Rationale for Work Placement - Essay Example

Rationale for Work Placement Based on personal interests, attributes and skills, sport therapy is a bit off the required practices that a fitness instructor and trainer does best. Although sport therapy is an interesting field as well, an instructor for the same would appear to duplicate learning modules, since it is also offered in class work. A good example to illustrate this sentiment is the situation at Selby College, which offers sport therapy as a learning module in class. Besides, professional sport instructors need fitness prowess more than in any other field (Fröhlich, Giebing and Preuss, 2005, p95). Interests in professional sport training still remain high on the priority list of target achievements. The attained skills in fitness back up the reasons why work placement at Doncaster Rovers youth team should be the better option. The club’s popularity and professional level in the country will come in handy in the professional experience needed for a fitness instructor. The skills in fitness have been sharpened by the engagement as part time fitness instructor and the regular gym attendance and training. Doncaster Rovers Football Club’s strength and conditioning is currently headed by Coach Dan, who is open to new challenges and has accepted to work with me if my placement procedure goes through. The following section highlights the fitness expertise that I have so far amassed, further supporting the reason why work placement at Doncaster Rovers remains the better placement. Strength and Strength Endurance Physical strength is one of the principle fitness skills that a good trainer aims at imparting to the clients. Football players need strength in order to gain position advantage in front of the defenders and maintain versatility for a longer time. The training involved targets mostly the legs, with an aim of physically lowering the player’s centre of gravity. Strength enables the player to attain high balance capacity needed in stability. Stability is not only needed in running and fighting for the ball but also in dribbling towards the opponent’s net (Kraemer and Zatsiorsky, 1995, p105). The other part of the body targeted in strength training is the upper body, which enables the player to coordinate aerial contests for the ball as well as ball control. Contact with the opponents must be solidly positioned to avoid unnecessary face-offs. The torso fitness training includes muscular ability enhancement. Strength endurance is particularly important in games with high tempo and contact like football. Endurance training involves improvement on the players’ ability to use sub-maximal energy in the entire game duration, to enable the muscles gain tolerance to extended energy taxing. It is not necessarily aimed at muscle mass but the ability of the muscle to endure long durations of workouts. Training includes use of three types of exercise; body weight tolerance, machine weight resistance as well as free weight (objects). Training controls the factors that limit strength and endurance abilities some which include reps, amount of weight, resting time and intervals, consistency, sequence of activities. Some of the activities that the strength program should contain are: warm-up, stretching/flexing, leg; extension, press, curls, standing calf raises, groin poppers, hip poppers, back extension, sit ups/crunches, torso rotation, curls; arm, wrist, lat pull down, shoulder press, rowing, bench press, neck-stension, cool-down/light stretching and flexing. All muscles of the body as well as the mind should be worked out in a systematic plan to achieve strength and endurance (Peters and Wiksten, 2000, p63). Speed and Agility Speed is of essence in any game and football is particularly dependent on the player’s ability to utilize body and mind swiftness. There are several ways to attain top speed in footballers, but the basic skills target stride frequency as well as stride length. Stride frequency and length are the main determinants of physical speed of a player. But the most important aspect of speed in football is the speed of the brain; coordination. Control must be maintained throughout the swift movements in football, in order to make meaningful movements. Fast movements must be hinged on the ability to change direction for ball control. Form running skills entail other fitness training such as strength and aerobics. Important drills in training for speed include arm swings, high knees marches, skips and lifts, quick skips, quick flexes, jogs, strides and sprinting (Peters and Wiksten, 2000, p75). Agility training aims at improving the ability of the player to occasion body position changes without impact. The player’s body obeys physical rules of nature by resisting change in position during motion. To achieve desired changes in position of the player’s body, coordination of the body movements must bring into play such features as balance, strength and endurance. Stamina building is the ultimate destination in with a well coordinated agility improvement. The rapid movements in football require a high level of agility skills which enable the player to fight for the ball, pass the ball, defend and shoot as and when the rare chances come. Aerobic and Anaerobic Training Aerobic training involves the improvement of flexibility, strength and cardiovascular system integrity for sporting needs. Stretching exercises for certain duration of time enable flow of blood into the various body parts, ensuring supply of air and nutrients through blood. Circulation is very important in the general health status of the players. Music accompaniment enhances concentration and morale in the players, since the work outs take a considerable amount of time. Rhythm is an important element of the training, perhaps the reason why most instructors prefer music playing in the background. Anaerobic training aims at enhancing endurance in extensive energy demands, by promoting breath and energy utilization. Exercise intensity is changed to accommodate higher air and energy demands. Training schedules adopt a structured program to include interval and location change, to trigger tolerance to anaerobic conditions. Oxygen intake through constant breathing is altered to condition the body to resist breakdowns due to limited breathing time and energy. Greater performance is delivered under such conditioned circumstances (Kraemer and Zatsiorsky, 1995, p105). Flexibility, Warming Up and Cooling Down Flexibility is very important in ensuring that the muscles don’t get strained in play time. Flexibility is enhanced during exercises and warming up. Warming up training entails the light excise that the players are exposed to, to gradually condition their muscles and body systems to catch up with the energy demand increases to be experienced in the real play. Football movements are highlighted in the warm up, to make sure that the correct preparation is made before the player engages in deep play. Stretching is usually incorporated in the activities done in warming up. Mental preparation is also involved where the player adapts to the play field environment. Cooling down is an ending exercise encounter that conditions the muscles and mind to come out of the high energy demand, without crashing down. Light exercises are carried out in about five minutes. Testing Specific Football Fitness Fitness is varied across sports, with some specific skills for various sports demanding certain abilities. Football fitness covers the player’s ability to creatively display football skills such as warm up activities, general fitness, dribbling, discipline and determination (Hawkins, 2004, p93). References Fröhlich, M., Giebing, J., & Preuss, P. (2005). Current results of strength training research: an empirical and theoretical. Gottingen: Cuvillier Verlag Publishers Hawkins, R. (2004). The official FA guide to fitness for football. London, UK: Hodder & Stoughton Kraemer, W. J., & Zatsiorsky, V. M., (1995). Science and practice of strength training. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Peters, C., & Wiksten, D. L., (2000). The athletic trainer's guide to strength and endurance training. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK, Inc. Read More