Unit 3 A02- Describe the Components of fitness

and their role in physical Activity.

Alex Connelly’s Work

Cardio Vascular Endurance

Introduction - Cardio Vascular is probably the most used component of fitness

in everyday life. It’s a health related component of fitness. Many people have
different levels of fitness a 75 year old lady‘s level of fitness will be very different
to a 21 year football players level because they both have different requirements
in everyday life, the old ladies may just be being able to walk to the shops
everyday as the 21 year old football may need to have a high enough level of
cardio vascular endurance to play two 90 minute games of football a week.

Definition - Cardiovascular endurance is the ability of the heart, lungs and blood
vessels to deliver oxygen to working muscles and tissues, as well as the ability of
those muscles and tissues to utilize that oxygen.

Facts! – Only 1 in 10 Americans is said to have a high level of Cardio Vascular

Endurance!

What is Cardio Vascular Endurance? - Cardiovascular endurance is the most

important aspect of fitness. It is basically how strong your heart is, which can
potentially add years to your life. The heart is the most important muscle in the
human body and if it is kept healthy then you can avoid numerous health
problems. Another reason that cardio vascular endurance is important
is because your heart controls the oxygen flow to all your muscles, meaning
cardiovascular health has a direct impact on your performance, both endurance
and strength wise.

How can speed be measured - Cardio Vascular Endurance can be measured

using the 12 minute Cooper Run. The participant has 12 minutes to run around
a grid measuring 100 x 100 metres. Each corner on the grid should be marked
with the cone so that the participant can count each cone they go pass. Each cone
represents 100 metres so if you ran past 23 cones in the given 12 minutes your
score would be 2300 metres. For this test you will need a tape measure,
stopwatch & cones.
 Strength

Introduction - Strength is a health related component of fitness. It is used in

everyday life and plays a crucial role in sport and the public services. I chose
strength as one of my health related component of fitness because I feel its very
important and there is a lot I can say about it.

Definition - Strength refers to a muscle's ability to generate force against

physical objects. In the fitness world, this typically refers to how much weight
you can lift for different strength training exercises. The type of resistance can
include dumbbells, barbells, resistance bands, machines, cables or your own
body. When lifting heavy weight, you increase strength, muscle size and
connective tissues such as ligaments and tendons.

Ways to improve strength – Strength can be improved in many ways such as

training and it can also be improved by exercises you do in everyday life for
example a lumberjack will have a very high level of strength as they are required
it in everyday life when lifting heavy equipment. A good way to improve strength
is to write a fitness program suited to your ability. A good way to establish your
ability is to undertake a 3 rep max test. Then you can write a program that
requires you to use strength such as using a weight bench every week and
moving up 5kg every week.

Examples – example of sport where strength is crucial is rugby as you need to be

able to handoff opponents and also certain positions on the ruby field need to be
stronger e.g. a player who goes in the scrum such as a prop. Alyn Wynn-Jones is
a very good prop as he has a high level of strength if he didn’t he wouldn’t be a
suitable prop for Wales and the Ospreys. A public service wear strength is used
is definitely the fire brigade as they need a high level of strength be able to carry
their heavy equipment into incident scenes such as fires and car accidents.
 Speed

Introduction - In this part of the poster I’m going to be talking about Speed.
Speed is a health related component of fitness not a skill related component of
fitness. Speed is used in everyday life and it also plays a big role in many
different sports. Many world famous athletes need speed to be able to adapt to
their environment.

Definition - Distance travelled per unit time. Speed is the scalar quantity that is
the magnitude of the velocity vector.

Facts!
Speed doesn’t just make you run faster. It makes you fitter, increases the range
of movement in your joints, makes you more comfortable at all speeds, and it
will ultimately help you to run harder for longer.

What is 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: maximum speed,
elastic strength power peed endurance.

How speed can be improved

Speed can be improved by building up muscle in the lower and upper body area.
Such as biceps, triceps and the abdominal area. The technique of sprinting must
be rehearsed at slow speeds and then transferred to runs at maximum speed for
example practising it daily before you put it into action.. The stimulation,
excitation and correct firing order of the motor units, composed of a motor nerve
and the group of muscles that it supplies, makes it possible for high frequency
movements to occur. “The whole process is not very clear but the complex
coordination and timing of the motor units and muscles most certainly must be
rehearsed at high speeds to implant the correct patterns” (Bull) physical
education & the study of sport 2001.

How speed is measured

There are a many different fitness tests to measure speed such as the Stop frame
action recording, vertical ballistic speed trap and the Optical speed trap.
However the most popular and reliable test fro speed is the 40m sprint test
where the subject has to simply run the distant of 40m as fast as they can. A
stopwatch, cones and measuring tape.
Examples
An example of a sport where speed would be used is football. A athlete who
needs a high level of speed is Christiano Ronaldo as he plays on the right of
midfield for Real Madrid he needs a high level of speed to do his job properly
which is, as a right midfielder too score goals, get back to defend and make
assists. If he didn’t have a high level of speed he wouldn’t be able to do his job
properly. A job where speed is used is the Police Force, police officers need a
reasonable level of speed when in situations such as chasing a criminal. If They
didn’t then criminals would easily escape capture.

Kieran FitzGerald Work

Agility

Is the combination of speed and flexibility as it is the ability to move quickly,

change direction and change speed whenever necessary.

Examples of agility in sport

A person who plays rugby has to run and try to score a try and by doing that
they use agility to slow and speed up their speed and change direction really
quickly.
Agility is linked to a few public services for example a police officer because
when the officer is chasing a suspect who has run away from a crime scene and
they run down a back lane over ground with all material or objects in the way
and the suspect is getting away the police officer will have to use agility to change
direction a run round the material and then speed up and catch the suspect.

Another example of agility in sport

A midfielder in football running round defenders and other players has to use
agility to change direction and speed quickly for example christiano ronaldo he
steps over the ball and changes direction to move round defenders to get to the
box and either speeds up or slows down to cross the ball in.

Facts about agility

Agility is the ability to change the body's position
Efficiently, and requires the integration of isolated movement skills using a
combination of balance
Balance is an ability to maintain the centre of gravity of a body within the base
of support with minimal postural sway. When exercising the ability to balance,
one is said to be balancing.
 Reaction time

Reaction Time refers to the ability of an individual to respond to a stimulus.

Individuals with good reaction time will respond to that stimulus the quickest.
For example a person who plays as a fielder in a cricket match will have to try
and catch a ball and a person with a quick reaction time will catch that ball

Examples of reaction time in sport

A goal keeper in football has to have a good reaction time to stop a football going
in the back of the net

The test for reaction time

There are two people one person holds a ruler just above the other persons
thumb and finger which is aloud a gap between them and then the person who
has the ruler drops it and the other person has to react quick enough to catch it
and they measure your reaction time is measured in centre meters

Co-ordination

What is co-ordination?
Is the ability to carry out a series of movements smoothly and affectively It is the
ability of different parts of the to do different things at the same time e.g. hand
eye coordination (class definition) for example when you use a skipping rope
coordination comes in then because you move the rope around your body and
then jump over it.
Coordination is in many different sports for example tennis is a sport where
coordination comes in because move your arm in the right place and then hit the
ball.

How To Measure Co-Ordination

There is a test to measure your coordination, its called tennis ball throw and
what you do is simple-you stand one meter away from a wall and you have a
minute to see how many times you can throw a tennis ball from your right hand
to left and then repeat it.

Another example of coordination in sport

Coordination is in snooker because when you are playing snooker you have to
focus on where the ball is and look where it’s going to go and then pull your arm
back and look where you are going to hit the white ball.