Unit 1 - Fitness Testing And Training


Assignment 1
Part 1
  1. Cardiovascular/Respiratory Endurance - The ability of the body systems to gather, process, and transport oxygen.
  2. Muscular Endurance - The ability of a muscle to continue contracting over a period of time against a light moderate load. 
  3. Strength - The ability of a muscular unit, or combo of muscular units to apply force.
  4. Flexibility - The ability of maximizing range of motion at a given joint.
  5. Power - The ability of a muscular unit, or combo of muscular units to apply maximum force in minimum time.
  6. Speed - The ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement.
  7. Agility - The ability to minimize transition time between one movement pattern to another.
  8. Co-ordination - The ability to combine several distinct movement patterns into a singular distinct movement.
  9. Balance - The ability to control the placement of the bodies’ center of gravity in relation to its’ support base. `
  10. Reaction Time - The time taken for a sports performer to respond to a stimulus and the innervation of their response
(Btec Sport Book)

I have chosen the second row position because its my position.
The main components of fitness for a second row rugby player in order to achieve e importance are-


  1. Cardio-Vascular Endurance. This is an important component because you have to get to every ruck as quickly as possible or possession of the ball will be lost and then they will get the upper hand. Also to play a full game without getting tired.
  2. Body Composition is very important because you need the right build to be a second row. You need to be tall but also be very strong. You cant be a short second row because you need to be very powerful.
  3. Strength-Power. This is needed in the scrums to push the opposition back. That is important because you will win the ball and it creates a phsycalogical effect to opposition which could win the game. You also need power at the rucks to ruck people off the ball, in the mauls to push them back and for the big tackles everyone loves.
  4. Muscular Endurance to continue using your strength throughout the 80 minutes without getting fatigued and to continue making the big hits and pushing ion the scrums etc....
  5.  Flexibility is needed to get the maximum potential out of your body and muscles. You need it to stretch before and after the game so you don't pull a muscle so there`s less chance of injury. Also the more flexible you are the more force and power can be generated.
They are the five main components of fitness that a second row forward should have, but there are some components that you don't need as much such as-
  • Agility because as a second row you don`t need to sidestep because you are very rarely in the back line. It`s best to have power so you can break the tackle instead of using agility.
  • Speed because a second row shouldn't be looking for gaps he should be looking for the contact.
It would be an added bonus if a second row had these components but they don`t really need them.


There are lots of reasons why Ian Gough is allot better than me, one big one is that he has had years more experienced than me so he has picked up much more tips and little tricks. Also he has had expert coaching and has a perfect body build and goes to the gym every day where as I don't go to the gym so i haven't got as good build. Another reason he is at the top is because he has a nutrition diet and eats the right food to be the size he is, but probably the main reason is he puts 100% into everything he does and if i carry on and put 100% into it then i could be as good as him.


Part 2

As a Second Row I have to do different training sessions to other positions on the pitch because I need different components of fitness to them. I would have to have greater strength and muscular capacity compared to, say, a winger who would need more agility and speed.

These are two of the training sessions a second row would need to achieve excellence-

Interval Training
This is a good training session for a second row because it works different components of fitness at once such as, muscular endurance. It is used because you work for a period of time for three periods as hard as you can so you are working your muscles to the max for an extended period of time. Another component of fitness which we use when we are interval training is C.V endurance because there is different periods of work and between each period is a recovery time. If you have good C.V endurance your bpm will recover more quickly in the rest period so you will be able to work harder in the next round. These components are good for a second row because they are two of the main components that they need to achieve excellence.

Strength Training
The scrummaging machine. This is one of the simplest but yet a very effective way of training. It improves your positioning in the scrum and also improves your power. It can vary in difficulty depending on how much weight you apply to the scrummaging machine. If you don't have much weight it normally means that you are practicing moves or improving on the positioning and the skillful side of scrummaging. When you have perfected the skillful side you can apply power. It takes lots of practice to perfect a scrum but along the way you improve your power and strength. It is important for a second row to scrummage and this is a good training session for strength aswell as skill.
Picture from-

http://www.irishrugby.ie/images/news/EuanMurray_Lionstraining_scrummaging_Durban3.jpg
PART 3
COMPARING TWO POSITIONS

