My chosen physical activity is Athletics, I chose this activity as it is my strongest type of sport . Athletics does not need a particular number of players, It can be done alone, but if you want to compete

There are four skill related areas of fitness that I need for my chosen activity. I have written them below and included a definition:

Power - The ability to do strength performances quickly

Reaction time - The time between the presentation of a stimulus and the onset of movement

Speed - The rate at which an individual is able to perform a movement or cover a distance

Co-ordination - The ability to use two or more body parts at one time

There are also three health related areas of fitness that I need for athletics these are:

Muscular endurance - The ability to use voluntary muscles many times without getting tired.

Muscular strength - the amount of force a muscle can exert against a resistance.

Cardiovascular fitness - the fitness of the heart, blood and blood vessels and the ability to exercise the entire body for long periods of time.

There are five principles of training, each one is very important whilst I train for my chosen activity, I will now give a definition and explanation why it is needed for each:

Specificity: Is when I would train according to my chosen activity for example, if I was training for a long distance race then I would try to run at a high altitude and for long periods because my lungs will adjust to a higher altitude so when it comes to my race I will perform much better at a lower altitude.

Progression: progression is when I increase the amount of exercise I do each day or each week. This will gradually improve my fitness and would again be good if I was training for a long distance race.

Overload: Is when instead of gradually increasing the amount of exercise I do, I deliberately do more than I should to make it more challenging.

F.I.T.T: Is an abbreviation of frequency, intensity, time and type of activity. I will have to train frequently in order to maintain my fitness, I will have to increase how intensely I train, I should do it at the same time each day or each week. I should also change the type of training I do each day so that I don't over work certain parts of my body.

Reversibility: For example if I am training for 4 weeks then when I have finished I don't train again for another 3 weeks, my fitness will return to what it was at week 1.

A warm-up is a short period of exercise that I must do to prepare for a main activity. A warm-up slowly increases my body temperature and heart rate and improves the exchange of oxygen from haemoglobin. We warm-up to prevent injury, to improve performance and prepare mentally for the event. A warm-up should include a few stretches and depending on the activity some short sprints, the warm-up should be timed to finish just before the activity begins. In my activity Athletics, the warm-up for hurdles would include the following stretches:

My legs are the most important part of my body to be stretched because they are the main part of my body that I will use for the hurdles. When my activity is finished I must cool-down, this gradually returns my body to its normal temperature and prevents me from getting soreness, stiffness, and cramp by dispersing lactic acid. The cool-down should last about 10-15 minutes and the stretches need to be held for a slightly longer period, you only need to stretch the same muscles that you stretched in the warm-up. As in the warm-up the stretches should start from the top to the bottom of the body.