Thordikes law of Readiness which states that “the performer must be physically and mentally capable of performing the task” (Skill acquisition notes); which for example is saying that if your born which a high percentage of slow twitch fibres and low percentage of fast twitch fibres then you’ve got no chance of being a successful weight lifter no matter how much training they do. While sports like football have different positions can cater for different types of person and an average person will usually have the right genetic body structure to play at least one position if not all football positions.

Javelin throwers do have to be quite specific in terms of genetic make up (percentage of each type of muscle fibre you’re born with) but javelin throwing is as much about having an excellent technique and a good angle of trajectory as it is for the performer to be physically able. This is because although javelin throwers have to have to be strong in term of upper body muscle but in comparison to something like weight lifting they don’t need that much strength. So someone born with 50% fast twitch and 50% slow twitch muscle fibres could never be a weight lifter but with the appropriate training could be a javelin thrower if they had the correct skill related fitness componenets.

Aerobic power/cardio-vascular strength

        

Compared to football javelin is almost a static sport as it only requires a small amount of movement and weight lifting is a static sport. This means that footballers are obviously going to need a lot more cardio-vascular endurance because they are taking part in a much more dynamic and therefore more aerobic sport. Also in football there is more than one skill involved, for example the player must be able to defend and attack else they will never be a very successful central midfielder.

        In terms of the time in which they must compete is also very different, as a footballer will usually be playing for around 90minutes or more in which they must always be working, mainly aerobically but also anaerobically as well. Where as in javelin and weight lifting the skill takes place in a very short period of time and the competitor is either successful or not successful in winning and therefore do not require large amount of aerobic power in comparison to a sport like football.

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Anaerobic power/speed

        The opposite pattern appears in terms of the anaerobic capacity needed to succeed; as weight lifting and javelin require very high anaerobic power where as footballers require less in comparison. Although ideally footballers would like too have very high anaerobic power and speed as it would give them an obvious advantage, but this would limit their aerobic capacity (in terms of percentage of slow twitch too fast twitch muscle fibres) and therefore would lower their standard of play over 90 minutes. For example by having 70% fast twitch muscle fibres they would be able to present ...

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