Now I am going to compare two very different rugby players who have two very different positions. One of them is Ian Gough who is my position. A second row against a totally different position, a winger. Maybe a winger can be tall but they need to have specific fitness components which are speed, co-ordination, balance, and agility. They also need to have flexibility to improve these components of fitness but flexibility apply s to all positions because you need flexibility to be good at all of the components. as i said a second row should always be tall and you can have tall wingers. So the body composition quite similar. The differences are that a second row should be stronger and have more muscle. For example Ian Gough has a huge body build where as Nickie Walker  tall and is muscular but no where near as big as Ian. Another difference i mentioned was agility. It is not essential for a second row to have agility but it would be a little bonus if he did. Whereas for a winger it is high up on the list of "components of fitness importance list". but if he didn't have agility he could make up for it with power to just ram the opposition over. Ian Gough has a huge amount of power especially in the scrums but lacks speed which is halve the equation to have power. "speed x strength = power" He was a part of the scrum that pushed back Australia but i don`t think he could bounce their full back. Now Shane Williams has not allot of power but has amazing co-ordination. He knows exactly the amount of steps to make in a side step. if its a quick nippie one or if he had allot of time and started stepping really early. Ian Gough has good co-ordination where hes needed e.g in the scrums but when it comes to running and passing he wouldn't be able to do it as well as a winger. The main reason why they are different is one that not many people know. The winger gets all the glory for running past a line and putting a ball down whereas a second row did all the work foe the winger to get the ball. We had to fight off all the opposition in the rucks which is really tyring and getting the ball in the line outs and we all do all that hard work for no appreciation. the wingers get all the glory and we get nothing. That's why whenever a winger gets the ball,if a second row has the chance to nail him he always does. We love owning wingers.


Assignment 2.1

Lifestyle factors that effect a sportsman are


  • Media
This could effect a sportsman because of all the pressure they put on you. Also they can exaggerate the story much more and make a big deal of it. For example, Andy Powell was a top level rugby player and he was in the Wales squad intill after they won a game he got drunk and drove a golf buggy to a petrol station. This may sound bad but he didn't go on any public roads, he just went on a golf course path which no one was on. Whereas the media said that he went along the motorway on the hard shoulder, because of this he had an argument with the Wales coach, "Warren Gatland".
   Other ways the media puts pressure on people is the reports they do in the newspapers and magazines. If you don't have a good game they will write an article about how bad you did and that could completely ruin your confidence.

  • Injury`s
This effects you because while you are injured you are unable to train for the sport you play which will lead to you becoming worse and unfit for your sport. I have had an experience with an injury and it caused me to not play or train for four weeks. This was a major blow for me because at the time I was at the best of my ability and because I wasn't training I lost all my fitness. It is taking me allot of time for me to get back to the level I was at. This hasn't effected me that much but it would effect a professional sportsman allot more because their fitness level is allot higher than mine so it will be harder to come back. Also once you get an injury you sometimes get more injury's because your body has had time off so its not used to that level of sport.Another reason it effects you is because when you go back from your injury you will be less confident. For example if you have an injury and you take allot of time off rugby then when you go back your body isn't immune to the contact so you will be less confident in the tackles.

Drugs

There are different types of drugs that can effect your sport. Some are illegal some are legal, some are allowed and some are not, some improve your skill levels and some decrease your skill level but overall drugs in sport are not allowed. Any illegal drugs are not allowed because they are illegal and as professional sportsmen they have to set an example. Steroids is the main drug used to enhance your ability to preform. They are banned from sports because it is an unfair advantage to the people who take it. Even though they are legal you are not allowed to take it which is the same situation as alcohol. Some people don't categorize alcohol as a drug but it defiantly is. You can get banned from your sport not because you have drunk it but because of your actions when your on it. Andrew Flintoff was skipper for England and decided to have a drink after he won a game. If all he did was have a drink then that wouldn`t have lost his position as captain but because of his actions when under the influence he stole a pedalo and went out to sea which was very dangerous and the life guards had to rescue him.

Stress

Stress is an everyday emotion that can be caused by a number of different things such as pressure, relationships, travelling etc. Stress is mainly a personal problem and is a huge distraction when playing a sport. When you are put under pressure in your sport, (especially an individual sport) you can subconsciously be distracted and not play to your best potential. Relationships can distracted you because if you are going through a hard time in your relationship, like Gavin Henson you might not have the motivation to play because you are depressed or upset. Travaling can cause stress because you could get home sick.

Assignment 3.1

To complete this assignment we carried out four fitness tests on ourselves and compare our results to the national averages. These tests were-
  • Sit & Reach
  • Abdominal curl test
  • Alternate hand ball test
  • 35m sprint

Warm Up
For the warm up he ran two laps of the sports hall and then skipped for a minute. When his temperature and heart rate was raised he stretched.

Sit and Reach
For the sit and reach test you would have to sit down and take your shoes off and you put your feet against special sit and reach box. Then you would have to keep your knees on the floor at all times, you have three attempts at stretching as far as you. Then measure how far you stretched in Cm's and take down the results on a table. Use the best score for your final score. For this test we used a sit and reach box, a straight edge and a ruler.


