The physical fitness and skill related fitness requirements in three different sports

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The physical fitness and skill related fitness requirements in tennis

Tennis is a fun fast paced challenging sport, which demands a high level of skill and ability to play. Tennis requires muscular endurance, flexibility, speed and aerobic endurance these are the physical fitness of tennis. The skill related side of tennis requires Balance, power, agility, Coordination and reaction time. These are the fundamental components of tennis but what do they mean?

Physical fitness

Muscular endurance is the ability to produce repetitive movements of a muscle or muscle group and not to get tired while doing so Paul beashel, 2006. Throughout a match in tennis you will hit hundreds of balls and they need to be as hard at the end of a match as well as the beginning. Tennis requires muscular endurance so that your body can quickly recover from prolonged points and be ready to perform again and again, with minimal rest in between. The aim is to hit the final shots of the match as effectively as the first ones. Muscular endurance can be enhanced through training.

Flexibility is the ability to perform a joint action through a range of movement Paul beashel, 2006. Tennis sometimes requires you to place your body parts in extreme ranges of motion e.g. reaching for the ball and serving.  Flexibility is important to tennis because of the quick starts and stops in tennis, reaching for overheads and serves, and lunging and

Speed is the ability to move body parts quickly over a set distance Paul beashel, 2006. In tennis the faster you can get to a ball, the more time you have to prepare for and execute your shot. Although speed has a largely genetic component, muscles and the nervous system can be trained to make a player faster. Many athletes are fast in a straight line, but tennis players must have the agility to be able to change directions at speed. If you had poor speed you would have less time preparing for the next shot.

Aerobic endurance is the ability to continue exercising for a long period of time. To do this the body needs to transport and use the oxygen that is breathed in during exercise Paul beashel, 2006. Aerobic endurance is an important to tennis because during a tennis match you have 25 seconds of rest between points and 90 seconds at changeovers. It will be difficult to recover throughout a match if your aerobic fitness is poor you will be fatigue by the end of a match. Basically The more endurance you have the longer you can keep going, the more ground you cover across the court during the course of a match, the less likely you are to lose concentration, and the less mistakes you will make.

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Body composition body composition is used to describe the percentages of ,  and  in human bodies. In order to perform at your optimum a player must have good body composition. Body composition can be altered through appropriate training and nutrition. Tennis players must also have appropriate levels of body fat. Too much body fat will slow you down and make you sluggish. Males should aim for between 815% body fat while females should aim for between 1522% body fat.

Skill related fitness

Balance is the ability to maintain the centre of gravity through ...

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