As well as General fitness, specific fitness is very important also. Rugby players need:
- Explosive strength. They need this when kicking the ball over the goal. This is a very far distance and need a lot of power to be able to kick the ball so hard. You can do this by practising the kicks over and over again.
- Agility. This is very important in order to dodge players trying to tackle you. You could do this, again just by practising it.
- Speed. This is also very important in order to reach the opponents goal before your opponents are able to tackle you. You could improve speed by taking ‘the bleep test’. This is where you have to run from one point to another in the time given. You need to reach your destination before you hear the second bleep. Every time you run, the bleeps will get quicker and you need to run faster. Every time you practise you will not only improve your cardiovascular endurance, and muscular endurance, but you will improve your speed.
Section 2. Methods of training.
- Continuous training. This would be good for any type of sport where you have to run for a long period of time. It would build up your endurance so you can run for a longer period of time. You could swim, walk, cycle run etc. This is a good type of training to warm up before sports, and it can stretch all your muscles and ligaments so you don’t injure yourself in the sport.
- Fartlek training. This is also good for sports, especially where you have to change speed, in rugby, you don’t always run at a high speed, you do also need to be able to run slowly at some points. Also you can change the speed to suit your sport and the energy system you want to work on. You can do this type of training by jogging for 10 minutes, then sprinting for 1 minute, jog for another 10 minutes, and repeat that as much as you like. This type of training could help your speed of reaction skills, speed skills, agility and endurance.
- Aerobics. A lot of people go to aerobic classes to improve aerobic fitness. It is a very popular way to improve the aerobic fitness. You do exercises for every part of the body. You work at a pace that keeps your heart rate in the aerobic training zone. This can be god because it improves your cardiovascular endurance so you can run for longer periods of time. Also it can improve your joint flexibility. Both these things are obviously very important for a rugby player.
- Cross training. This is where you use other forms of exercise to help you get fitter in your sport. For example you can weight lift to improve your rugby game.
- Circuit training. This is where you can do many different exercises in a circuit. You can time your time on each piece of equipment or time your time doing a certain exercise. For example, you can have 5 minutes doing star jumps, 10 minutes jogging, 5 minutes pull ups, 10 minutes press ups, and so on. This can be good for rugby because you could train your muscular system, cardiovascular system, strength, flexibility, just about all of the general fitness’s and almost all of the specific fitness’s.
Section 3. F.I.T.T
This 35 year old rugby player is called David. David wants to become fitter because as he has got older he has exercised less, and noticed he gets out of breath easier than he used to. David needs to exercise and train on a frequent basis. He needs to train about 4 times a week. Each time he trains he could use all or some of the types of training I have stated above. He already trains once a week but needs to progress in order to become more fit. All the training he does is just running laps and playing rugby games. He could add weight lifting, swimming, circuit training etc.
David doesn’t train to his utmost ability. He jogs at a reasonable pace when doing his laps, and when playing in a game, doesn’t find himself in possession of the ball too often. He doesn’t make many tackles because he is to slow to catch up. David needs to push himself each training session. He needs to start training harder, by this it could be for a longer period of time, harder, e.g. running faster than he normally would, have some resistance, e.g. tying a tyre round his waist and dragging that as he runs. He needs to progress a little at a time, by just adding a bit more time on, a little nit more work etc.
David trains for an hour each time, so that is one hour a week. I have already said he is going to train 4 times a week, but because he isn’t very fit, and has lot a lot of his fitness level because he has been ill for a while with a broken leg, and was unable to exercise (before he broke his leg, he went to the gym twice a week.) David was off his feet for about two months. So he will start off by training for an hour twice a week, then 2 hours twice a week then 2 hours three times a week, and then finally will end up doing two hours four times a week. This has to be a gradual change because his body is not yet able to take too much exercise as he is quite unfit.
David will do Fartlek training to warm up. This is what he will do:
- Stretch all muscles for 10 minutes, e.g. hamstrings, calves, etc.
- Jog for 5 minutes
- Set out a marked distance, for example 100 feet. Run laps two and from each side. For example first lap could be slow jogging, next lap running at a reasonable pace, next lap sprinting, jog for 3 more laps, run for two, jog for another one and sprint another two. Repeat this for 15 minutes.
- Rest for 5 minutes.
- Lift heavy weights in a gym to build up strength for 15 minutes. Lift smaller weights with many repetitions to build up muscular endurance also for 10 minutes. This will make up the hour, the set time David will start off his training, until he becomes fitter. Then after a while, when his training time is set for 2 hours, he can play an hour long match as well, but only every other training session. The ones that he is not playing a match in, he can do some more types of training to improve his performance, such as circuit training, aerobic and anaerobic training.
Section 4. S.P.O.R
This means working on the area you need. David will mainly need to work on his cardiovascular endurance to maintain his overall performance.
David needs to progress in order to gain a good fitness level. He can’t start off at a high level of exercise because he is not fit enough, so he needs to progress as he gains higher levels of fitness.
David can overload (increase what he would normally do) in four different ways. These ways are the F.I.T.T principles that I have already gone through. Frequency, David can overload by training more frequently. Also can overload by increasing intensity (working harder), Increase the time of exercising and increase the type of exercise (so something you couldn’t do before, e.g. aerobic training for a long period of time).