Maximal Press Up Test
In this test we do as many press ups as we could in a minute without stopping. Someone would clench a fist and place it underneath the person doing the test and if the subject doesnt touch the fist with his/her chest then the press up doesnt count. The person with the clenched fist will count the number of press ups the subject does.
Illinois Agility Run
This is a maximal test so sir would have to do this as fast as he could. We set out a series of cones and then we showed him the path to go through the cones. Then we counted down from three and he did the test. he did it twice and we took down his best time.

Multistage Fitness Test
We explained to sir that this test would be a maximal and progressive test so he would have to keep going for as long as he possible could to get the most out of the test. We put cones out which were 20m apart. There was a multistage fitness CD which is essential for the test. We explained that he had to run to each of the cones and touch them on the beep and that on every level the beeps got faster and there were more of them. To carry out the test you would need, the multistage fitness test CD, a gap of 20m and someone to count how far they've gone.


Untitled from lewis eynon on Vimeo.

Untitled from lewis eynon on Vimeo.



 
Comparison and Evaluation of Results
From his results we can evaluate and Analise how well Mr Charles has done by comparing him to national averages and other teachers scores.

We can see fro these results that that Mr Charles is above the average and he is good for his age.



We can see from the graph that Mr Charles score below the Average and is very poor for his age.

We can see from our results that Mr Charles in the Illinois Agility Run did Average for his age.



We can see that Mr Charles score that he did Awesome. He is well above average for his age.

Analysis
From the results we can identify Mr Charls`s strengths and weaknesses. We can see that he did amazingly well on the maximal press up test and he did well above the average sore and that he did well on the multistage fitness test. His weakness is his flexibility which he got below average for his result. If Sir was to train he should focus less on his strength and more on his flexibility, he could do this by doing flexibility training such as PNF and general stretching. His C.V endurance can be improved by a going on a continuous run or circuit training but he doesn't have to because he was above the average on his results. He should focus on his agility as well because he got average but he should aim higher than that because he is capable of doing better.

When we tested Mr Charles it was a trail run. We tested ourselves after and then compared it to the natioanal average. We completed the tests and recoreded our results just as we did with Mr Charles. We had to fill in an informed consent to complete the tests stating what we had to do. Before we did the test we warmed up to achieve maximal potential in the tests. We warmed up by doing a lap round the track and 30 seconds of skipping.
The tests we did were-

  • Sit & reach test
  • Sit up test
  • 35m sprint
  • Alternate hand ball wall test
 Sit & reach test
The sit and reach test is a test for flexibility in the lower legs, specificly the hamstrains. To complete the sit and reach test we had to warm up to prevent any pulls or strains.
The sit and reach test is a maximal test which means you would stretch as far as you could.
- To do the test you will need a special sit and reach box.
- You have 3 attempts to achieve your best score.
- We read the results in cm.

Maximal sit up test
The maximal sit up test is a test for muscular endurance. Its a test for the abdoman the stronger your abdomon muscles the more sit ups you will do.
- To do this test you need a stopwatch
- A soft surface so you dont hurt your back
Once you are ready you need to start the stopwatch and see how how many sit ups you can do in a minute.

35m sprint
The 35m sprint is a test for speed. You run as fast as you can for 35m. We did this outside on the athletics track.
To do this test you would need a -
-stopwatch
-tape measure
-and cones
we ran this but our results will be affected becasue the grass was wet and there was no grip. Also the grass was long which does slow you down.

Analysis
I will now compare my results to the national averages and see how well i did and what i can improve on.

From this we can see that I did below average which is bad, i could improve this by PNF stretching and other flexability training.

From this i can see that my muscular endurance needs improving. I thought i would have done better than this but didnt so i am going to work on muscular endurance.
From my results we can see that i did very well and that my co-ordination is excellent.
                                          
From this we can see that i did very bad but i have reason. When comparing results the enviroment the test i done in must be the same and the 35m sprint should be done on a non-slip surface. When i did the test i did it outside on the wet grass.
Analysis
From the graphs we can see my strengths and weaknesses. We can see that i have more weaknesses than strengths and that i could improve a significant amount more by training the different components of fitness. On the hand ball wall test i did very well and i havnt trained co-ordination so this shows that i have a natural ability with co-ordination. On the 35m sprint i did poorly but i did the test on wet grass which effected my results but i would have done bad anyway because i know im not that fast anyway. The sit and reach test i did best out of my class even though i scored below average on the national results. Pnf stretching will help me achieve a better range of flexability. The maximal sit up test was the hardest test and again, i scored below average. Curcite training will help with my muscular endurance and i could change the sessions to focus on different muscle groups. The reason i did badly on this test is because my fitness level is bad because rugby season has finished so i hadnt done any training. 


