Section 3
Although Emily has many talents and is skilful in her position, she does have some weaknesses that could be improved. She should be on her toes at all times so that she can move easily from one place to another so that she can catch the ball before the other team can. Also, Emily’s stamina is not great as half way through the game her energy levels have dropped. She then finds it difficult to stay close to her opposing player at all times so they can get the ball before Emily or another team mate can. Emily needs to remember to move away fro the Goal Attacker after they have taken a shot and to jump and try and get the rebound. This makes it much easier as the other team don’t get another chance at shooting and don’t have the chance to get into better defending positions if it becomes a back-line pass.
Emily could also afford to have quicker reactions so that she can pass the ball to a free player as soon as she herself has gained possession rather than stopping and looking around. This slows down the game and a free player might lose their space. This is also good when trying to intercept the ball. Emily also needs to be able to get into a space quickly herself so that the ball can be received quicker and passed straight down to her goal third, hence a more likely chance of scoring a goal. Another skill Emily should learn is to pass ahead of the player she is passing to so that they are still facing in the same direction which makes it easier to pass on to the next player.
Section 4
To improve her weaknesses, there are different training practises that Emily could try. There many that she could choose from such as these:
- There are two people standing opposite one another and one of the pair has a ball. She then has to do small passes to the side, above or bellow the other player. The other player has to stay on the balls of their feet and take small, quick steps to the side or forward or back to try and catch the ball. This is a practise of using small steps on the balls of your feet to help improve reaction time and to teach Emily to stay on the balls of her feet so that she can move quicker.
- This is a defending practise in groups of three. One player holds the ball and the second player has to defend the third player. The first player has to indicate which direction they are throwing the ball in and has to pass the ball ahead of the third player. The second player has to try and stop the third player from receiving the ball. This is a practise that helps you to learn to pass ahead of the receiver of the ball.
- This is a practise for a group of five or more people. It involves three feeders in a large triangle and the rest of the players have to arrange themselves into pairs. They have to start away from the feeders and each player has a certain feeder to pass to and the feeder has to pass the ball in a certain direction. The player then has to dodge in and out of the feeders to receive the ball again and then pass the ball on to the next group. This teaches players to pass ahead of other players.
- The last practise has two groups of players lined up opposite each other plus a feeder standing to the side in between the two lines. One player passes the ball to the feeder and runs about halfway between the two lines to where the feeder is going to pass the ball. They receive the ball and pass the ball straight on to the first player on the opposite line where it all starts again. This is a practise of footwork and will help the players to know to catch the ball and pass it straight on to the next player instead of waiting around for another player, who can quite easily lose their space.
Emily will also need to do exercises that improve her strengths so there is a training practise that could help her:
- There is a group of three people, player one has the ball, player two is defending player three. The defender has to stand side-on to player three so that she can see the ball and the person she is defending. Player three has to avoid the defender and run either left or right and signal where she wants to catch the ball. This is a defending practise where the players have to learn to stand sideways-on to their opponent where it is easier to defend and catch the ball.
Different types of training are needed to help Emily improve her strengths and weaknesses. Interval training is when there is a jog/sprint/swim, etc for a certain, short period of time and then a short break. It is then repeated over and over again. This could help Emily become more powerful in a game situation as she will have a break when the ball is in her team’s goal circle and when the ball is back in her area, she will have the energy and power to sprint towards the ball and catch it then have a break when she is not needed and so on. Weight training would help Emily’s muscular endurance. If she uses weights for a certain amount of time and then improves so can use heavier weights for a longer amount of time, then her muscular endurance will improve. She will then be able to last longer in a game without her muscles aching.
Continuous training involves jogging/swimming constantly for a period of time. If Emily used continuous training, she would soon improve and be able to run further without becoming tired which would improve her stamina which is one of her weaknesses. In a game, she would then be able to run for longer periods of time which would help her team. Circuit training uses a range of different exercises for short periods of time. This would help Emily as she would be able to perform lots of different activities, improving her muscular endurance, stamina and strength. Lastly, fartlek training involves running at a slow speed for a certain amount of time and then sprinting for a short period of time, then jogging and so on. In a game situation, this would help Emily to be able to jog and then sprint when she has to catch the ball.
Section 5
This is a training programme that can help to improve Emily’s fitness skills over a period of six weeks. Each week will include three days with a training practise involved and one day where there is a netball match. Each session will include a warm-up and a cool-down. A warm-up should include a run and stretches so that the body is used to the exercise and prevents the player from pulling or straining a muscle. The cool-down is the same as a warm-up but the run is a slow jog and the stretches are slower to help your body recover from the hard work.
In the first session I have used the bleep test which tests stamina. There are two points that you have to run between, starting when the bleep first sounds and you have to reach the second point before the second bleep sounds. This speeds up as it carries on so you have to run faster between each bleep. I have also used the agility test which, obviously, tests somebody’s agility. It starts with stomach-down on the floor and when the timer starts you have to run around a cone and run back then run in and out between other cones and back, ending with you running to another cone and back again. This is timed and recorded. I have lastly used the 12 minute cooper run. This is simply constant running for 12 minutes to see how far you can run in this amount of time. It is then recorded to find how well you have done.
Agility test
It is very important to perform tests at the beginning and at the end of any training programme. This is because you can take your new time from your old time and find if you have improved and by how much.