This means that any fitness levels gained will be reversed when you stop. To stop this from happening, you need to train every 2-3 days to keep your fitness level where it is.
16 year old gymnast
Section 1-their needs,
Gymnasts need to be extremely flexible and supple. They need to be in between a mesomorph build, and an ectomorph build. They would probably need to be slightly more mesomorph than ectomorph. This means gymnasts need to have muscle, but not too much and need to have very little body fat. A lot of muscle would be good in some ways because gymnastics is very demanding, and needs a lot of physical ability, especially for types of gymnastics such as the bars, although, gymnasts need to be very light and a lot of muscle could weigh them down considerably.
Gymnastics contain a large variety of different skills, so gymnasts need to be skilled in lots of different areas. Although a lot of gymnasts do concentrate on a specific area. Gymnastics is mainly a solo sport, and this sort of sport is ideal for people who are shy, introverted, or people who just like being on your own, and like doing things your way without having to rely on other members of a team to support you.
You can also get quite badly injured in gymnastics, although probably not as bad as you could in other sports like rugby. You need to be very confident in your ability and very confident in your area before attempting the exercise.
What they need to work on/improve
Gymnasts need to improve certain things to maintain a high level of performance. These things could be:
General fitness. Gymnasts need a very high level of general fitness as well as a very high level of specific fitness. Fr example:
- Cardiovascular endurance. This is not essential to gymnasts as a lot of the areas of gymnastics do not need this vitally, but obviously if any athlete did not have this, they would not be able to perform.
- Strength: this is very important to gymnasts, especially gymnasts who focus on the bars and areas like that.
- Flexibility and suppleness: now I would probably say this was the most important area of general fitness for a gymnast. In most areas, e.g. floor work, the beam, the horse, trampling etc.
- Body composition: gymnasts do need a certain amount of muscles and fat levels. If gymnasts are very fat they wouldn’t be able to carry out their exercises because it would be a lot of weight to carry about, and gymnasts need to be as light as possible.
- As well as General fitness, specific fitness is very important also. Gymnasts need:
- Agility. This is very important. You need to be able to change the position of the body quickly and accurately, and keeping the whole body under control. This is needed in areas such as the beam.
- Coordination. This is also very important with the beam. Also it is important for trampling, floor work, etc.
Section 2. Methods of training.
- Continuous training: this is a god way to improve your aerobic training. This could be good for gymnasts as it burns body fat and you can train for especial competitions, such as gymnastic competitions.
- Fartlek training. This wouldn’t be the best form of exercise for a gymnast, as it is mainly good for group sports such as football, where you have many different speeds in the game, but in gymnastics, it is either slow work or fast, not really both.
- Aerobics. Now this is a good form of exercise because it has exercises for every part of the body so you can exercise joints, muscles etc.
- Cross training. This isn’t what I would say the best form of exercise for gymnasts as their area of sport is very individual. Although gymnasts can go to the gym to exercise. For example they could use the rowing machines, bike machines, stepping machines etc. all those types of equipment will be good training for a gymnast. Also swimming would be very helpful to a gymnast.
- Circuit training. This would help gymnasts because they could work on their strength, suppleness, muscles, etc.
Section 3. F.I.T.T
This 16 year old gymnast is called Hayley. Hayley is very fit and flexible. She wants to train for the Olympics and is very able to do so, but the Olympics are very demanding compared to the national competitions she has been used to. She already trains 4 times a week but will need to train very often, probably every day.
Hayley does very intense training. Although, she will need to train a lot harder to prepare herself for the Olympics. She will need to put a lot of time and effort in, and she will need to be really determined.
Hayley trains for an hour and a half every time she trains which is 6 hours a week. She will probably need to increase this to about 3 hours a day. She will need to also put in more hours of training whenever it is necessary.
Hayley will stretch all her muscles for 15 minutes to warm up. She will then use continuous training by jogging for 10 minutes. She will then use circuit training for the rest of the time. On this circuit there could be:
Station 1: Step ups for 5 minutes.
Station 2: Squat for 5 minutes.
Station 3: The splits, hold for 2.5 minutes each way (box splits and side splits).
Station 4: Practise flips, floor work etc for 20 minutes.
Station 5: Bike machines for 15 minutes.
Station 6: Rowing machines for 15 minutes.
At other times it could be just swimming for an hour and a half. Or it could be on exercise for that time etc.
Section 4. S.P.O.R
It depends on the type of gymnastics Hayley will do. She is mainly concentrating on floor work, and the beam. This means the area she should be concentrating on is coordination or agility.
Hayley is already very fit but to progress her fitness level, she needs to train more, as I have already stated, probably every day. I have said three hours already, but unlike David, she probably won’t have to start off smaller like he does, because her body is already so fit, it is able to cope with it.
Hayley can overload in the same ways as David, using the F.I.T.T principles. Hayley can overload by training more frequently as I have already said, every day and more hours a day. Also can overload by increasing intensity (working harder), Increase the time of exercising and increase the type of exercise (so something you couldn’t do before, e.g. aerobic training for a long period of time).
This means that any fitness levels gained will be reversed when you stop. To stop this from happening, you need to train every 2-3 days to keep your fitness level where it is. Hayley will have to be very careful not to receive any injuries because to get injured would put her far off being able to compete.