Assignment 6

Part 1

There are many different psychological factors that can effect an athleats proformance. They are -
  • Arousal
  • Anxiety
  • Motivation-(lack of interest, no rest period ect.)
  • Personality
  • Concentration
Arousal
The defanition of arousal is a state of heightened physiological activity. An example of this is when a highly aroused game would be contact sport but low arousal is needed when you don`t need aggression but you still need focus.


Anxiety
Understanding how anxiety affects sports performance requires first an understanding of the physiological nature of anxiety.
Anxiety, or feeling physically and mentally anxious can present in different ways, such as fear and nervousness but it has an underlying cause; stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is exactly that, a system of nerves sympathetic to both our mood and our environment. When something triggers this nervous system, it is commonly referred to as the "fight or flight" response. However, this does not mean that our sympathetic nervous system is only triggered in situations of personal danger. Our minds are complex, and "danger' might translate psychologically as 'making a speech in front of an audience' or 'playing in the big game'.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_does_anxiety_affect_sports_performance




Motivation
Motivation is a feeling that we get to achieve goals. There are two types of motivation, intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is when you motivate yourself to achieve and extrinsic is when other people motivate you.


Personality
Can benefit your performance or knock it. There are two different types of personalities, introvoted and extrovoted. Introvoted is when you are quiet and extrovoted is when you are loud.


Concentration
Is when you are focused on what you are doing.


Part 2
Analyse the effects of arousal, anxiety, motivation, personality and concentration.


Arousal
It is important that you arouse yourself to the perfect level. For example if you arouse yourself too much then you will not be focused on what you are doing because you are too aggressive but if you don`t do it enough then your skill levels wont be as beneficial as if you were more aroused. As a rugby play I find it quite hard to arouse myself to the perfect level and it can be the factor of winning and losing. Your arousal levels should differ depending on the sport you play because if you play a contact game such as rugby or american football then your arousal levels need to be very high, if you play a sport which involves concentration such as darts or bowls your arousal levels should be medium too low because you don`t want to get frustrated and therefor make mistakes. It is very important factor in sport.


Anxiety
This can obviously effect someones sports performance because if they have a high level of anxiety then it means that they are not focused on the game and that their mind is elsewhere. Also an example could be that if you have a high level of anxiety in a game of rugby you wont hit the rucks and maules hard or if your a back having the confidence to make the tackle or break their line. This would be a massive factor to a sports performer because your performance would be terrible and you would be constantly making mistakes.


Motivation
In my opinion intrinsic motivation is always good because your motivating yourself but extrinsic can be bad because the people might think they are motivating you when the really could be putting pressure on you which could effect your performance. Motivation in general could effect your performance because if you are not motivated then you are not putting in 100% to the game so you are not playing as well as you should be. If you are not motivated this could be a sign that you are not enjoying the sport you play and that you should think about ways to get yourself motivated again such as, taking an active rest period so you don`t lose your fitness but you are taking time off from the sport so when you go back to it you will enjoy it again. If this is not the case and you still don`t enjoy your sport then i think its time to consider taking permanent time off from the sport.


Personalities
Your personality can be a good thing in sport or a bad thing. I think this because in sport people say being cocky is a bad thing and you shouldn't be cocky but if you look at the greatest boxer in the world, Mohammed Ali, he was very cocky indeed. He had a famous quote that when he would turn the lights off to go to sleep he was in bed before the lights went out. So for Mohammed to be cocky was probably a good thing. This is an example of an extrinsic personality which i think is the better one in sports because when you are loud and cocky then it often brings confidence with it but if you have an intrinsic personality, quiet, then you wont be confident because you are quiet. This is not always the case that intrinsic people are not as good at sports as extrinsic people but most of the time it is true.


Concentration
If you are not concentrated before you play your sport then your mind will not be focused and will be elsewhere so you are more likely to make easy mistakes. Arousal requires concentration so you need to concentrate to get the perfect arousal level so if you are not concentrated then you are not aroused so thats two big factors which will effect you performance. Also if you are not concentrated then if your in a team game it is very likely that you will got one of your teammates not concentrated as well, so it can have a chain effect and you will therefor lose the game. You can lose concentration during a game. some of the factors that could make you lose your concentration are, making mistakes, the weather, outside stress (relationships, children etc..), the opponent(s) and the crowd. There are other ways you can lose your concentration but i listed the main ones.

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