In skill related fitness performers will need the following:
- Agility – This is needed in swimming when a swimmer is changing direction and body position (tumble turns) Agility helps you to do this quickly. Agility could possibly be associated with the starting dive as your body position changes several times during this.
- Speed – This one of the largest skills required for swimming as without speed you would not win. Speed
- Reaction Time – This is the time it takes you to respond to a stimulus. In most sports this is a starting sound as it also is in swimming. It can also be when there has been a false start.
- Balance - This is the ability to control the weight in your body whilst moving or standing still. In swimming this could consist of diving into the pool. If you lost your balance mid dive there is a high chance that you will injure yourself as well as another competitor.
- Co-ordination - Is the ability to use different senses and body parts together. Hand/eye co-ordination is needed in swimming to be able to perform each stroke. Also is the hand and foot co-ordination moving your hands whilst you move your feet.
- Power – This is basically strength x speed. The more power a swimmer puts into the race the better the race it becomes and the harder it is for your opponents to beet.
In Health related fitness competitors in swimming will need the following:
- Cardiovascular fitness – This is the ability to bestow the body with blood and oxygen for long periods of time. This is needed in swimming because the body needs to be working at its hardest through out the race and needs just as much energy at the end as it does at the beginning. If your cardiovascular fitness isn’t up to the standards of the other competitors then your body isn’t going to be able to take the pressure and speed of the race for the length it is happening.
- Muscular Endurance – This simple means when your muscles don’t become tired too quickly. If this happens during a competition in swimming then you are not going to be able to continue in the race as your body will not be able to take the pressure. The more muscular endurance you have the longer and stronger you can compete for.
- Body Composition – This is a main part in most sports. Its characteristics vary also to the sporting type. It means for you body to be the right build, not to fat and not to thin. In swimming your body composition is frequently tall average build quite muscular and large feet.
- Flexibility – This changes through out our lives. For example babies are much more flexible than older people women are generally more flexible than men. This could be related into swimming by being able to get your body into an awkward position.
Strengths and weaknesses.
In order to identify my strengths and weaknesses within swimming I need to firstly complete the following tests to show what my weak areas that need are improving upon. Once I find out my scores I will compare them with each other this will give me my weak area or areas and I will then work on those. Hopefully this will improve my performance in Swimming. The tests I am going to take out will be working on the areas of speed, co-ordination, strength, agility, power and endurance.
- To work on my endurance I am going to carry out the test known ad the multi stage fitness test (shuttle run). This basically works out how long your body can work for building up on pressure. The speed in each shuttle increases to see how far the body can push its self. This test is run of timers and after each bleep goes this allocates you should have reached the distance. The test goes up in levels and as they become higher the bleeps are faster meaning u have to put more effort into the test. This would be needed in swimming because the body needs to be working under pressure for the full length of the competition. As the competition is coming to an end most bodies start to tier out and need rest, if my endurance is strong I can then continue to compete at a high standard.
- The ball catching is to test upon co-ordination this is to see if a person can use two or more body parts at the same time effectively. To do this test the person must stand two meters away from a wall. The wall must have an indicated line at ½ a meter and if the ball touches the line or goes below that it not counted as a point. You most continuously throw the ball to the wall as many times as possible in the time. If the ball is dropped there is no points deducted the person just doesn’t get the mark for that throw. This is a miner aspect of swimming and is very rarely used.
- To test agility the person must take part in an agility run. The agility run is set out for a changing run. The participant must run two straight lengths then continuing by doing two lengths dodging in and out of cones then finally another two straight lengths. Also the person must start the run in a press up position and once there alerted jump up and go ahead with the course. This is to see how your reaction time is and in swimming this is needed for the moving through the water and mid air after a dive.
- For one minute we performed a strength test. In this time we completed as many sit ups as possible. The starting position is feet together and shoulders apart with all the body's pressure upon the feet and hands. The body then lowers to around 2cm away from the floor and then lift to the starting position. This is testing how much strength the body can talk as a lot of pressure is put on one area. Strength is needed in swimming in all areas not just in your hands and arms for pulling you through the water also in your legs and feet for pushing you through the water and to get a good strong dive.
- The test that we completed to find out how good our component of power was we had to do a standing jump. This was where the person would stand at a point marks and take three standing jumps. These would have to be completed with the feet together unless the back of the rear foot would have to be taken. Once the three jumps are completed the participant would stand in there position and someone would measure from the starting position to the back on there rear foot. This proves the power that the person can get out of there body. This is needed in swimming because when a competitor needs a good strong dive at the start of the race to get a head start on the other competitors.
- To find out how good we were at speed we completed a 50 meter sprint test. This was just how it sounds. A straight 50 meters that we had to run as fast as we could. This was timed by another person. Speed is a very big part of swimming. Speed is required in swimming as without it you would loose the race.
First Attempt!
My Results Were As Followed:
By adding the score of what the blueprint website say is 100% this shows what my areas of weakness are and what I need improving on most.
After looking at my results table in great detail and comparing it to the blue print I can point out very clearly my areas of strengths and weaknesses.
I have strengths in the following areas:
- I have a strong score in my power and don’t think there is much room for any improvement. I might still slightly work on this area but focus on something that needs more working on.
- I also think I have a strong result in my co-ordination. I have nearly managed to complete a throw every second excluding my mistakes. I think this is a minor part of swimming and doubt even if it was a bad score my swimming would be unaffected
- Another one of my strong components would be agility. I believe coming out strong in half of my tests is a good because then I can focus on the other three and hopefully improve my performance in swimming.
I have pointed out my weak areas and they are speed endurance and especially strength. I think strength is my main area that I need to work on. Even though the other components relate into swimming more this area still needs improving on to make my swimming standards higher.
