This guy has ninja skills
Image source practical owl
In exercise specific terms fitness is sub divided into two groups:
1. Health related
2. Skill related
Health related components were discussed in Part 1 of this series, but, i will provide a summary here:
- Muscular strength
- Muscular endurance
- Aerobic endurance
- Body composition
- Flexibility
This post will discuss the skill related components, providing a definition, example of a sporting activity, and where appropriate its alternative name.
Agilty:
the component of fitness that enables a performer to move and change direction quickly and with control. Basketball is a sport that requires high levels of agility. A player has to dribble in and out of opposing players, set themselves up during the approach for a lay up, and finally execute the shot with fine control of the arm and wrist muscles. Agility is often classed as a motor skill.
Balance:
the skill of maintaining a desired posture or stance under control. Essentially ensuring that the centre of a persons mass remains directly above their base of support. For example when standing the average centre of mass of a person is located a just above the hips and close to the stomach. This is only an average and can differ greatly between men and women and simply between to people. Activities that require balancing skills include gymnastics, for example, the handstand.
Co-ordination:
a skill that requires a person to integrate many abilities and systems to perform a task. A good example of this is the tee off action in golf. This action involves balance, muscular control, visual skills, amongst many more. Tiger Woods is an exceptional example of an athlete with superb co-ordination skills. That said, many sports and exercise techniques require co-ordination, simply kicking a football requires foot to eye co-ordination.
Reaction time: is the time between the onset of a stimulus and the start of a response. For example the start of a 100 metre sprint is often the bang of a gun. The reaction time is the time it takes for the sprinter to start moving. The best athletes reaction times are usually in the range of 120 mSec (0.12 sec) to 160 mSec. Tim Montgomery improved that to a near perfect 104 mSec - and came very very close to being false-started. In baseball the reaction time of a receiver is vitally important also.
Power:
is the amount of work done in a given amount of time, in human movement this is measured as the product of speed and strength. High intensity activities, for example, weight lifting require great strength and speed, and therefore power.
