- IIinois Agility run
This tests the ability to change the body in direction at a fast speed. Agility is needed as it is a combination of speed co-ordination. Agility is important as it is the ability to change direction and body position quickly. All the attackers and defenders need agility for success in the game, for example getting in a space after throwing the ball; this may need the player to run in and out of people and doge into different spaces. Agility is a combination of speed, power, balance, and co-ordination
The above diagram shows the way the IIinois agility run should be set out. The test should have a reasonable space for safety reasons and you should take into account that no one comes within the distance being ran. The distance from one end to the other is 30 feet
- Standing vertical jump
The standing vertical jump tests muscular strength (power). The way to do a standing vertical jump is to stand next to a wall and reach up with our arm nearest to the wall. The highest point we can reach with the fingers is marked. Both feet must remain flat on the floor at this stage. We chalk our finger tips and leap upwards tapping our fingers against the wall at the highest point it takes into account our own height and so is a fair test than the standing broad jump. This muscular strength is important for a netballer to have, as a shooter as my self needs to have the strength to jump to shoot.
- Harvard step test
- The NCF abdominal curl test
- Coopers run
These tests measure the muscular endurance of our muscles. Netball is an active game so muscular endurance is needed so the muscle group can work against a resistance. The body needs to avoid muscular fatigue which prevents players from being able to carry on. If there is no muscular endurance then a player would get tired and therefore the game wouldn’t be played properly. The main muscles that would fatigue easily are the quadriceps, hamstrings, gastroinemius, biceps, triceps and abdominal muscles.
This test exerts the quadriceps, hamstrings and gastroinemius muscles. It measures our aerobic fitness. Before the test begins I will take my resting pulse rate. The main test will consist of stepping on and off a bench which is 45cm high at a rate of 30 times per minute. The same foot must lead each time and leg should fully extend at the top of each step. The test will last for 5 minutes. At the end of the test I will record the speed of recovery by taking my pulse for 30 seconds at different intervals after exercise. E.g. 1 minute, 2 minute, 3 minutes after the end of the exercise.
The greater my aerobic capacity, the lower my pulse rate will be after exercise and I should find that my pulse will return to normal quicker.
I will use the following formula to calculate my fitness score for the Harvard step test:
- The NCF Abdominal curls test
This test exerts the abdominal muscles. The test consists of doing as many abdominal curls in 30 seconds. To do the curls safely I will lay flat on a mat, my partner will hold my feet down. My knees will be at 45’ angle and do the sit up to 90’. I will do as many as I can in 30 seconds with arms across my chest.
The object of the coopers run is to run as far as you can in 12 minutes. The run consists of a 200 distance. This tests your cardiovascular endurance along with muscular endurance. Both of these are needed in netball as the game is played over a period of time.
After reading through the tests I was going to do, I changed my mind on some of them as they are the same or not as relevant as I first thought. As I already no Netball is an active game which involves a lot of movement and direction changing. Going on this, I think the main muscles that are exerted are the quadriceps, hamstrings and gastroinemius which comes with general cardiovascular endurance, agility is needed which deals with speed, power, balance and co-ordination and muscular endurance. So the tests I will now include are the Multistage fitness test, Standing verticle jump and the IIinois agility run. The reason I didn’t include the coopers run and the Harvard step test is because it was too similar to the multistage fitness test. Both tests test cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance. I think that the multistage fitness test would be easier to do as it can be done in any condition providing it was 20 meters apart the coopers run has to be 200 meters apart. I think it would be more accurate in telling someone how fit they really were and what their VO2 max is. Its easy to keep to as there is beeps which progressively get harder. I didn’t put the NCF abdominal curls in because I felt it wasn’t really needed in order of my fitness and wouldn’t really help me to no how fit I was. I don’t think that the abdominal muscle is really that exerted in netball as much as the leg muscles are.
Evaluating my current level of fitness
After doing these tests I have an indication of my current level of fitness. From my
results. I think that I was right in saying I am average. (the shaded grey boxes are what stage I am at now)
Multistage fitness test
In this test I got to level 4 and did 2 shuttles. My VO2 max was 26.8. As I said before a netball player such as myself should me on level 9 and above, this gives me an indication that my cardiovascular endurance has decrease during the year I stopped training and doing netball. This is an example of reversibility where when we stop training we will start to go back works. I needed to maintain my fitness or apply overload to prevent reversibility in netball. As I know netball is a very active game and involves a lot of running up and down the court and a lot of cardiovascular endurance is needed so this can be done, from this I now know that i need to put a cardiovascular exercise in my programme to help me increase my maximum volume uptake so that I will be able to cope with the demands of the sport without getting tired, and suffering exhaustion.
Standing verticle jump
In this test I did the standing vertical 3 times, my 3 scores for this are; 30cm, 31 cm, 32cm, I then added them to together and then divided it by 3 to give me an average score. My average score was 31 cm.
This table gives me an indication of where my score stands:
From this I can tell that my muscular strength is classed as a low score. This tells me that I need to put a muscular strength exercise within my programme to help me improve in this area.
IIinois agility run
In this test I did the agility run 3 times, my 3 scores for this were 19.8 seconds, 19.1 seconds and 18.7 seconds. I then added them to together and then divided it by 3 to give me an average score. My average score was 19.2
This table gives me an indication of where my score stands:
From this I can say that my agility is good as it is average. I still think that I could improve on it though as agility is important in all sports as well as netball. It has given me a good indication of my speed, power, balance, and co-ordination. To make improvements on my agility I need to put an agility exercise in to programme.
I will also repeat these exact same tests again at the end of my training programme to check if my programme has been successful in enhancing my fitness level, so that I am able to play my sport with a higher fitness level to what I started with
My training programme
My training programme will consist of a fitness and skills session. Both lasting 1 hour long. The method of training I am going to use is circuit training. I think this would be an effective way of training as all the muscles and skills can be used and practised in one session. From my tests I have a fair indication of the kinds of things I need to put in. So starting with the fitness session I no the most important thing to work on is my cardiovascular endurance. The next is muscular endurance and then agility. These are the most important ones I do need in the session.
