FQ3: What role do preventative actions play in enhancing the well being of an athlete? Flashcards
What are factors of physical preparation?
- pre-screening
- skill and technique
- physical fitness
- warm up stretching and cool down
What are the three stages of pre-screening
- questionnaire: The aim of the pre-screening questionnaire’s first stage is “to identify those individuals with a known disease, or signs or symptoms of disease, who may be at a higher risk of an adverse event during physical activity/exercise.” - has 7 questions
- optional questionnaire: The second stage of the pre-screening questionnaire aims “to identify those individuals with risk factors or other conditions to assist with appropriate exercise prescription”. This stage has 12 questions that look at family history, behavioural risk factors, and underlying medical conditions
- measurements: “to obtain pre-exercise baseline measurements of other recognised cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors.”
How does an athletes skill level affect their chances of injury?
An unskilled player is focusing more on performing the specific skill which increases their risk of injury.
For example, an unskilled football player, may be dribbling a soccer ball looking down the whole time and collide with a defender, or even his own player resulting in an injury. Or he may be distracted and step on the ball spraining his ankle.
A more skilled autonomous athlete, however, can focus on her surroundings and still perform the skill well. She can dodge players and see what is coming in front of her. If she is hitting a cricket ball, she can respond quickly to the particular ball, adjust her action and perform the skill safely without being injured.
How does an athletes technique affect their chances of injury?
- poor technique results in higher injury rates (especially overuse injuries)
For example, a tennis player with good technique for their serve is more consistent with their first serves, but also suffers less injury because they are putting less strain on their body. This prevents injury to the back or shoulder.
A player with poor technique generates unnatural forces that pull the body or its joints in directs they are not designed for. This is non-efficient movement, requiring greater effort from the athlete and causing more injuries. A cricket bowler with poor technique is more likely to injure their neck, back or shoulder.
What is the importance of physical fitness for physical preparation for sport?
In order to be physically prepared for competition an athlete’s physical fitness needs to be at a level that can manage the demands of the competition. Physical fitness helps reduce injuries in sport and is specific to the sport.
What are the components of physical fitness?
health:
- muscular endurance
- muscular strength
- cardiorespiratory endurance
- flexibility
- body composition
skill:
- power
- speed
- agility
- balance
- hand eye coordination
- reaction time
What is the importance of a warm up?
A warm up is important to prepare the body for the physical activity ahead to ensure safe participation.
What is the importance of stretching?
Stretching is a fundamental part of physical preparation for sport. Stretching as part of a training program increases the athletes flexibility, which helps to prevent injury and promote wellbeing.
What is the importance of a cool down?
A cool down should slowly bring the athlete back to a pre exercise metabolic state. The cool down should begin at a vigorous intensity and slowly decrease in intensity. The aim is to continue to move the blood back to the heart as the heart decreases in rate back to a pre exercise level.
This helps ensure that waste products are removed before exercise is stopped. Resulting in less carbon-dioxide and lactic acid in the muscles. It also helps to reduce the muscle temperature and deliver nutrients required for repair.
How do rules in sports promote safety?
Rules of sports and activities help promote fair play, which helps to prevent injury as well. e.g. marathon runners are provided with hydration points along the way to decrease chances of heat stroke, rugby games have referees to ensure there is no foul play.
Why are do children’s sports have modified rules?
Children and young athletes require modified rules as they have underdeveloped sweat glands and a poor ability to regulate body temperature, they are also smaller so may need a smaller so need sports catered to their size.
Modified rules for children include modifications to ball sizes, field sizes, duration of competitions, smaller distances, and closer and smaller goals.
They give the children greater access to fluids, less distance to run, and balls that they can actually kick or headset without placing too much stress on their body.
e.g. in mini rugby tackling is prohibited to avoid injury and brain knocks to children at a young age who are still developing.
Ways opponents are matched in sports and why this is necessary?
- Age: Players are often matched through age. e.g. in rugby there is an under 16’s division.
- Size: Through matching player by size in sports such as wrestling and boxing it helps avoid injury as athletes are not forced to compete against someone much larger than them.
- Skill Level: e.g. divisions in football or belts in martial arts
- Sex: females compete against each-other and males compete against each-other.
What is the importance of wearing protective equipment when playing sport?
Protective equipment is purposely designed to help protect the athlete from injuries that may otherwise occur.
e.g. shin pads, mouth guards, matting, goalie gear, head gear, box
Why are safe grounds important in sport?
It is important that these grounds are kept in a safe order. It is dangerous to the athlete to play sports on fields that are uneven or have divots or holes in them. Such surfaces make injury more like and should not be used for sports competitions or physical activities. Other grounds may have water on them that makes them slippery, which is especially dangerous if the athlete is required to jump and change direction frequently.
Why is safe equipment vital when playing sport?
If equipment is not well maintained injuries result. This can be overuse injuries from running in old shoes, or acute injuries from being kicked in the shins through broken shin-pads. Broken bats, sticks or other equipment can also lead to injuries that could be avoided through maintenance of equipment to promote safety.
