COMPONENTS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS

There are various components of physical fitness required for sporting excellence. Understanding the specific components as related to the sport will assist coaches to select and utilize the precise training methods and exercises to develop these components in compliance to the principles of specificity to the physiological needs of the sport. The components of physical fitness are:

Cardiovascular Endurance (energy system interplay) – The ability of the lungs and heart to take in and transport adequate amounts of oxygen to the working muscles, allowing activities that involve large muscle mass.

Mascular Strengh – The common definition is “ the ability to exert a force against a resistance”. Another definition of strength is “the maximal force that a muscle or muscle group can generate a specific velocity”

Flexibility – Range of motion (ROM) available in a joint or group of joints that can be measured either angularly or linearly.

Body Composition (as required by the sport) – The percentage ratio of muscle versus fat as required by the sport person specific to his/her sport requirement.

Speed – Speed is the quickness of movement of a limb, whether this is the legs of a runner or the arm of the shot putter. Speed is an integral part of every sport and can be expressed as any one of, or combination of the following.

General speed: the capacity to perform any kind of movement (motor reaction) in a rapid manner. Specific speed: the capacity to perform an exercise or skill at a given speed, which is usually high.

Agility – Ability to change direction involving explosive breaking, changing direction and accelerating again while maintaining good body control.

Reaction Time (visual, audio, touch, smell, intuition) – Represents the time between exposure to a stimulus and the first muscular reaction, or the first movement performed.  

Simple reaction: the predetermined conscious response to a previously known signal performed unexpectedly.

Complex reaction : when an individual receives several stimuli and has to choose between them.

Balance (stability, poise, control) – The ability to maintain equilibrium when stationary or moving (i.e. not to fall over) through the coordinated actions of our sensory functions (eyes, ears and the proprioceptive orgains in our joints).

Static balance: ability to retain the centre of mass above the base of support in a stationary position.

Dynamic balance: ability to maintain balance under changing conditions of body movement.

Coordination – The ability to perform movements of various degrees of difficulty very quickly, with great precision and efficiency, and in accordance to the specific task.

General co-ordination – the capacity to rationally perform various motor skills multilaterally.

Specific co-ordination – the ability to perform various movements in the selected sprt vary quickly with ease, flawlessness and precision that closely links to the sports specificity of motor skills.

Kinesthetic Awareness – The spatial awareness of space, speed, distanc, in relation to body position (awareness of body position).

PHYSICAL CONDITIONING CONCEPT : Scope of Physical Conditioning

Significant advances have been made in the process of physical conditioning for sport over the past years. To be in optimum physical condition for competitions, an athlete has to go through an extensive programe of physical fitness training, which consists of regimes of various exercise methods, and systems base on the intergration of various sports science sup-disciplines. A comprenhensive program, with addresses each ascept of athlete’s physical and mental capabilities, is imperative for total success. As such developing sports-fitness base is important for both the performance and the health of the athlete in attaining total conditioning. A needs analysis for any sports conditioning program evaluates the demands of the sport. Which include the range of metabolic requirements, the injury potiental for different parts of the body, and the types of muscle actions or biomechanical characteristics involved in sport.

Physical conditioning refers of the development of physical fitness through the adaptation of the body and its various systems to an exercise program. The bottom line in physical conditioning and fitness training is stress, not mental stress, but adaptive body stress. Sportsmen and women must put their bodies under a certain amount of stress (overload) to increase physical capabilities. One of the misconceptions in the sports world is that a sports person gets in shape by just playing or taking part in her/ his chosen sport. If a limited skills is your goal, then engaging only in your sport will keep you there. However, if you want the most efficiency, consistent improvement, and balanced abilities sportsmen and women must participate in year round physical conditioning programs.

The coach can evaluate and understand the physiological needs of his/her sport by the means of the time, motion, and intensity analysis (tima). ‘tima’ is a useful method to quantify the physical demands of individual athlete during match play or competation. The main advantage of the method is the production of data concerning durations, frequencies and perecentage of various modes of motion and distances covered by athletes of players. It also provides cure measurements of energy expenditure through determining exercise-to-rest ratios and intensities of play as well as direct match involvement. The analysis can also determine different physical, physiological and bio-energetic requirements experienced by athletes or players of different position in a sport or of different sport.