No ordinary diary this…
J.R. SHRIDHARAN
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It is something that every budding sportsman would love to possess.
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It is no ordinary diary. It is something that every budding sportsperson would love to possess. For, it has a range of details useful to fitness freaks and those who want to pursue a sport or a game seriously. Sports Authority of India (SAI)’s gymnastic coach Y. Ram Mohan, a native of Vijayawada, has come out with “Sports Diary – 2007” with emphasis on how to train scientifically to be successful in sports. With his 25 years of experience in the fie
ld of gymnastics, Mr. Mohan has culled the details pertaining to diet, nutrition, work load and about specific training regimes from various sources and compiled a 150-page diary that will be useful to all sportspersons.
He lists endurance, speed, strength, co-ordination and flexibility as some of the basic training methods. While endurance is the ability of a person to continue work for a prolonged period of time, speed is the shortest possible time taken to perform any physical movement. Strength is the ability of the person to overcome resistance or act against it and co-ordination is the ability to perform any movement in a coordinated manner. Flexibility is the ability to reach high range of movement.
“The aim of general physical training is to develop major motor abilities like endurance, speed, strength, agility and flexibility,” says Mr. Mohan. He says that in order to improve endurance, one should take up cross-country races or track running at a steady pace. “Duration of running can be gradually increased from 5 minutes to 40 minutes. Running can be alternated with walking,” he suggests.
Develop speed
Speed can be developed by means of training taken from athletics, ball games, gymnastics and acrobatics. Among the main ones will be short sprints, jumps, throws, exercises for quick reaction, changing the posture, gymnastics and acrobatic exercises and relays.
To develop strength, Mr. Mohan suggests pull-ups, push-ups, truck curls, dips, squats and half squats, one leg squats and hip flexion. Agility can be developed mostly by means of gymnastics, acrobatics and ball games. “More attention should be paid to the ability of mastering new movements, orientation in space, balancing, changing the direction of movements, differentiation of force, time and space,” he explains.
Mr. Mohan says that flexibility is one of the most important abilities to be developed during the early days of training. “Exercises should be aimed at improvement of joints’ mobility and they are to be done in flexions, extensions, bends, curls and rotations. More attention, during the days of initial training, should be paid to passive flexibility due to the fact that muscles will still not properly develop by then. Flexibility exercises can be included in the warming–up or introductory part of the session.”
Emphasising diet, Mr. Mohan says that what is eaten significantly influences the performance of a sportsperson. “An adequate diet in terms of quality and quantity before, during and after exercise and competitions will maximise the performance. However, during this period, the food consumed should be easily digestible and should be high carbohydrate familiar food.”
He says that during the pre-competition time, the diet should consist of carbohydrate equivalent to about 70 per cent of the total energy intake, about 10 per cent protein and the remaining as fat.
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