Flexibility is the ability to perform a joint action through a variety of movement. The objective of flexibility training is to improve the range of movement a person can perform. In any movement there are two groups of muscles at work:
- The main muscles which cause the movement to take place
- opposing the movement and determining the amount of flexibility are the opposed muscles
Alina Kabaeva is one of the world’s most famous Russian athletes for being very flexible and is Russia's most successful gymnast. She improves her skills by training with her coach and by increasing the body joints to its full performance.
Endurance is a muscle's ability to perform a maximum stamina time after time. An example of this is when somebody runs a race and is able to keep going from the start to the end. The objective of endurance is to develop stamina in a person’s body for a long period of time.
Speed is the quickness of movement. This is used in all types of sports in tackling and running. Speed is one of the main components of fitness. Sprinting is also included in speed. Sprinting is when a person uses all the energy they have left in them to increase their speed drastically. This is usually used at the end of a race after staying at a steady pace to save energy. Usain Bolt, the world’s fastest man since the Olympics 2008 has been able to train himself to run at extreme speeds through various types of training, a healthy lifestyle and body composition
In fitness, body composition describes the percentages of fat, bone and muscle in a person’s body. Because muscle tissue takes up less space in our body than fat, both our body composition and our weight, determines the body composition. For example, if an obese person was to race an athlete that was in a healthy state, the person with more weight would lose because there is too much fat compared to his or her bone and muscle.
Co-ordination is the ability to carry out a group of movements smoothly and efficiently. All sports need the coordination of eyes, hands and feet. Racket sports like tennis involve all coordination’s of hands, eyes and feet. There are a few drills which can improve your hand-eye co-ordination like catching tennis balls in none hand for a minute and then changing hands. You can practice them on your own or with someone else but keep concentrating and you'll notice the difference. Tim Henman, Great Britain's number one tennis player has to do drills like this daily to improve his hand-eye co-ordination.
Balance is the ability to control the body's position, either stationary or while moving. If this is done correctly, a person will be able to complete a series of moves without falling. Balance is usually used in sports like gymnastics or athletics. is an athlete that improves her balance by improving her motor skills. Another way to improve your balance is by improving posture. If this is done well, There could be a great improvement in balance.
Agility is the ability to perform a series of explosive power movements in rapid succession in opposing directions. In various fields of sports competition, the body is constantly asked to perform movements from unfamiliar joint angles. If these are done correctly, the body is able to respond quickly to different angles that are needed in sporting events. An example for a sport that involves agility is athletics or on a trampoline. You can improve your agility by practicing the movements in training. An athlete that needs this for their profession is
Power is the ability to do strength performances quickly using almost all of your energy and normally with heavy things. The main parts of the body used in the process are the arm muscles as well as the legs to help the person balance themselves. Power is mainly used in sports involving lifting things that are heavy such as the hammer throw in the Olympics. An athlete that has done this in the Olympics is Alex Smith.
The final component for skill related fitness is reaction time. This is the time taken to respond to a stimulus. An example would be reacting to the starting pistol at the start of a 100m race. It important in many sports and activities and depends on the nervous system mostly. This can be improved through practice or training. Different people have different reaction times because of the nervous system. A person with good reaction time is Usain Bolt.
Alcohol, smoking and drugs all affect a sports performer’s lifestyle in negative ways. George Best died of liver failure because of his drinking problems and this ruined his life before as well. It earlier stopped him from playing football before he had a transplant.
Some people use steroid pills, gels, creams, or injections because they think steroids can improve their sports performance or the way they look. Nathan Allen was banned from the Olympic gamed this year because of the steroid pills she took to enhance her performance. She has been banned for two years. This type of drug abuse can get a person banned from any sport there if it is found out.
There have been many top athletes who smoke. , a famous French football player caused a small gossip when he was photographed before an important 2006 World Cup game smoking a cigarette. Smoking can wreck your lungs and reduce oxygen available for muscles used during sports. They also run slower and can't run as far, affecting overall athletic performance. This affects people’s performance in a negative way as it could possibly end their career. Despite all the tobacco use on TV and in different types of media, no athlete does smoke as it could change their lives completely by making them lose all fame and fortune!
Many athletes sleep poorly during the night before a major competition or after crossing several time zones to compete, but most athletes aren't sure exactly how this loss of sleep will affect their performances. One problem in figuring out how no sleep influences exercise ability and scientists or doctors don't completely understand sleep itself. Too much sleep is not good for you but neither is no sleep is worse. If a performer doesn’t sleep, his performance in a game will be poor and can be removed from the team.
