Safety is particularly important for anyone taking part in a physical activity. When doing the circuit all of the equipment used should be used correctly otherwise it could result in someone being injured. The correct clothing should be worn for each activity. For example, you cannot wear a sumo wrestlers clothes whilst you play a game of rugby. This would result in a lot of injury. I will have to make sure that I do not misuse any equipment I use and try and act appropriately when using it. I will also have to make sure that I wear the correct clothing when doing different activities. I will have to make sure that when I practise my passing I wear the correct footwear, football boots, and use them properly.
I will make sure that the order of the stations is set out so that I am able to complete one circuit without tiring out. I will make it so that there are less strenuous stations every two stations. This way I will be able to do more every circuit. I will try and make it so that the stations are more varied, so I can focus on a lot of areas in football, and avoid tedium. By varying the stations I can also focus on a lot of muscles and skills. My order of Activities will be:
- Dribbling in and out of cones
Which will help improve my skills, stamina and co-ordination
- Press ups
Which will help improve my muscular endurance
- Sit ups
Which will help me improve my overall fitness
- Dribbling and passing the ball
Which will help my co-ordination and agility
- Rest station
- Shooting at targets
Which will help with my skills and co-ordination
- Fartlek training
Which will help with my stamina
- Rest station
- Shuttle runs with a ball
Which will help with my stamina and skills
- Skipping
Which will help with my co-ordination
This order will be most effective for me and requires the smallest amount of preparation and equipment.
The rest stations have been added to allow my body to recover from the stations. I put them where I thought they would help my body recover the best, after the most strenuous stations. I f I did not allow my body to recover from the stations than I would be under a greater chance of injury.
Appropriateness of chosen exercises/training methods/activities/purpose of exercises/techniques used to improve fitness/skills (specificity).
My training circuit is made to be done during the summer months. I did this because I knew that I would have more time during the holidays to follow the programme. During the summer months it is hotter than usual so you can lose more energy and it can start to get very tedious. For this reason I have made the time at each station shorter and the rest stations longer. There is a chance of dehydration so I must drink a lot of water to stop this happening. When I am dehydrated I can get very tired and lose a lot of energy. I also need to make sure that my hay fever does not affect my circuit, so I should take my drugs when I think I will get affected.
I chose each exercise/activity by finding out how it will help my fitness/skills. By doing this I know that the circuit is specific to my sport, football. The skill-related activities, such as shooting, are made to improve my skills to football. The stations, which focus on my fitness, are also specific to football. This is because they focus on a certain group of muscles, which are needed in a match of football.
I have specially designed the programme to be specific to me and my sport. I did this by first testing my fitness by doing a different range of exercises like the sit and reach test, balance test, broad jump test, press up test and the sit up test. I than made my schedule specific to the results of this test. I am also going to make it so that I will progress at my own rate so that I am not putting too much pressure on my body.
I have made the programme so that it is suitable for me. I did this by focusing on specificity. In order for the programme to be suitable for me it had to be specific. I also had to make the schedule so that it was suitable for football. It would be stupid to do rugby training if I was trying to improve my football skills. The circuit also had to be at the right fitness level so that I am able to keep up with the progression.
The programme is balanced so that it can cover a lot of skills and exercises. I think that by balancing the programme I can try and avoid tedium (boredom) and make more fun to do. By balancing the circuit I also think that it can improve a lot of areas in a certain sport more quickly than if I focused on each area one at a time.
Appropriate application of activities within the programme in relation to theoretical areas and principles of training, progression/overload/frequency/duration/time, tedium.
The principles of training can apply to all of my stations.
- Dribbling in and out of cones
Specificity- This station can help improve my dribbling skills and be put to great use in a match of football.
Progression- I can slowly progress the dribbling by either, increasing the amount of cones or increasing the time I have to do it for.
Overload- I can easily choose how much pressure I put onto my body. If I wanted I could easily improve the overload by 5% each time.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
- Press ups
Specificity- This station is not very specific to football, but it is specific to an area of muscles.
Progression- I can easily progress through this exercise. I can do this by adding on the amount of press-ups each time I do a circuit.
Overload- I can easily choose how much overload I want to have. But I think that the overload should not get too big or I will not be able to complete it.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
- Sit ups
Specificity- This exercise is specific to an area of muscles, including the pectorals. It can be used in many sports to help increase my personal fitness.
Progression- I can easily progress through this exercise. I can do this by adding on the amount of sit-ups each time I do a circuit.
Overload- I can easily choose how much overload I want to have. But I think that the overload should not get too big or I will not be able to complete it.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
- Dribbling and passing the ball
Specificity- This skill is very specific to football and it cannot be used as a skill in any other sports.
Progression- I think that the easiest way I can progress is to increase the amount of passes I have to do.
Overload- I think that I would be able to stand quite a high overload for this skill.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
- Shooting at targets
Specificity- This skill is very specific to football and it cannot be used as a skill in many other sports. I can also change it to focus on different targets.
Progression- I think that the easiest way to progress this is to increase the amount of shots I have to do.
Overload- I think that I would be able to stand quite a high overload for this skill.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
- Fartlek training
Specificity- This training can be used in a lot of other sports to help with their fitness’s and skills.
Progression- This can be easily progressed by changing the intensity of it.
