Touch Football: Fitness Components Evaluation

Touch Football is a team sport consisting of 6 players split into two teams on the field at a given time. It is a high intensity game, involving bursts of maximal speed and power. During a game of Touch Football, all three energy systems work towards energy production required for muscular contractions, however the dominant energy system is determined by the intensity and duration of the effort performed.

This group will start the testing by attaining the medical records of the player to see if he is physically and physiologically capable to perform such strenuous activities. After that information is attained we will start by testing the player’s endurance with a two mile run and monitor the times, heart rate, Vo2 max, and try to evaluate the lactic threshold. Thereafter in the following days, we will attain the midfielder’s 1RM in all multiple joint lifts giving us a baseline for our percentages.

Within this task I studied the sport that I most enjoy both playing and watching, football, and what Biomechanical principles are implemented when striking a football.

By football being a full contact sport, and players always tacking each other it makes it hard on the body (Henderson 1). Bones lose density and strength. (Hobson 1) Ligaments and tendons tend to stiffen, lose circulation, and become more vulnerable. (3) Cartilage becomes stressed and susceptible to tearing.(4).It is every player’s dream is trying to make it to the next level and being the best at what they do. As players work hard to sharpen their game, their body is put through a series of injuries including tears, breaks, and sprains.

The increase in the field of strength and conditioning knowledge has transitioned American Football into a game in which success is dependent on speed and explosiveness. “Running speed over short distances would appear fundamental to success in a number of field and court sports” (2). Coaches spend large quantities of time assessing players and their athletic qualities that underlie playing ability. Strength qualities athletes are highly variable, and are the determinant of their acceleration capabilities. Acceleration demands high force production in a short time period. There is a strong relationship between strength and running speed, resulting in a high level of interest to identify performance factors for different strength

The Yo-Yo (YYIRT) tests feature 2 levels, L1 starts at 10 km/hr and L2 starts at 13 km/hr (BANGSBO, J. Fitness Training in Football—A Scientific Approach). It has been suggested to use L2 in well-trained players in an attempt to shorten assessment-session time (BANGSBO, J. Yo-Yo Test. Ancona, Italy: Kells, 1996) however; we are testing elite and amateur players, and will therefore use an YYIRTL1 for all.

American football is one of greatest pastimes and the most popular spectator sport, reaching many households in the US and more than 150 countries when the Super Bowl is played (5). A sport that captivates the family, unites the audience, and supports its homeland, football is a multi-billion-dollar industry. The intention of this paper is to zoom in on the biomechanics of this beloved sport, specifically understanding the importance of the defensive lineman stance as it is critical to the success of a football team. To clarify, while a team could score play after play, if their defense does not hold up the team may still lose and if the offense only has a few successes, but the defense is strong, the team is likely to perform

Football is the famous sport played in the world, and players need technical, tactical and physical skills to succeed. Strength is components of physical fitness which very important to increase football performance as important as with others components of physical fitness, such as speed, coordination and flexibility (Ruivo, Carita, & Pezarat-Correia). According to Taha, Lee, Ahamed, Joseph, and Omar (2016) strength training is the type of exercises that make the muscles to stretch hundred percent which can helps to build the strength, anaerobic, and increase in size of skeletal muscles using resistance training . Strength training also can increases sport performance and also to maintaining condition of athletes. Another study by Fábrica, López, and Souto (2015) state that strength or power training could be of great interest to the sport community especially in sport like football, in which performance is include the high intensity intermittent activity like explosive strength or power is one

Footballers, coaches and managers agree that football mental toughness is an extremely important attribute to possess if a top level performance is desired. Football Mental toughness is also an important factor in training. In order to reach high levels of performance, athletes must endure long hours of strenuous training regimes which can be boring and tiring. Footballers must cope with injuries and

There are different types of training that are suited to different sports, so it is very important that the athlete picks the type of training that will result in performance improvements that are relevant to their sport. Depending on the sport chosen, the training methods must be appropriate to the progress showed in the effects in their performance. An athlete in Rugby League (NRL) is required to train their aerobic fitness, anaerobic fitness, flexibility and strength training.

Muscle strength is always against resistance. The muscles develop the ability to work for long periods of time (Merritt, 2009). Although, it could be hard in the beginning the body has the capacity to resist efforts while exercising. On the other hand, another great advantage of this aspect is the development of greater muscles. Having greater muscle strength enhances physical fitness because it allows you to perform tasks such as pushing, pulling, and lifting in an advantageous manner. Strength endurance is the best type for those who like to push the body to the fullest. Consequently, you will have accelerated

With speed being a primary element of fitness for soccer players, developing the proper types of speed is important. In soccer, developing both acceleration and linear speed is significant in the first few steps. According to research, sprints in soccer are mainly performed over short distances, involving repeated acceleration up and down the field (Milinkovic, Sporiš, Trajković, James, & Šamija, 2013). This explains why various components of speed such as running speed, reaction speed, and acceleration speed need development in soccer players. The next area of focus would be quickness. Both speed and quickness go hand and hand in most sports especially soccer. When developing quickness in soccer players, ensuring the athlete can produce a rapid response time during training and competition is

Fletcher and Jones (2004) examined the effect of different warm-up stretching protocols on 20 meter sprint performance. This study used 97 trained, male rugby union players. The subjects were divided into 4 groups. Each group performed a light jogging warm up for 10 minutes followed by two 20-meter sprints. This test was then repeated the same day after subject completed their assigned warm-up stretch protocol. The results of this study concluded that dynamic stretching increase 20-m sprint

Bloomfield, J., R. Polman, and P. O'Donoghue (2007). Physical Demands of Different Positions in FA Premier League Soccer

Soccer is the most playing sport worldwide, with 275 million players of either gender and of all ages. In terms of incidence rates in professional players, soccer leads to to 3.4 injuries per 1000 training hours and 21.9 injuries per 1000 match hours (). Hamstring strain are common injuries in soccer players, typically occur during sprinting, with a high recurrence rate (11–30%), that lead to an incapability to play soccer till up to 90 days (). A recurrent hamstring injury (RHI) is delineated as an injury of the same site and same type of hamstring and which occurs after a player’s return to play (). A particular difficulty observed from an injury prevention point of view is that hamstring injury risk factors are heterogeneous. It has been proposed that the interaction between non-modifiable risk factors, such as previous history of injury and increasing age, and modifiable factors, such as strength, needs to be reasoned. The most emerging evidence reaffirms persuading early muscle activation, especially eccentric strengthening exercises moving through an entire range of optimal muscle length have been shown more effective in stimulating compatible adaptation to loading and becoming the mainstay of injury prevention and rehabilitation programme for RHI (). The aim of this essay is to explore evidences of interaction between various risk factors and eccentric hamstring strength in determining the risk of hamstring injury. It also discusses the efficacy of eccentric