Physical Fitness and Sports: Key Concepts and Training
**Physical Qualities**
The physical qualities are basic factors that determine our physical condition, i.e. the physical state where we are at all times.
The *QFB* are:
- Resistance
- Force
- Speed
- Flexibility
**Evolution of QFB According to Age and Sex**
*Resistance, Strength, and Speed:*
- Evolutionary qualities (better with age).
- Small decrease at puberty.
- Decrease more or less after 30 years (before the speed).
- Its capacity is lost before if a person is not trained.
- Boys have higher levels because they have more muscle mass (because of the male hormone testosterone).
*Flexibility:*
- Inverse quality (decreases with age).
- Girls have more flexibility than boys because they have less muscle mass.
**Resistance**
Physical strength is the quality that allows us to withstand physical effort for as long as possible.
**Types of Resistance**
A) *Aerobic Endurance:*
- Muscles get enough oxygen to perform the exercise.
- These efforts are of mild and moderate intensity.
- These exercises are of long duration.
- The feeling of tiredness we experience is small.
B) *Anaerobic Resistance:*
- Muscles do not receive enough oxygen to perform the exercise. There is an oxygen debt.
- These are high-intensity or maximum effort.
- Exercises are short.
- The feeling of tiredness we experience is great.
Preferably, we need to work on aerobic endurance to achieve less fatigue in various activities of daily living.
**Heart Rate**
The intensity of the exercise is controlled by heart rate, which measures heart rate, i.e. the beating of our hearts.
- It takes two fingers (never the thumb since it has its own pulse).
- We can count pulsations in several arteries: carotid, radial, and above the chest (thoracic).
- It is usually calculated in one minute, but it is recommended to do so in shorter periods (30×2, 15×4, 6×10).
- For aerobic resistance training, the target heart rate should be between 50 and 70% of your maximum heart rate (MHR).
MHR = 220 – age of the person
- Between 70 and 85% of the MHR, you’re in a change area, then steps to work on another anaerobic effort.
- And resistance training anaerobic strokes have a target between 85 to 100% of your MHR.
- If your pulse is below 50% of the MHR, it is considered that your effort is zero.
**Flexibility**
It is the physical quality that enables us to perform large-scale joint movements.
**Types of Flexibility**
A) Dynamic Flexibility
Motion is carried out. They are bouncing, balancing, but it should be taken into account because if done hastily, it can cause muscle injuries.
B) Static Flexibility
It is a position held between 10 and 20 seconds.
**Methods to Improve Flexibility**
1. Active Exercises: One performs the exercises. You can bounce or maintain a position.
2. Passive Exercises: With the help of a partner. You can bounce or maintain a position.
**Health and Physical Condition**
General
The state of physical condition is how we find ourselves at every moment.
A good physical condition allows us to perform our daily work without suffering fatigue.
The fitness level is the sum of our physical qualities, and these depend on the optimal operation of devices and systems of our body.
Physical condition is closely related to health. A good physical condition can provide good health and prevent diseases.
Condition and health can be improved with good habits.
**Factors That Can Decrease or Increase Physical Condition**
1. Physical Exercise: Its practice will help to increase the level of physical qualities. We must avoid a sedentary lifestyle.
2. Rest: The human body needs to recover before efforts to begin another activity. Should not be confused with sedentary rest.
3. Nutrition: The organism needs food and energy to build and repair body tissues.
Thanks to food, we extract essential nutrients for life: carbohydrates, proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins.
For your diet to be correct, you must follow a series of rules:
- Eat a varied diet so you get all essential nutrients. You have to eat everything and not just what you like.
- Eat a balanced diet without there being either an excess or deficiency of any nutrient.
- Eat 5 meals daily: breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, and dinner.
- Drink regularly.
- Remove pastries for breakfast as they have a lot of fat. It is more advisable to have a sandwich.
- Eat fruits and vegetables.
4. Drugs: Avoiding consumption harms both mental and physical health. There are many types of drugs, some have sedative effects and others stimulant effects, but all damage the organism and produce irreversible degeneration of many tissues.
**Benefits of Practicing Physical Activity**
- Increased cardiac volume: The heart sends blood, oxygen, and nutrients to the muscles they need. If you practice exercise, the size of the heart increases, and there will be a greater contribution of blood, and therefore a greater contribution of oxygen and nutrients.
- Improves respiratory capacity: The lungs will get a greater contribution of air and therefore oxygen.
- Improvement of basic physical qualities: Improved endurance, strength, speed, and flexibility.
- Improvement of the nervous system activity: The nervous system provides the coordination to perform the movements.
- Weight control.
- Feeling of well-being as physical exercise releases tension.
- Fellowship: Physical activity will enable us to relate ourselves with others.
**Strength**
Physical strength is the quality that allows us to overcome opposition by a muscle strain or overload. Then we can drag and move objects, push, throw, hold, jump, etc.
**Types of Strength**
A) Maximum Strength
The ability to win a maximum load without considering the time we use to do this (weightlifting, bodybuilding).
B) Strength Endurance
The ability to overcome an average load for as long as possible (paddling, climbing).
C) Explosive Strength
The ability to overcome a small charge in the shortest possible time. Also known as power (throws, jumps).
Any strength training should be done with care and advice through a professional who will tell us the load, repetitions, and recovery that we should do.
At your age, you should work on strength endurance, i.e., low load and many repetitions. It can also be influenced, but less in explosive force. We should wait until 18 years old to work the maximum force.
