Observation of a rugby player

For this assignment we have to observe a player the player i observed was Dan carter. I choose him because he is a world class rugby player, i will now be identifying his strengths and weaknesses and saying how they can improve there weaknesses.


Strengths
 We can see from my observation checklist that Dan carter has many strengths, this is because he is a world class player.


Passing
 Dan Carters passing is quite phenomenal, he completed 14 out of 16 passes in one whole game. He also made 2 crucial passes within the opponents 22. I gave Dan a 4 out of 5 for his execution of a pass because every pass he made was to a high standered. If Dan is going to continue on perfecting his passing he will have to keep on practicing, he can do this by passing a certain amount of balls each training session. On a scale of 1-5 i gave Dan a 4 out of 5 for his passing this is because throughout the the game his passing was consistent and accurate. I also gave him a 4/5 for his catching because this is because the service was good and he caught every ball.


Kicking
 Dan carter completed 5 conversions and 3 penalty's although he missed 1 conversion. Dan has an awesome kick percentage with 85% of his kicks being converted. Although his kicking is exceptional, there is always room for improvement he can keep on practicing. Dan can do kicking drills to make his kicking that better, since he is an elite athlete he can just practice his goal kicking everyday when he trains. I gave Dan a 5 out of 5 for his kicking this because his actual kicking was good and it also looked good which is a good thing too. In the comments box i said that "nearly made all his kicks good kicking performance"


This is just an example of how good of a kicker Dan carter is. You can see when he strikes the ball there is no chance of him missing, he  is such a clean striker of the ball and it just shows here.
Move completion rate/ crucial passes
 Since he is an outside half, Dans all round game has to be quite good. Although his kicking game is superb, his move completion rate is also pretty good. He completed 3 out of 4 moves within the game  2 of those resulted in a try. Dans success is down to hard work on and off the training pitch. On the execution checklist i gave Dan a 4 out of 5 for his execution of moves in the comment box i said that "The moves that Dan completed were at pace and his passing within the execution was great" . Dan needs to practice his passing on a day to day bassis this will result in him perfecting his passing skills. Also in training with his team mates he needs to continue practising the moves, the more him and the team practice the quicker and slicker the moves will become.


Attacking/Positioning in attack
Dans all round attacking game is sound, when he attacks he run onto the ball at pace he does this because his starting position is extremely good. I gave him 4 out of 5 for his positioning in attack this helps him being an awesome player.


Weaknesses
Although Dan Carter is a brilliant player he also needs to improve as does every player. I will now explain what i think he needs to improve on.


Running with the ball
Although Dan is a brilliant player there are room for improvements. In the game Dan gained around about 62 meters which is a lot of ground to gain but this could be increased, by doing specific training. If Dan wanted to increase the amount of metres he makes per game he could enforce some plyometric or weight training into his training, these training sessions will build up muscle making him stronger this would result in harder to tackle making him gain a larger amount of metres. He could also gain more meters by becoming more agile resulting in him being quick on his feet give him the ability to sidestep out of tackles. If he did want to become more agile Dan could introduce some agility work into his training, perhaps just one SAQ session a week could improve his agility and make him gain more meters. If that wasn't enough he could perhaps introduce another SAQ session in a week, he will surely then be gaining enough meters.


Tackling
Dan missed 4 tackles in the game which could of resulted in the opposition getting over the gain line or even worse a try. Dan can reduce the amount of tackles he missed not completely but reduce the amount to about 1 or 2. Dan can reduce the amount he is missing by getting stronger he can do this in the gym doing weights or again plyometric training. He could involve this in his training everyday to reduce the amount of tackles missed. He missed one or two tackles coming to the later stages of the game this could be down to him becoming fatigued. Since that is the case Dan needs to work on his muscular endurance to so his muscles don't get so tired throughout. To improve his muscular endurance he could introduce some muscular endurance based circuits this would improve his muscular endurance and would result in his making tackles at the end of the game. Alot of tackling in rugby is down to how you think and your physiological thoughts going into a tackle, if this is the case with Dan he could go and see a physiocoligist who can boost his confidence making him think positively going into a tackle. If he goes into a tackle thinking positively he will make 88% of his tackles. 


Positioning in defence
Ive said already said how Dan can improve his tackling but he could of missed those tackles down to his positioning in defence. In defence you need to be switched on at all time to make tackles and work for your team mates. I gave Dan a 3 out of 5 for his positioning in defence which isn't a bad score but it can be improved. To improve Dans positioning in defence he can reproduce scenarios which have happened in the game and can put them right. He could also have a sit down with his coach and specifically look at his positioning and learn how to correct it, he can practice his positioning on the training ground each day so when it comes to the game he knows what to do.



My weaknesses
I also play rugby but i play in the centre which is one position out from where dan plays. I am no where near the same high standered as Dan carter but i  look up to him as what i could possibly become. I will now go through my weaknesses and what i think i need to improve on when i play.

Tackling
When i play i know i can tackle but confidence is a huge problem, i dont feel in the game untill ive made my first tackle. If i dont complete that first tackle i dont feel involved in the game and loose concentration. When i loose my concentration i miss tackles. To improve on my tackling i could produce a training programme specifically, concerntrating on tackling. Within the training programme i could incorperate some plyometrics or some light weight training or possibly circuits this will help me become stronger and make tackles easier it might also boost my confidence. I could also involve tackling practice, this could just be tackling a tackle bag say 100 times. I could then overload that training session by removing the tackle bag and replacing it with an actual player and tackle his about 100 times, then i could overload it again by the player running at maximum tilt. This would make me more confident and hopefully i could take that into a game.