I have decided I am going to use the school fitness suite at least three times a week for five weeks. This is as well as doing my usually training and sports. I am going to start of by building up my body on a cardiovascular machine. This would be a bike, a treadmill, a steeper machine, or a cross trainer.
I will start on the first day by completing 10 minutes on a medium speed and then push my self to the faster level my body will take me for the last two minutes. I will then go onto another cardio vascular machine mentioned above different machine to what I started on and complete 10 minutes on a medium speed and also in the remaining two minutes push my body to the limit.
As I am working on me strength I am going to focus on the weight machines in my arms. The more power I can build up in my arms the stronger my strokes will become. I am going to start at around 20 reps per machine. I am going to begin my weight work out by using an arm weight machine then changing to my legs then finishing once again on an arm. This is making me work more on arm machines which will hopefully lead to an improvement in my weak area.
I will then end each session by warming my body down once again on a cardiovascular machine. One of which I listed earlier. I will start by working on a steady speed for 10 minutes and then pushing the speed to the highest my can take for five minutes. I will go up a km each 40 seconds until my body reaches the limit.
Each time I go into the fitness suite I am going to build on my goal. On my first session the work out plan will be what I have explained above. Then the following I will add more reps and more machines. This is to push my body gradually to the limit. This will also help on my endurance because I am pushing my body more and more each time making myself work harder and for longer periods of time.
Training Programme.
The following is what I did in the fitness suite for five weeks. As I went in three times I week I completed the same work out in the same week. As I went in to the next week I then pushed my self harder. This was so I wasn’t building up my body to fast and to prevent injury.
Week One!
Week Two!
Week Three
Week Four
Week Five
Second Attempt.
As you can see from the set of scores above I have improved in all areas. Some only slightly but I am pleased that the areas I have worked on for my netball skills have improved.
As you can see from the graph above I have improved in all areas from my first attempt. Although I haven’t reached the blue print 100% in all areas I am still pleased that I have improved. This means the five week programme I took out has made an affect. As you may notice on the speed and agility the scores have gone down. This is actually an improvement because it means I have completed the task in a faster time. Also on some of the scores I have past the 100% mark such as the speed, and on the co-ordination, endurance and power I have reached the target of 100%. Looking at the graph above I am very pleased with my results.
Evalution
When comparing my first set of scores to my second I can point out that I have improved on my weak areas that consisted of speed, endurance and the most important one I needed to work on was strength. I have also improved on the other areas this was because of following a personal exercise programme for five weeks in the school fitness suite.
In Swimming co-ordination is mainly hand/foot. This is used when you use your hands to pull you through the water and your feet to propel you through the water. After completing the first tests I noticed that this wasn’t one of my weak areas so I didn’t work on it. Although as you can see from the graph comparing results I did improve. Even though I only improved by 2 more catches this still brought me to pass the 100% mark and I am pleased with that.
In my first set of tests I realised that strength was a weakness. This is needed in swimming for good strong strokes. For strength I worked on arm weight machines which included pull down and chest press. I increased my reps and weights each week of my programme and this has lead to me improving in my second attempt. Although according to the blue print scores I am still only 50% I am still happy that I have improved. To help me reach their target I am going to continue working on my arm strength in the gym. As my scores have increased this shows that my method is affective and has helped me.
Speed is needed in swimming to win and move quickly through the water. As speed come out to be one of my weaknesses I worked on this on the treadmill, bike, cross trainer and the stepper. The stepper worked on the muscles in my legs leading to them becoming stronger which then lead to them being able to take more pressure. On the cardiovascular machines I pushed my self each time and increased the speed to my limit. According to my second attempt at the tests this has proven to have been a good strategy as I have improved to almost 100%. I am very pleased with my improvements in this component as it is needed almost all the time in a Swimming competition.
In swimming agility is needed so that each competitor can successfully perform a tumble-turn. Agility wasn’t one of the areas that I worked on in the fitness suite although as I have been working on the speed of my legs on the cross trainer this has caused me to improve. If ever in the future I feel the need to improve in this area I will take out a series of weights on my legs and some skill work with a swimming pool and other swimmers to compete. As I have improved in this area I will be more skill full in a swimming competition and be able to move quickly through the water.
Power in needed in swimming so that a swimmer can quickly move through the water with speed and get a good strong jump. After I had completed the first set of tests I found out that this wasn’t one of my weak areas. I didn’t include this into my exercise programme. Although when looking at both sets of results I have slightly improved. It may not be shown to be much but I am still pleased that when not working on an area the other exercises I did take have lead to an improvement. I think this is a result of working on the cardiovascular machines a lot. I used the cardiovascular machines and these are good because as I have shown in my programme it can improve all areas. When I worked in the weight machines in my legs this has resulting in an improvement and this is good in swimming for when I am diving of the starting platform.
Endurance is needed in swimming to keep the body going strong through out the race. When I completed the first set of results I realised that endurance did need some improving on. So in the fitness suite I pushed my body each time causing me to work longer and increasing the amount that my body could take. I worked mainly on the cardiovascular machines that were the treadmill and bike. I pushed my self each time this was to push my body to its limit. This has clearly worked as comparing the two set or results I have improved by quite an amount. On my first tests I got level 7 shuttle 7, on my second I got level 8 shuttle 4. This means I didn't just improve by one level. I also increased on my shuttle amount. I am pleased my results in this component of fitness.
Overall I am pleased with my improvements. I have improved in all areas even those I didn’t specifically work on. This indicates that I have become a better person and my personal exercise programme that I have taken out and completed my self has been a success. Hopefully this will go on to me being a much stronger competitor in swimming and maybe I will continue to use this plan to improve my skills even more.
By Matthew Bell