Week One
Monday
- Jog twice around the netball court
- Do stretches, paying close attention to deltoids, gastropnemius and hamstrings
- Bleep test
- Agility test
- 12 minute cooper run
- Cool-down
Wednesday
- Warm-up
- Interval training: run for 1 minute, rest for 30 seconds. Do 20 of these.
- Cool down
Thursday
- Warm-up
- Weight training: include 3 sets of 10 using biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings and gastropnemius.
- Cool-down
Friday
Cool-down
Week Two
Monday
- Warm-up, including stretches for gastropnemius, hamstrings and quadriceps.
- Continuous training: jogging for fifteen minutes
- Cool-down
Wednesday
- Warm-up
- Set up a circuit training session of one minute each of sit-ups, jogging, jogging with high knees, squats, jumping-jacks, push-ups and weight lifting. Do the circuit five times.
- Cool-down.
Thursday
- Warm-up
- Fartlek training: jogging for 5 minutes then sprinting for 30 seconds. Continue for 30 minutes.
- Cool down
Saturday
- Warm-up
- Netball match
- Cool-down
Week Three
Monday
- Warm-up
- Weight training: use weights to work biceps, triceps, deltoids, hamstrings, quadriceps and abdominals. Do three sets of ten for each and then repeat.
- Cool-down
Tuesday
- Warm-up
- Interval training: 3 lengths of front crawl, 30 second break, 3 lengths back stroke, 30 second break, 3 lengths breast stroke, 30 second break. Repeat three times.
- Cool down
Thursday
- Warm-up
- Continuous training: jogging for 25 minutes
- Short weight training: use weights to work biceps, triceps, hamstrings and quadriceps. Do three sets of ten for each.
- Cool down
Saturday
- Warm-up
- Netball match
- Cool-down
Week Four
Monday
- Warm-up
- Circuit training: session of two minutes each of sit-ups, press-ups, jogging, jogging with high knees, star-jumps, squats, weight-lifting, side-stepping (around/across a netball court) and chest-passing. Then repeat the circuit.
- Cool-down
Tuesday
- Warm-up
- Fartlek training: jogging for 8 minutes then sprinting for 45 seconds. Do each five times.
- Cool-down
Thursday
- Warm-up
- Weight-training: use weight to work biceps, triceps, abdominals, quadriceps, triceps, hamstrings and gastropnemius. Do 4 sets of 10 of each then repeat.
- Cool-down.
Saturday
- Warm-up
- Netball match
- Cool-down
Week Five
Monday
- Warm-up
- Interval training: run for 2 minutes 30 seconds then rest for 30 seconds. Do 20 times.
- Cool-down
Wednesday
- Warm-up
- Continuous training: jogging for 30 minutes
- Ball skills: with a partner, do 20 chest passes, bounce passes and shoulder passes. Take two steps back from your partner and repeat then take another two steps back and repeat.
- Cool-down
Friday
- Warm-up
- Circuit training: Do 2 minutes 30 seconds each of sit-ups, press-ups, heel-flicks, jogging, jogging with high knees, sprinting, side-stepping, squats and star-jumps. Repeat the circuit.
- Cool-down
Saturday
- Warm-up
- Netball match
- Cool-down
Week Six
Tuesday
- Warm-up
- Interval training: 5 lengths front crawl, 30 second break, 5 lengths back stroke, 30 second break, 5 lengths breast stroke, 30 second break. Repeat four times.
- Cool-down
Wednesday
- Warm-up
- Fartlek training: jogging for 10 minutes, sprinting for 1 minute. Repeat this five times.
- Cool-down
Thursday
- Warm-up
- Bleep test
- Agility test
- 12 minute cooper run
- Cool-down
Saturday
- Warm-up
- Netball match
- Cool-down
Section 6
There are positive and negative factors that could affect an athlete’s performance. If they ate a healthy, balanced diet with lots of fruit and vegetables and none or hardly any fatty foods, they would be fitter and have lots of energy so would therefore perform better. However, if they ate a diet high in salt and fat then they would have very little energy and would not perform to their optimum.
There are many social aspects that can have a positive effect on your fitness and performance. If you have parents that support your sport, they may take you to and from the practises and matches instead of you making your own way there. If you have to walk to get there, you may already be quite tired by the time you have to play but if you are taken by car, your energy levels will be higher. Also, if you have a friend in a team with you or somebody watching, they will motivate you and relax you more so you may play better.
However, there are social aspects that can cause you to perform worse than you may have liked. If you don’t really get on well with your team mates you won’t feel as comfortable playing with them which may affect your performance. Also, if you have had an argument with someone before-hand or just have a lot on your mind, your mind will not be entirely focused on the game so you won’t play as well.
You may also become quite nervous before doing any sport. Depending on how nervous you become, this can affect your performance in a positive or negative way. If you become too nervous or hardly nervous at all, this may mean that you will play at your worst but if you get quite nervous, it may cause you to play at your optimum. This can all be shown on an arousal graph.
Section 7
If Emily had done the six week training programme, I would expect to see quite a big difference in her performance in netball. I would expect that her stamina would be better and that she would be able to play most of the game without tiring instead of getting tired in the first half. This is because she has done lots of fartlek training and over the weeks the amount of time that she had been running had increased. I would be able to look at the difference between her first agility and bleep test and 12 minute run if she had improved her time. I think that she would have improved in all fitness areas as she will have done lots of different sessions to practise and develop strengths and weaknesses.