Introduction
Training means engaging in activity to improve performance and/or fitness; this is best accomplished by understanding general sports training principles: overload, reversibility, progression, individualization, periodization, and specificity.
Task
At the end of the lesson you should be able to:
1. Explain the major principles of training and
conditioning
2. Explain how each principle can be used in different sports.
Process
Watch the following video
When we are learning about the principles of training there is an acronym we normally use called SPORT
S- Specific
P- Progression
O- Overload
R- Reversibility
T- Tedium
Now let us look more indept on each. Write the following notes.
Specificity
Improving your ability in a sport is very specific. If you want to be a great pitcher, running laps will help your overall conditioning but won’t develop your skills at throwing or the power and muscular endurance required to throw a fastball fifty times in a game.
Progression
To reach the roof of your ability, you have to climb the first flight of stairs before you can exit the 20th floor and stare out over the landscape. You can view this from both a technical skills standpoint as well as from an effort/distance standpoint. In order to swim the 500 freestyle, you need to be able to maintain your body position and breathing pattern well enough to complete the distance. In order to swim the 500 freestyle, you also need to build your muscular endurance well enough to repeat the necessary motions enough times to finish.
Overload
To increase strength and endurance, you need to add new resistance or time/intensity to your efforts. This principle works in concert with progression. To run a 10-kilometer race, athletes need to build up distance over repeated sessions in a reasonable manner in order to improve muscle adaptation as well as improve soft tissue strength/resiliency. Any demanding exercise attempted too soon risks injury. The same principle holds true for strength and power exercises.
Reversibility
If you discontinue application of a particular exercise like running five miles or bench pressing 150 pounds 10 times, you will lose the ability to successfully complete that exercise. Your muscles will atrophy and the cellular adaptations like increased capillaries (blood flow to the muscles) and mitochondria density will reverse. You can slow this rate of loss substantially by conducting a maintenance/reduced program of training during periods where life gets in the way, and is why just about all sports coaches ask their athletes to stay active in the offseason.
Varation/Tedium
Variation of training adds spice to your training, it keeps you motivated and keeps your exercise regime fresh. Nine times out of ten the variation exercise can have a positive effect on your main sport.
Evaluation
You are the coach for a boxer. Write two paragraphs on how you could apply the principles of training in writing your training program for the athlete.