Fitness and Training
Fitness refers to a state where one is suitable for fulfilling a job, task or role. Many individuals do not enjoy fitness but it has many benefits (Plowman et al. 384). The social benefits of fitness include offers one a chance to meet and interact with other people. Through interacting with others, friendship may be established and one may become more motivated in performing exercises to improve their fitness. The physical benefits include total weight control and minimize the risk of getting diabetes, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases. According to Ciccolo et al., physical benefits include stimulation of bone growth, and this influences the increase in body muscles strength as well as mass (263). Mental benefits of fitness include relieving stress, anxiety and minimizes the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. It also improves on one’s memory.
Most of the times, it is usually often difficult to adhere to a schedule of daily or regular exercise. This is because there exist several hindrances. One of them is time. Most people usually lack time to engage in exercises. This may due to their job schedule. It is highly recommended that one should at least set aside a little time to exercise by either waking up early or over the weekends. Another barrier is that some people find exercise for fitness to be boring. This can be overcome by exercising with friends so as to be motivated and learning new skills during workouts. Other barriers are people are at times lazy to perform exercises or claim to be always tired after their jobs. Also, there is the barrier of self-conscious. Due to ego, some people avoid exercises.
Skills and fitness components in soccer include speed. A player is supposed to move their body parts and run faster. Another one is agility, where a player is expected to swiftly shift speed and direction as they are running. There is also the reaction time. As a forward, a player should be able to respond quickly in the field. There is also power. A player should possess power during their speed.
In soccer, there are both mental and physical skills required for a player to be fit. The physical skills include balance, sprinting, strength, power as well as stamina. Mental skills include composure, decision-making, vision and intelligence. All these have to be applied by a soccer player. The fitness components in soccer are agility, flexibility, balance, speed, reaction period, and stability.
Gareth Bale is a soccer player who plays in the forward position. As a forward position player, a lot of energy is usually required as most body muscles are used. This energy usually comes from the energy pathways in the body. Therefore, the fitness test I would choose is Yo-Yo test. This test will evaluate his ability on how he can repeatedly engage in exercises that are intense. The importance of this test is that it has correlations with running distance by the player in high intensity during a gaming session, as players run and jog a lot during a game.
During a game, a soccer player uses energy from ATP-CP, oxidative or glycolytic pathways (Hatfield, 1993, p. 9) . Normally, 50% of energy comes from ATP-CP pathway where CP stored ATP is utilized to produce energy (ATP), 30% of energy comes from glycolytic pathway where glucose in blood or glycogen in liver is used to produce energy (ATP), and 20% from oxidative pathway where intracellular fats or adipose is used to produce energy (ATP).
When a player is being trained, the focus is usually placed on his skills and fitness. I would prescribe intense specific-drills, twists and turns so a soccer player can easily move with speed during a game in any direction. Training principles that would be incorporated include specificity whereby physical activity will be replicated to boost his skills, progressive overload whereby the workload will be heightened considering that he plays a forward position and duration whereby the training process should be of a certain period of time so as to allow the body to recover.
Works Cited
Ciccolo, Joseph T, and William J. Kraemer. Resistance Training for the Prevention and Treatment of Chronic Disease. N.p., 2014. Print.
Hatfield, F. C. (1993). Hardcore bodybuilding: A scientific approach. Chicago: Contemporary Books.
Plowman, Sharon A, and Denise L. Smith. Exercise Physiology for Health, Fitness, and Performance. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008. Print.
