TRAINING AND PREPERATION FOR COMPETITION.                         

TRAINING IN GENERAL.

Only through training leads to good results, enabling the sportsperson to build up his/her muscles, strengthen his/her joints and bone structure and improve his/her co-ordination. Active training will eventually produce enhanced performance, provided it is accompanied by a generally healthy life style and a balanced diet.

It is important that the body parts that are loaded during training should be given the opportunity to rest and recover.

The harder the training the longer the break needed for full recovery. exercising repetitvely with a heavy load, for example, would require between 1-3 days recuperation before the next session. Running and other less strenuous forms of training, on the other hand, can be practised daily. Daily training, however, is of little benifit to those who have either had a long break from training or are physically unfit. Instead they should break themselves in gently with 2 or 3 days training per week.

Every sportsperson should analyze the demands of his or hers chosen sport before deciding on a training programme (or aquire a coach ). Apart from the specialized techniques of individual sports, there are other factors which influence performance, and he/she needs to ask themselves the following questions

1. What factors influence performance in my chosen sport ?
2. Which of these factors can I influence and improve by training ?
3. How should I train in order to influence each of these factors to best effect ?
4. How much time should I devote to training in order to influence each specific factor and when should the training be carried out ?
5. Considering all these factors, how should I train in order to reduce the risk of injury to a minimum ?

Training intensity and load should then be adaped by the athlete/coach to correspond to the level of physical fitness he or she has achieved.

BASIC PHYSICAL FITNESS.

It goes without saying that good physical fitness is of the utmost importance in avoiding injury. Those whose basic fitness is below normal are more prone to injury both from accidents and from overuse.

After a period of inactivity, the ability of the body tissues to absorb oxygen decreases noticeably. In one experiment, five healthy test subjects stayed in bed for 20 days without any physical activity whatsoever. This relatively short period of inactivity reduced their capacity to absorb oxygen by 20-45 per cent. this and similar experiments demonstrate how quickly the body adapts to the physical demands made on it. When the demands are reduced there is a corresponding decrease in the cardiac output, muscle mass diminishes (atrophy) and blood volume decreases. The body is less efficent in transporting oxygen from the lungs to the tissues and, as a result, the energy supply of the muscles is reduced.

A basic physical fitness can be achieved by exercises and general physical activity carried out throughout the year. All training aimed at achieving good basic fitness should be progressed gradually and this applies above all to those who are no longer young. During the period of rehabilitation following illness, injury, or a break in training, it is important that a reasonable level of basic fitness is reached before competition is resumed.