| |
Training techniques and conditioning
|
| Recovery training | Nutrition | Sports psychology | Technique | advances in sport science | Equipment Improved facilities | Athlete environment |
| Training programs have become much more specific.
Programs are now individually designed to suit individuals and the
sport for which they are training. Programs include a variety of
activities apart from just practicing the skill, like resistance
training to develop muscle groups responsible for executing the
skill and anaerobic and aerobic training to improve the body's use
of different energy systems. This sometimes includes the collection
and analysis of blood samples or exhaled air during workouts. Increased
athletic performance can be achieved through what is termed "progressive
overload" of body systems (i.e. muscular) and fuel stores that underlie
each of the often referred to 5 main characteristics of conditioning
- strength, power, speed, endurance and flexibility.
|
Recovery training
|
| Equally important as the principle of overload is
the principle of recovery. This relates to how quickly the body adapts to the last
workload and is able to prepare itself for the next. Incorporating recovery activities
into the training program which might include proper nutrition, hydration, massage,
hydrotherapy, rest and/or meditation, aims to reduce nutritional, physiological,
neurological and psychological fatigue and thus increasing the adaptation time of the body
in preparation for the next training session (accelerated recovery). Monitoring the
athlete, including certain body functions, is also another way of telling when the body is
ready for its next workout and how it is adapting to training. These include checking
resting heart-rate, weight, sleep patterns, urine colour and attitude to training.
|
Nutrition
|
| Our knowledge of dietary requirements has improved
dramatically over time. The high fat, high protein pre race diet
of steak and eggs has been replaced by meals consisting mainly of
complex carbohydrates like pasta and rice. Nutritionists are also
available to advise athletes on their diet and ensure they are taking
in the correct balance of nutrients specific to their sport, training
program, body type, work, home and social life. Weight, body composition
and skinfold tests are regularly conducted with elite athletes in
order to monitor this. Click here
for more nutrition information. |
Sports psychology
|
| Athletes are more aware now of the contribution of
the mind to performance. Techniques such as goal setting, motivation, concentration and
relaxation techniques and mental imagery (rehearsal of different aspects of performance)
are used to gain "the edge". Anxiety which is psychological, but also a
phenomenon which correlates with the release of adrenalin in the body, is something which
can either detract from performance, or indeed enhance it. If an athlete is able to
achieve the correct arousal/anxiety level prior to and during performance, then a best
result is most likely. Tennis star Bjorn Borg or "The ice-Borg" as he was
referred to, is an example of an athlete who was able to successfully control his
psychological state. |
Technique
|
| In some sports there has actually been significant
changes in the technique an athlete uses to execute a skill. For example in the high jump
the technique changed from the "hurdle" technique to the "roll" and
finally the "Fosbury flop" technique which significantly increased the ultimate
heights which an athlete could jump. In a power event such as the discus, the throw now
involves an elaborate, spinning choreography which has been developed and enhanced over
the years. |
Advances in sport science
|
| Sport Science has become very advanced, using computer
technology it is now possible to carry out bio-mechanical analysis
to detect errors in an athlete's technique. It has also been able
to help maximise the forces that different body parts can produce
to achieve maximum or optimal efforts. Significant changes throughout
the years can be illustrated using a variety of sports e.g. swimming,
especially in a stroke like breaststroke. |
 |
Equipment
|
| Improvement in sporting equipment has had a
positive effect on sporting performance. There are many examples of this; improved running
shoes, winged keels, different weight distributions in golf clubs, larger racquet heads
and even the balls used in tennis, aerodynamic cycling helmets and lighter bikes, tartan
running tracks and streamlined costumes. |
Improved facilities
|
| Training facilities have improved in type and number
e.g. heated indoor pools, astro-turf hockey fields and wave absorbing
ropes in swimming pools. |
Athlete environment
|
| The environment in which an athlete trains and competes
has also been linked to maximising performance. There have been
arguments put forward to suggest that by institutionalising athletes
(placing them all together in one place under the same conditions,
training, etc.), they will achieve better performances. Similarly
there are those who argue this is not the preferred environment
for some athletes and that they are only able to achieve similar
potentials by remaining in a more "homely" environment, surrounded
by family and friends, etc. Successes have been achieved in both
types of environment, however this is perhaps an economic argument
which relates to the ability to provide the best facilities, services
and assistance for these athletes which are spread all over the
country. The provision of Sports Institutes and Academies through
increased funding from governments and sponsors has most definitely
provided an environment conducive to maximising athletic potential
in Australia. |
|
|
