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.