The Multistage fitness test was a test that I did in order to test my cardio vascular endurance. The test is valid to my training for football as in order to compete in football you have to have a high endurance level so this tests how fit you are. The test is quite reliable because it measures my endurance levels but in order to get my full VO2 max the multistage fitness test isn’t totally accurate as you muscles get tired before your lungs do so this only tests your stamina to a degree. If you achieve a high level you are obvious fit and have a good stamina but if you have a low one you don’t have as good stamina so it needs to be improved through training.
The next test is the sit up bleep test, which is a test of muscular endurance. This is a very tiring test and really puts your abdominal muscles to the test. Obviously people who train a lot and do sit-ups regularly would find this much easier than someone who doesn’t train at all. The test is valid in that it for football you do have to have good muscular endurance however the test may have been better if it was testing the muscular endurance of the legs for example because this the place where footballers need most strength – whereas the abdominal area although important for good overall fitness isn’t as valid. The test is reliable in that it finds out your muscular endurance capacity but it only finds it out for your abdominal strength whereas some people may have better muscular endurance in their arms. It’s reliable again because the tape is set at a certain speed so you get a level, which you can compare, to others to see how good your muscular endurance is.
Another test was the 30m sprint this is a test of your speed over a short distance. Its valid to football in that you need good speed to outpace the defence so you need to be a fast runner. Its also reliable in that, with football you run in short sharp bursts so 30m is a good distance to time as you are likely to run these sorts of sprints throughout matches and so need to know how fast you are, so you can improve over time.
The sergeant jump test is quite valid for football, as you could say that you need to be able to jump high when going to head the ball so you need a good amount of spring and a certain amount of power to push you up as high as possible to get the ball, so this test can show how high you can jump which is useful. Its reliable in that you have to be able jump fairly high when playing football and the sergeant jump takes height into consideration by changing the distance to suit your height so you should get a fair reading to test your power and strength in your legs really.
The last test I did was a sit and reach test that was use to test flexibility. This test isn’t really valid for football as in order to play football you don’t have to be that flexible unless you do a lot of acrobatics so I didn’t find this very useful for me at all. Its reliable in that it gives a clear reading but just not a lot of uses for footballers although it does find out how flexible you are which is what the test sets out to do.
Test Results:
I think the fitness aspects I will need to work on the most are endurance, speed and agility as these are all key for being a good footballer. My overall aims of the PEP are to achieve a high level of fitness, improve my football skills and improve my body composition.
My overall outline of my PEP is to do 12 sessions over a 6-week period. I will make them enduring tasks by doing circuit training and making them hard in order to improve the aspects I have chosen. I will increase the time done spent on each session over the weeks and try to do more sets of circuits as my fitness improves. This way I will hopefully overload my body and therefore come out of the training a fitter and healthier person as a result of the hard intensive weekly programme.
Improving the fitness aspects I wish to do in my fitness programme will help me develop my skills in football because I will make the tasks I do useful for my chosen sport and so I will be able to apply what I do in the training on to the pitch hopefully.
Awareness of Safety Aspects/Equipment/Physical/Physiological
When doing any sort of training it is obviously very important to keep things safe and avoid any sort of injury as this could affect your training if you were to injure yourself. Therefore for my PEP I will ensure everything is safe to use and the area is safe to use before starting my training. I will also ensure I warm up and stretch my muscles properly before going into my training as this could cause stiffness and soreness if not done properly.
The facilities that I will need for my circuit training are simple things such as benches, mats, cones and maybe a few weights to improve muscle capacity. The exercises I will be using are things such as sit ups, triceps dips, running shuttles, skipping, small drills with the football etc. With these sorts of things the main safety consideration is to make sure there is enough space between each of the stations. This is key, as if you have everything cramped together people are bound to run in to each other or full in to equipment causing injuries which will set you back in the training.
The exercises are going to be using most of my muscle groups as I'm concentrating on an overall level of fitness. I will be using quadriceps, gastrocnemuis, hamstrings, trapezius, biceps, gluteals etc
My warm up is going to be very key for getting my body physically and mentally ready for exercise- it will involve a lot of cardio vascular type exercises and a few skill related tasks, these are very important as they will get the blood pumping around the body, increasing the level of oxygen going to my muscle groups, reducing the chance of increasing.
