Information on taking height and weight

Measuring your height and weight is important as it helps you to identify weather you are a good weight for your height, under- weight or over- weight for your height.
Maintaining a healthy weight is important for protection against obesity related illness and disability. If your weight is currently over the healthy range for your height, losing weight will be beneficial to your health, your looks, and how you feel.

PAR-Q

The physical activity readiness questionnaire (PAR-Q) is a self-screening tool that can be used by anyone who is planning to start an exercise program. It is often used by fitness trainers or coaches to determine the safety or possible risk of exercising for an individual based upon their answers to specific health history questions.

The PAR-Q was created by the British Columbia Ministry of Health and the Multidisciplinary Board on Exercise. This form was adopted directly from the ACSM Standards and Guidelines for Health and Fitness Facilities.

http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/fitnessevalandassessment/qt/PAR-Q.htm

Body composition

Body composition is a collection of all of the tissues of your body.
Many people are concerned with body weight, but body weight is not the best way to determine health. A very muscular person could weigh more than a person who is overweight.
-Body composition measures percentage of body fat, that is how much of your body is made up of muscle and how much is made up of fat.-A typical person is about 15% to 25% body fat.-A male should be between 6% and 20% body fat.-A female should be between 11% and 25% body fat.
-Body fat over 30% for males and 35% for females is considered obese.

http://sm044.k12.sd.us/body_composition.htm

Measuring blood pressure and body composition

Why do we measure blood pressure and why is it relevant to each of us?

The pressure of blood in the arteries rises and falls with contraction and relaxation of the heart. The machines we use measure the peak (systolic) pressure and the low point (the diastolic) A typical value would be 120 for the systolic and 80 for the diastolic, written 120/80 and spoken as "one twenty over eighty".
High blood pressure can damage blood vessels leading to heart disease, stroke and poor circulation in the legs.
'Normal' blood pressure is hard to define but we are trying to keep everyone's BP less than 150/90.
A person's blood pressure can be very variable. Stress can put it up briefly. Just having it measured, even by a familiar doctor, can put it up so we don't usually diagnose high blood pressure until we have readings on three separate occasions. We now encourage people to buy machines of their own because we feel that readings taken at home are often more accurate than readings taken in the surgery.
We rarely find a treatable cause for high blood pressure (hypertension). About five or six out of a hundred people will have kidney problems and one in a hundred will have a hormonal problem.
Losing weight, taking regular exercise and cutting down on alcohol all help but many people need a combination of three or even four drugs to get blood pressure down. Many tablets have side effects but we can usually find a combination that suits the patient and works.
Most people with high blood pressure will need blood tests done every year or so to check on their kidneys and other things which may be relevant such as blood sugar and cholesterol.

http://www.westernroad.co.uk/blood.htm

Reasons for screening

According to the ACSM,
“the incidence of cardiovascular problems during physical activity is reduced by nearly 50% when individuals are first screened and those identified with risk factors are diverted to other professionally established activity programs.
To identify those in need of referral to a health-care provider for more extensive medical evaluation
To ensure safety of exercise testing and participation
To determine the appropriate type of exercise test of program.

My Sport

My favourite sport is Netball. This Sport is mainly performed by females. When a player receives a pass they are not allowed to run/dribble the ball.
Ø To gain control of the ball, a player can bat/bounce the ball once.
Ø A player has to be standing before they throw the ball
Ø Players have three seconds between catching the ball and making a pass
Ø Having caught the ball, a player may land or stand on:
§ One foot – while the landing foot remains grounded, the second foot may be moved anywhere.
§ Two feet (simultaneously) – once one foot is moved, the other is considered to be the landing foot.
Ø Offside is when a player moves out of their own area.
Ø Balls may not be thrown over two transverse lines without being touched
Ø A ball is out of court when it contacts anything outside the court area. The ball is returned into play by a Throw-In taken from a point outside the line where the ball left the court.
Ø No player may contact an opponent, in such a way that interferes with the play of that opponent.

My prefered Positions are Goal Shooter (GS) or Goal Attack (GA). Both of theses positions include shooting but GA involves more running around.
I began netball in Primary school and i played for the school team. We played alot of Friendly games against other primary schools but we took part in a big tournament between all the primary schools and recieved third place in this tournament.
I then continued to play netball in high school however it was not taken as seriously as it was only a lunch time club.
About 2 years ago i became involved with the Dumbarton Harp womens team. As i was not 18 i could not play in the team however, i was allowed to play with them in friendly games.
This year i have continued to play with them and now that i am 18 i hope to make it into the team and be able to play in competetive games.

Reasons for testing

Question 1

You have just been given the job of coaching a local football team. You explain to the players that you want to carry out some fitness tests with them before the season starts. Some of the players say that doing fitness tests is a ‘waste of time’. In the space below, list and explain 6 reasons that you would might use to convince the players that fitness testing will be beneficial for both you and them.

Answer:

Reason 1- To highlight the strengths and weakness of an athlete enabling a training program to be devised which addresses the findings.

Reason 2- To evaluate a training program, to see if it is helping the athlete in achieiving set goals and to assist in setting goals.

Reason 3- To measure fitness levels following injury, illness or following the off season.

Reason 4- To determine health status (in the non-sporting population).

Reason 5- Talent identification.

Reason 6 - To aid motivation .

Cooper test

The Cooper test is a fitness test which involves running continuously for 12 minutes. the point of the test is to run as far as possible within 12 minutes. The test is meant to measure the condition of the person taking it and therefore it is supposed to be run at a steady pace instead of sprints and fast running. The outcome is based on the distance the test person ran, their age and gender. The results can be correlated with VO2 Max. It is an easy test to perform on larger groups, but difficult for the runners, as the length of the run is considered to be that of a long distance run, since everything above 3 km is rated "long distance"—which means the runner will have more use and focus on his red muscle cells.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooper_test

http://www.soccerbible.net/images/PracticePlans/physical/cooper%20test.gif

About me

Hey !

I'm Jennifer Sweeney, im 18 and studying HNC/HND sports coaching with sports development at Clydebank College. I hope to get involved in more sports through this course as right now i only play netball. I play netball with Dumbarton Harp womens team. At school i particularly enjoyed basketball, hockey and swimming.