Barwon Sports Academy

• Speed - The ability to move over a distance in a short amount of time. 


• Agility - The ability to change body position quickly without losing balance.
• Static Balance - The ability of stability whilst unmoving.

• Dynamic Balance - The ability stability whilst moving.


• Coordination - The ability to combine motions to complete a task with accuracy.
• 

Reaction Time - The time taken to respond to a motion.


• Muscular Power - The combination of strength and speed.
• Flexibility - The range of movement at the joints.

• Muscular Endurance - The ability of the muscles to maintain continuous force over a period of time.


• Muscular Strength - The ability of the muscles to exert a single maximal force to overcome resistance.
• Body Composition - Body fat to body ratio.

• Cardio-respiratory Endurance - The ability (of the body) to continue to give oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products to and from the body cells over periods of time.

Training Methods

Some factors that affect your training. There are various questions you can ask about your training; how hard should you train, how often and how long?   We examine these questions in this section.

How hard should you work when you train?  

This is called your ‘training intensity’. Is harder training better?  The optimal training intensity depends on the individual person.  It is train often at above this level; you are more likely to be injured.  Training at a lower level helps you keep general cardiovascular health but you will not optimize your personal performance for high level aerobic events.   

How long should an exercise session last? 

The ideal duration for a training session is difficult to say because it, too, depends on the individual person and on the intensity with which the person exercises.   Thirty minutes of training at 85% maximum heart rate may be of more benefit than 15 minutes. Training for sixty minutes, however, may not give you twice the advantage.  This is because there is a point at which the negative effects of exercising come into play when doing it at a high level.   When you know the goal of your training,  for example,  to run 20 km or cycle 80 km, it is best to look at the duration of  the planned event, and to train at the same level of anticipated  performance for approximately that duration and gradually increase your efficiency for achieving that goal.

How long should you train?  

What is the most effective training frequency? It seems that most people get maximum aerobic conditioning that is, they increase VO2max, with 3 training sessions each week.    The days you take off allow muscles and ligaments to repair and reduce the risk of cumulative physical stress. The 3 days rest each week maximize aerobic conditioning equally in any combination, for example, 3 days in a row with 4 rest days or alternating days.  

When you are talking about the frequency of training, you need to focus on the intensity of the training. If you keep the intensity the same, you can lower the frequency and duration of the training you need to maintain your aerobic fitness level. However, if you reduce the intensity of the training and still do it with the same frequency, your fitness level will drop.

How can you select the types of training that are most useful for you ?

There are several different training methods that can be used to improve ability in different sports.  How can you decide which methods will work best for you?   What you need to do is to look at the intensity and duration of energy use in your chosen sport. The different types of training involve activities that last for different periods of time.    Anaerobic exercise lasts for a brief duration while aerobic exercise lasts much longer.  

Anaerobic exercise usually lasts less than 60 seconds. Weightlifting and sprinting are examples of this.  If these events last more than 10 seconds, lactic acid can build up and reduce muscle performance.  Training that focuses on anaerobic activities improves your tolerance to and removal of lactic acid and helps your muscles get energy from anaerobic conditions.

Aerobic training improves the delivery of oxygen to the muscles. It increases how well the heart pumps the blood and how well the muscles extract oxygen from the blood.  It also improves how well glucose is converted into energy. Slow long distance work is good training for aerobic, endurance events.   

As your level of exertion increases, there is a slow buildup of anaerobic metabolism in your muscles. At 85% VO2max, the "anaerobic threshold" for most individuals, there is an abrupt increase in anaerobic metabolism throughout the entire muscle. In most training programs you need a balance of both aerobic and anaerobic exercises.

What types of training should you do ?

There are various types of training methods you can use to obtain the required improvement in fitness.  These methods include

• Weight or resistance training
• Plyometric training
• Circuit training
• Interval training
• Aerobic or continuous training

The types of training methods are as follows:

• Weight or resistance training Weight or resistance training focuses on building up strength, power or local muscular endurance by exercising muscle against a resistance.  The muscles contract to lift a weight such as a barbell, a dumbbell or an item that offers resistance.
• Circuit training Circuit training is an approach to training that can be used to develop several aspects of fitness.  Circuits can be designed to include many types of activities and equipment that may be specific to a certain activity or sport.
• Plyometric training Plyometric training can be used to develop fast muscle fibre  so that you can get power,  particularly in the legs. It’s based on the idea that a shortening muscular contraction is much stronger if it immediately follows a lengthening contraction of the same muscle.   Muscle fibres transfer energy more quickly and powerfully when they move in this way.   It’s like stretching fully a coiled spring and then letting it go; energy is released rapidly as the spring recoils.   Individuals can use activities such as hopping, depth jumping and bounding.   Pylometric training should be implemented under supervision, since the technique and strength necessary to do the activities is broken by periods of rest to minimize injury.
• Interval training   Interval training is used to improve both aerobic and anaerobic fitness.  It refers to having periods of intense physical activity between periods of recovery, to allow longer periods of training time at your peak performance levels.  Doing ten 80-metre sprints in ten seconds with a 60 second recovery is an example.    In training for sprints, for example, the exercise intensity or maximum effort should remain unchanged and the recovery period should be at least three times longer than the training interval.   
• You can also use interval training for longer events.   If you are training to run 10 km run in 40 minutes, you could begin by running 1 km in 4 minutes, have 4 minutes rest, then run another and gradually build up from this.   This type of training is usually alternated with other training methods, for example, you may run like this two nights a week and spend the third session taking a longer, slower run.   
• Continuous training   Continuous training refers to aerobic activity performed at 60 to 90% VO2max for at least half an hour with a minimum of three training sessions per week.  This training improves aerobic capacity.  Examples of this are aerobics, gym circuit classes, cycling and swimming and running and jogging.   When done at the lower end of this range, it is often referred to as long, slow distance (LSD) training.    This level of training is ideal for those starting off an exercise program, those wishing to maximize burning calories for weight loss and as an option for an active "rest” day in a weekly aerobic training program.

This level of exertion can be maintained for hours at slightly less intensity than used in competitive events in the past, and is particularly suited for endurance event training.  It is thought to have a preferential beneficial effect on the slow twitch muscle fibers (as opposed to the fast twitch fibers used in sprint interval training).

You can improve your performance in any sport by developing an effective training program. You can select the most appropriate training methods to incorporate in your training program by following these steps.