I’m going to be doing some sport specific stretches such as the leg muscle ones as these are very important for football but I will also being basic general stretches for overall fitness. My cool-down is also very key for my programme as this stops the blood pooling in the veins and reduces the levels of lactic acid in the muscle, which therefore stops soreness in the muscles. My cool down is pretty similar to my warm up but done at a slower pace and involves just a slow jog etc
Suitability/purpose of exercise/techniques used to improve fitness and skill
The circuit training method will help me develop my identified activity fitness requirements because firstly the stations will include lots of different exercises which will work different muscles groups which is exactly what I want to do as I want an overall good general level of fitness. I will also add skill related stations that will work on specifically football related issues such as passing, shooting, dribbling etc. This will help me in game situations because I will gain confidence in my own ability and will enable me to put things into practise, which will benefit me and the team hopefully.
This form of training requires you to work hard for yourself and to be able to keep going over a prolonged period of time to see the results so I will ensure I work hard for the full session and follow the plan of what I want to achieve from the session.
The benefits of this training method is that you can change anything in the training very easily by just adding a station or taking one out, you can increase the intensity easily as well by just increasing the number of times you do each circuit or by the time spent on each activity or the number of reps you do on each station. This is good for when you want to overload your body to see results.
The muscles I plan to use throughout the training range from the deltoids to the gastrocnemuis. I wish to use all available muscles throughout the body to achieve a good all round fitness and to improve my muscle tone. Through doing exercises in all the major muscle groups I'm sure I will get fitter and a stronger athlete which will help me compete in game situations.
As well as the muscles involved I need to focus on the links to my skill development. I am planning to use my training to help me to improve my fitness and my skills in games so I will set up different activities that can benefit me. Simple drills such as dribbling around cones are going to help me improve over the weeks so this can only make me a better player, as I will practise these for many sessions.
My sessions overall are going to be fairly detailed as I will plan each out before I go to the session. I will set out exactly what I want to do in terms of time on each station, how many circuits I’m going to do, the different muscle groups I want to work on and the types of skills I wish to work on over the session- this will benefit me as I will know exactly what I want to do and so lets me focus on my training.
Application of Theoretical Areas
When do an exercise programme its important to consider the principles of training. The training principles can be remembered by the use of SPORT. S is for specific so what sport you specialise your training in. P is for the progression you make over the weeks of training you do- this is important in order to get fitter. Overload is linked with progression, as this is the amount you push yourself harder e.g. working for 20 seconds more on each station. R is for reversibility, this means if you stop training for a certain reason you lose any affect the training would have had on you and T is for tedium- this is if a training session is boring you are less likely to try hard and do your best.
I will look to make my programme specific by making it especially for football, I will progress over the weeks by doing the training for longer e.g. adding more stations or increasing the time spent on each one. I will overload my body by doing as many reps on each station as possible and therefore hopefully avoid reversibility affect of training that stops for whatever reason. I will avoid the programme being tedious by listening to music to keep the vibe going and changing certain aspects of the training to keep myself interested and motivating.
I will use the FITT idea in order to decide how to train during my PEP. F is for frequency so the amount of time I will train for. I is for intensity so is how hard I will push myself e.g. how fast you sprint. T is for the time spent on the training and the other T is for the type of training you choose to do.
I have decided that I will train for 2 sessions a week over a 5-6 week period and will change the intensity at which I train at depending on how well I feel I am progressing. The type of training I am going to be doing is the circuit training method as already mentioned. The time spent on each station will be decided on how well I am progressing over the weeks and if I feel I’m getting fitter I will overload my body by pushing myself harder e.g. on each station for 1 minute as apposed to 45 seconds.
When doing my training programme I must consider my age and gender because being a female they cant do as much on training as men because they are built bigger than us girls and being a young teenager I should be able to push myself harder than a 50 year old woman so I should be working to my full potential. Any health factors are also important when deciding on a training session. I am a reasonably healthy individual apart from a recent flu virus but I feel I am over this now. Whereas people who suffer from things such as asthma and heart conditions may have to consult doctors before training as they need to know their capabilities.
All these factors I've talked about are all very important for when I do my training and I must consider them all. I will use this plan and hopefully achieve the goals I’ve set myself for the 6 weeks.