Sports Training

The aim of sports training is to achieve maximum individual or team efficiency in a selected sporting discipline as per the rules in vogue. Besides, it also aims at cultivating different qualities of the mind and heart, like leadership skills, cooperation, coordination etc. Sports training should be aimed at encouraging students to promote active participation for fun and health.

Characteristics and Principles of Sports Training

There are seven basic principles of sports training that should be kept in mind :

1.      Individuality : Every sportsperson is different in body, abilities and mind, and this individuality should be kept in mind while determining the type of sports training to be given to him or her.

2.      Specificity : Sports training should be general and specific. General sports training is taken for the overall physical abilities, while specific sports training is taken with the particular sport in mind.

3.      Progression : Sports training is like climbing a flight of stairs. You have to begin your training from the first step and then go upwards. In this progression, skill, technique, physical ability and mental attitude have to be improved upon gradually. Consistency in doing exercise is the mantra for success.

4.      Overlaod : With training, a sportsperson should be able to strain harder gradually, so that not only the body, but also the mind are made adaptable.

5.      Adaptation : With sports training, the body becomes accustomed to exercising at a given level, which results in improved efficiency, less effort and less muscle breakdown at that level. For example, if you want to participate in a 10-km race, earlier you got tired after 2 km, but after sports training, you will find that this 2-km distance was nothing more than warming up.

6.      Recovery : With strenuous training, the muscles, tissues and cells break up, and they need time and rest to recover. This recovery is in the form of a rest for a few hours between different sessions and for a few days. This interval gives the body the needed time for recovery.

Reversibility : If you have been training hard, and you suddenly stop, your muscles start to atrophy, and this can be the negative impact on your body. We have seen this negative impact on our rural wrestlers whose old age is quite painful. To reverse this trend, even after strenuous training has been given up, light exercise should continue so that negative impact would not affect the body. This will also help a sportsperson if he or she wants to restart the career in the game after some gap.