Protected: Sports and Fitness Conditioning

Now that we have addressed the components of fitness which are important to sports performance, one needs to be able to integrate these components into a program for an elite…

Evaluation and Assessment The coach should be familiar with the sport for which they designing programs. If you are not familiar with the sport, it is recommended that you gain…

When designing a programme it is vital that one pays careful attention to variables such as intensity, volume, recovery and taper. We shall now have a look at each variable.…

Different sports and athletes will require training at different levels of cardiorespiratory training. It is important to be able to quantify training and provide objective measures of training whilst training…

In order to understand concepts of training for flexibility, one needs to understand factors which affect flexibility. Flexibility can be affected by factors such as muscular atrophy, neural atrophy, connective…

Resistance training is the collective term for various types of strength building exercises that rely on the use of resistance to promote muscle strength and growth. Various terms are used…

Plyometrics is defined as quick powerful movements which involve an eccentric contraction followed immediately by an explosive concentric contraction. An example of this would be an athlete bending the knees…

Speed is best defined as the rate of performance of an activity. Often speed can be the defining aspect of performance which relates to the result in a particular sport.…

Recovery techniques in training Recovery or regeneration may be defined as a multi dimensional process that depends on intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Not all coaches take into account the importance…

Periodisation is often said to have been initially implemented by a Russian Sport Scientist. Periodisation is however, not a Russian discovery. If one looks back to as far as the…

The most highly regarded sports scientists claim that programming is not an exact science, and therefore there is no absolute right answer in determining the best approach to planning and…

When designing an annual plan the coach needs to take into account careful planning for both micro-cycles and macro-cycles. It is recommended that the coach does not plan too far…

“Peaking” is a temporary state when physical and psychological efficiencies are maximized and where the levels of technical and tactical preparation are optimal. During this state of training, the individual’s…

Sports scientists have reported that there are critical periods in the life of a young person in which the effects of training can be maximised. They have also concluded that…

Talent identification has been seen to be an extremely effective means of identifying and developing athletes with excellent results. This was particularly well demonstrated by the Eastern Block countries in…

When one looks at fitness coaching, it is important to understand what makes a good coach as compared to a coach who is not successful. There are various differences amongst…