Overload- I think that I can overload it by making the distance between the points further apart.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
- Shuttle runs
Specificity- The shuttle runs are specifically made to improve my stamina and speed.
Progression- This can easily be made by either more or less progressive depending on how much pressure you want to put on your body.
Overload- I think that I can easily overload in this training.
Reversibility- As long as I keep repeating the activity the effects should not start to reverse.
- Skipping
Specificity- This training can be used in a lot of other sports to help with their fitness.
Progression- This can easily be made either more or less progressive depending on how much pressure you want to put on your body.
Overload- I think that I could easily alter the overload in this.
Reversibility- The only way I can try and stop the effects reversing is by continuing the skill daily and trying not to lower the amount of effort I put into it.
Using the principles of FITT can change overload. The principles of FITT stand for:
Frequency- How many times/how often the training is done.
Intensity- How much pressure you put on your body when doing the training.
Time- This is how long you do the training for.
Type- This is what type of training it is. E.g. Fartlek, continuous.
I think that by having intensity zones I will be able to test how much pressure I am putting on my body and if I can do that than I know how much I have improved. I will also know how much more training I need until I have reached my goal/aim. I will also be able to record my progress by testing my heart beat after every station. If at the end of the programme the heart rate has lowered after every station than I have reached my aim.
The oxygen system is sometimes referred to as the aerobic system. There are two terms; they are aerobic and anaerobic, which can be referred to. If I record my aerobic and anaerobic thresholds before the programme than I can record my thresholds at the end and find out if they have improved.
Timetable of progressions for a 5-week programme
Pre- Schedule Fitness Test Results
I did these tests during school, before the schedule. I will compare these with the final results to find out if I have improved.
Aerobic and Anaerobic thresholds Before The Schedule
After the schedule
Circuit Map
Results of the Training Schedule
I did the circuit 3 times a week on Monday, Thursday and Saturday. I made sure that I did not do the circuit two days in a row so that I did not get too tired. By doing this the circuit will lose some of its tedium. To get rid of the rest of the tedium I would give myself goals so that when I complete a circuit I would reward myself.
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
The Warm-up Stretches
These warm ups will include exercises to stretch my quadriceps, hamstrings, deltoids and gastrocnemius. I need to stretch my quadriceps (quads) because they allow the leg to bend and straighten. The hamstrings need to be warmed up because they allow the movement of the hips and the knee. The deltoids allow the shoulders to move in all directions and the gastrocnemius (calf) assists in walking, running and jumping movements.
To stretch your quadriceps you have to stand on one foot and lift the other one up against your back of your leg. You should feel the quads on the top of your legs.
You stretch you hamstrings by firstly placing your feet side by side. You then put one foot, of the leg you want to stretch, one step further than the other one. You than straighten the leg you want to stretch and bend the other, putting some pressure on it. You should feel the muscle under your leg.
To stretch the deltoid you need to put one arm bent with your hand touching your neck. You than place the other hand on top and apply some pressure.
To stretch the gastrocnemius you need to place one put in front of the other and push down on the front leg. You than feel your leg being stretched.
Evaluation
I think that my planning was very accurate and that anyone who wanted to do a training schedule could follow it. I think this because I put a lot of detail into each station saying how it was specific to my sport and how they could be changed depending on who was doping it. I think that the level of intensity was fairly high. This is because by week 5 I was finding it hard to do 25 press ups and I had to put in too much pressure to do it. I think that I did fairly well on the other stations and that I had reached my goal. I think that the layout of my training circuit was very effective and I found it very easy to use. The table I designed so that I could see what I had to do was very easy to understand and was very effective.
In my pre-test I got fairly high scores on all of the tests, but I think that I did not do very well on my push ups. I think that once I had done the pre-test I should have changed the schedule so that I was able to do the right amount of push ups. My post-test results were very good as I beat all of my pre-test results. I think that I had achieved my aim of improving my fitness. I think that my results proved that my training schedule was effective to my specific reasons.
I think that all of my stations were very specific to my sport, football, and that they would not need to be changed at all. If I did the circuit again than I would have added more stations which focused on skills, not fitness. By doing this I would put a lot more emphasis on football skills, making it specific to that sport.
I applied the principles of training to every station and I think that by doing this I was able to work out how to change them as the weeks progressed. This also helped me work out how much overload to put into the stations. All the stations were very manageable because I had made it so I needed minimal equipment, such as a football and cones.
By the end of the training schedule I got fairly bored and tired out. I think that this was because there was not enough variation and that I had put too much progression into five weeks. If I had made the stations more exciting, like adding some matches, I could have avoided the boredom.
I made very little changes to my training schedule; I only had to change two times because I had to go out to visit places. When I went to the beach I still tried to keep my schedule going by buying a ball and using objects as cones. I found that the circuit was very easy to set up.
Overall, I think that using the data I collected, before and after my training schedule, I had reached my goal of improving my skills and fitness. After the training schedule my aerobic threshold had gone up and I was able to go longer an-aerobically. I think that this happened because of my training schedule and that by hiring the threshold I am now able to do far more things for longer periods of time. For example, I think that I would now be able to run further an-aerobically than I used to be able to do. This shows that I made very good progress and that if I could I would continue to do this training schedule with very little or no changes.
