Physiological Profile of Sports and Attributes of Successful Performances

Question 1

• Understand the role of a ‘needs analysis’ in sports.

Answer 1

• Guides testing, exercise programming + athlete management
  A needs analysis should address the following questions:
• Sports Analysis (sport-specific demands, comp level, athlete position, work:rest)
• Metabolic demands (energy system: anaerobic vs aerobic, ATP/PC + glycolysis + oxidative phos…)
• Biomechanical demands (movt types, contraction types, planes of motion)
• Common injuries (position-specific, frequency, risk factors, average time-loss)

Question 2

1. Sport analyses

Answer 2

• What are the characteristics of the sport?
• How long is the match / rally / point?
• How long does the athlete typically run / jog / walk / rest?
• Do they differ b/w sex or age or playing position or performance level?

Sport-specific activities
These MUST be considered.
Examples include:
- Kicking
- Jumping
- Tackling
- Hitting
- Heading
- Block start (e.g. sprinter, swimmer)

• Understanding the spatial (movt) + temporal (time) demands of a sport is crucial.
• Will assist w/ informing you about the metabolic demands of the sport + energy systems to focus on.
• Will guide the ‘conditioning’ aspect of the training program e.g. development of aerobic vs. anaerobic capacity

Question 3

2. Metabolic demands

Answer 3

• What are the metabolic demands for a sport?
• What are the characteristics of a typical athlete in that sport?
• Consider also the difference in metabolic demands within sports i.e., soccer goalie vs. midfielder
• Will inform you concerning the conditioning component of the training program.
• Can be useful to create perf standards which may guide athlete selection or goals

Question 4

3. Biomechanical demands

Answer 4

• What are the main movements of the athlete/sport?
• What are the key planes of motion?
• What are the contraction types?
• Our training programs should always be informed by the movt demands of the sport.
• i.e. we should be developing movts that will improve perf
• Squat strength for basketball vs. swimming?
• But also consider individual variation

Question 5

4. Common injuries

Answer 5

• What are the most common injuries sustained?
• What are the common areas or joints affected?
• Which injuries are controllable or preventable?

POTENTIAL INJURY PATHWAY
- Fatigue –> breakdown of kinematics –> improper loading or uncontrollable movt –> INJURY

• Main aim of S&C programs (besides improving perf) is keeping the athlete ‘injury free’.
• Example: FIFA 11+ (ACL injury prevention program).
• Assessing movt proficiency can provide a gross starting point for ensuring correct movt patterns

EXAMPLE
- Performed by soccer players prior to training + competitive games
- Players + teams can reduce their rate of ACL injury using a series of simple warm-up exercises.

Question 6

• Define the principle of specificity and outline its role when creating a training program.

Answer 6

• Training adaptations are “specific” to the stimulus applied.
• Specific physiological adaptations to exercise training are determined by various factors including:
  I. Muscle actions involved
  II. Speed of movt
  III. Range of motion
  IV. Muscle groups trained
  V. Energy systems involved
  VI. Intensity + vol of training
• While there is some carry-over of training effects to general fitness + perf attributes, the most effective training programs are those that are designed to target specific goals