Safe Practices for High School

AthletesBy: Matt Bird

Weight Training•In Modern Sports, Athletes are

adding weight lifting to their training regiment to increase performance.

•Different sports need different supplemental training to increase performance

•For this presentation swimming will be used as an example

The Sport of Swimming•Swimming is concerned with lean

muscle growth

•The sport does not concern itself with much mass building, but instead focuses on leaning out the muscles

•This training differs from other sports, that are more concerned with lifting gains

The Goals of Swimmers

• Swimmers are racers and want to cut as much time as possible

• The sport has different distances that require different training strategy

• Longest Race 1600 M

• Shortest Race 50 M

• Swimmers will finely tune their body to cut as much time as possible

• Races can be won in .01 second

Michael Phelps2008 100M

Butterfly

Phelps out touched Cavic in .01 of a second

Weight Training for Swimmers

•A Swimmers dedication to cutting time translates to work in the weight room

•Weight room work helps supplement training and adds strength to the basic movements of swimming

•Squats=Flip turns

•Pull ups=Swim Pull

How Swimmers train out of the

Water• Dryland, as swimmers call it, is out of the water training

• The main training focus for swimmers is conditioning, with a little strength training

• A typical dryland workout would be:

• 3 rounds of:

• 15 air squats

• 200 M run

• 10 pull ups

• then followed by stretches and shoulder strengthening movements

Other concerns for Swimmers•Just like a car, the human body

needs the right fuel to perform at its peak

•Nutrition is a major aspect for swimmers, and is usually taught by the coaches

The Proposal•The benefits of Weight training

outweigh the negatives of possible injury in the weight room

•However not all coaches are qualified for directing weight training safely

•I propose that high school coaches need a mandatory Certified Personal Training (CPT) certificate to coach their sport

The Short Term effects

• Coaches are supposed to help the athlete complete their goals and develop the athlete

• Any tool at the coaches disposal should be used to help achieve these goals, but it should be done safely

• Mandatory CPT would ensure a safe learning environment for the athlete and coach

• CPT also requires knowledge on nutrition that will help out the athlete

The Long Term Effects

•Any coaches long term goal should be to develop the knowledge of the athlete over the performance

•Lifelong fitness should be the the ultimate goal for coaches and athletes

•CPT would help ensure that the correct information can be given to the athletes.

How much it would cost

•To become CPT certified, it only costs $99 to take a small course online and the test

•This cost increases with the addition of classes through community colleges and centers

•Schools however could cut costs by creating their own classes and buying mass quantities of CPT tests

Conclusion•Requirement of Certified Personal

Training certificate for high school coaches would result in a better educational experience for the student athletes

•The certificate would also ensure that the correct information was being passed on to the athletes and would give the coaches more credibility

References

•http://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/lane9/news/25727.asp

•http://www.nasm.org/

•http://www.nasbe.org/healthy_schools/hs/bytopics.php?topicid=2190&catExpand=acdnbtm_catB