**Rules for Strength Training**
- If you are under 18 years old, do not load excessive weight as you can have joint and/or muscle injuries, in addition to limitations on bone growth.
- After a session, it is quite convenient to perform some stretching.
- Between training sessions of force, you have to do 24 hours of rest.
- You should work on strength progressively from low to high load and a few to many repetitions.
**Methods to Improve Strength Training**
1. Self-Loads: Exercise involves using the weight of the body, designed to enhance muscle strength and body resistance (squats, abs).
2. Overload Method: Simple apparatus is used, such as medicine balls, dumbbells, elastic bands, bars, Swedish benches, and mattresses. And the weight of a partner. They are used to improve power and strength endurance.
This section should also include weightlifting and bodybuilding, two sports that are aimed at the maximum development of muscle, i.e., the work of the maximum force, not right for your age.
3. Circuit: It is to complete a course of 6 to 12 exercises or stations. The same muscle group should not be worked on in 2 consecutive seasons. And 2 or 3 turns are made on the same circuit. A circuit can be of two types:
3a) Fixed-time circuit: Working time is determined at each station (between 30 and 45 seconds), and the maximum possible repetitions are to be performed.
3b) Fixed-repetition circuit: Determines the number of repetitions of the exercise we must do, regardless of time.
4. Multi-jumps, Multi-throws: Used to improve explosive power and strength. It is to make turns or jumps in a row followed by launches at high speed.
5. Other Methods: Those that improve our muscle strength indirectly, such as bicycling and playing other sports (football, basketball, etc.).
**Speed**
Speed is the physical quality that allows us to make a move in the shortest possible time.
**Types of Speed**
A) Reaction Rate
The ability to respond quickly to a visual, auditory, or tactile stimulus (handball goalkeeper, start of a 100 m race).
B) Gestural Speed
The ability to make a gesture at top speed (fencing, table tennis players).
C) Displacement Velocity
The ability to traverse a distance in the shortest possible time (100-meter runner, a football winger).
**Methods to Improve Speed Training**
1. Short and Repeated Courses: Improving the speed of displacement. They are done in a relatively short distance (between 30 and 80 meters) with several repetitions at maximum speed.
2. React to Different Stimuli: Improving the reaction. Several trips are made to and from positions traversing a small distance.
3. Multi-jumps: Improving the speed of displacement. We perform jumps followed at high speed.
4. Overload Method: Improving the speed of displacement. These traverse a distance and beat a moderate opposition. This opposition may be to drag objects, colleagues, rubber bands, etc.
**Handball**
General
Source: It seems he was born (there are several versions) in Denmark in 1848 thanks to Professor of Physical Education Hols Nielsen.
Pitch: Played on a field of 20 x 40 m with two goals 3 m wide.
Length of Game: Two parts of 30 minutes.
Players: 7 players per team, one of whom is the goalkeeper.
Score: A goal is scored when the ball completely crosses the baseline between the goal posts.
Start the Game: Draw a previous field or select the teams performed initial service.
Changes are made without stopping the game, no limit. They are conducted within the zone changes, a space 4.5m from the center of the pitch in each field.
**Rules and Basic Rules**
- You cannot touch the ball below the knee, except the goalkeeper.
- You can take 3 steps before and after bouncing the ball.
- You have 3 seconds to bounce the ball, pass, or throw.
- A player cannot push the line of 6 m (goal area) or fall within, with the exception of the goalkeeper.
- There is no corner, only a goalkeeper’s throw, yes for a defender.
- Passivity is committed when a team loses time when launching on goal. The referee signals it.
Unsportsmanlike Fouls
Fouls: You cannot drive, hold, or beat an opponent. These fouls are launched from the same place where they were committed. If the foul was made between lines 6 and 9 m (free throw at once), the kick is made from line 9 m.
Penalty: A release is open from 7 m.
It is sanctioned when:
- A foul is committed against an opponent who has the ball and is able to score.
- One argues in the goal area.
- The ball is passed to the goalkeeper, and the goalkeeper is inside the area.
Unsportsmanlike Fouls
These are aggressive or intentional fouls:
- Warning: The referee shows a yellow card.
- Exclusions: May be direct or after a warning. The player is sent off the field for 2 minutes, and the team stays during this time with one player less.
- Disqualification: Can be direct or after 3 exclusions. The player will be ejected from the game after 2 minutes and will be replaced by another player.
- Expulsion: The player is sent off the field and cannot be replaced, except if it is the goalkeeper, another player will leave the pitch. His team will stay with one player less for the rest of the game.
**Technique**
- Passing and Receiving: The two key technical elements of handball.
- Dribbling: Not used much, except in the counterattack.
- Throwing: A shot on goal.
- Feints: Movements to try to cheat the opponent to gain an advantage.
**Tactics**
Like all team sports, game situations are two: defense and attack.
Attack Tactics
- Pass and Go: Passing the ball to a partner, and then unmarking yourself to get it back. Similar to a wall in football.
- Penetrations: Introduced between the defense to make a throw from the 6 m line.
- Block: The body is used to obstruct the passage of a defender, thus freeing a teammate.
Tactical Defense
- Screen: Stop the ball when an attacker launches on goal.
- Individual Defense: Each player is responsible for marking an attacking player.
- Zonal Defense: Each player is responsible for a specific space or area of the field.
- Mixed Defense: A mixture of the two previous defenses.