Passing
Passing is a huge part of my game as a centre, i need to be able to pass off both hands to link players into the game. I prodominantly pass off my right hand becasue i find it is my strongest hand, i can easily pass off my right hand with no problem but the left hand is difficult. I need to improve my left hand passing so i can give out a passes quickly and effiecently. To improve my left hand passing i just need to practice, practice, practice if i do that i know it will become easier and more natural passing of my left hand. If i was to design a training programme for my passing i would do about 100 passes a night off my left hand and as i become more comfortable with it i would introduce some targets eg a cone, a hoop. I can use these targets to attempt to pass the ball through. Hopefully if i do that for 2-3 weeks my left handed passing would become significantly better.

Running with the ball
As a centre you are asked on many occasions to run with ball. One of my weaknesses as a centre i think is that i dont run directly enough. This means that i dont feel that i run with much conviction, i run hard but in the back of my mind i dont think im going to score but i should. To improve my conviction when running with the ball i could become stronger but i think my main problem is my confidence. I need to start thinking im going to burst through a tackle not think im going to get smashed. To improve my confidence when running with the ball i just need to think i will burst through the tackle even if i dont.
Also when i run with the ball i tend to sometimes run accross field as i am going to pass it. I think i need to hold my line when running with the ball, draw the man in then pass. To improve on my channel of running i can set up a grid with a channel marked out, with cones and just continue to run down that channel untill it gets stuck in my head. This would hopefully stop me running across field and help me run straight.

peactical sport

In this assignment i will be analysing the rules of badminton. Badminton is a ratchet sport which can involve either 2 or 4 people, the objective of badminton is to score as many points as possible than your opponent or opponents. The rule that i will criticising will be the rule on serving. The serving rule changes, in a doubles game the court becomes short and wide but in a singles game the court is long and thin.

In my opinion i think that this rule confuses beginners of the sport and perhaps experience players. In a doubles game the court becomes to wide and not long enough forcing the players to get frustrated. In a singles game the court becomes to long and not wide enough. To spot this confusion i think that the serving area for doubles should be the same serving area for singles just to make it easier for people watching or learning the sport what to do.


Those techniques of serving can both be used in singles and doubles games. With the serving rule, in my opinion it should be changed to make it more easier and more understandable for people watching and playing the game. Although in my opinion i think that they should be changed it is highly unlikealy that they will not get changed due to the amount of badminton played around the world. Also the fact that the rule hasnt been changed befor so its unlikely that they will change it due to players adapting to the new rules. I think aswell if the rule was changed that the games would become more flowing and a quicker faster game would become more apparent.

Assignment 2 practical sport

Assessing the Rules[1]

Fartlek Training

Fartlek training is a training session which involves allot of the components of fitness. Each fartlek training session could involve different components because you could vary the training session to which components you want to use most or how you want your heart rate to vary. The components of fitness we used on the day when we were introduced to fartlek training were-

• Speed
• C.V endurance
• Muscular endurance

Now because it involved those components of fitness it put stress on the aerobic system and the anaerobic system so this means our heart rate didn't have a pattern. Here is a graph to show how our heart rate would look like in an average fartlek training session.

Fartlek training can vary in length but they dont tend to be long because of the intensity and stress the training brings to the body.

Cardio vascular circuit training.

Cardio Vascular Circuit Training.

The circuit training we did, was a cardio vascular circuit training - that means it was continuous. we worked for 20minutes straight. we were in partners, one of us was doing the circuit while our partner was running 2 laps of the sports hall.. once they had run the 2 laps we swapped over which meant i would run the 2laps while my partner was doing the circuit.

the 10 stations were :

1. V.sits
2. overhead squats
3. press ups
4. skip/double under
5. kettle bell swings
6. burpee
7. triceps dip
8. back extension
9. bench run
10. static press up hold

Advantages.

The advantages of doing this circuit training were that we weren't repeating the same things, we changed our workout every time our partner done 2 laps. which meant we didn't get bored of doing it - Tedium.

Disadvantages.

The disadvantages of doing this circuit training meant we had a lot of equipment which we had to get out and put away.. which wasted time a bit.


The equipment we used were :

• kettle bells
• benches
• mats
• skipping ropes

speed training - interval training

There are many different ways of training that can help improve your speed. Plyometrics and PNF training are ways of helping you become faster. Speed interval training can also help improve your speed.

We practised this method of training to get an idea of how you can do a training session to help you become faster. During this session we did 8x10m, 6x20m, 4x40m and 2x60m after doing a full warm up, drills and practising technique. The main part of this session was done at maximal effort and so that we could work to our maximal potential we had a recovery of approximately 30-45 seconds.

This type of training targets the fast twitch fibres in your muscles which contract quickly but rapidly get tired.
This type of training session can be changed to work the components of fitness that you need to work on but it is best for improving speed.

circuit trainig

Circuit training is a "old school" way of training. Circuit training is one of the easiest training sessions to administer. We warmed up our body according to what we were doing for this test we had to warm up everything. circuit training can train many parts of your body the component. Mr Owen had set the circuit up to test  our muscular endurance. we were asked to work for 40 seconds and rest for 20. we had to complete 10 stations once.

We did-

1. Push Ups (biceps)
2. Bench Press (biceps)
3. Bench Step (quads)
4. Sit Ups (abdominal muscles)
5. Squats (quadriceps)
6. Wall Climb (all of the body)
7. Berpies (all parts of the body)
8. Bench Jump(quadriceps,calf muscles)
9. Laying Down Pull Ups(biceps,triceps)

There are advantages and disadvantages to this type of training. The advantages are that it tests all of your body but it is one of the most difficult and one of the most straining. The disadvantages is that it becomes tedious and and quite tiring.