Explosive Power Movements An Athlete Needs example essay topic

Power is one of many important components of physical fitness. It plays a vital factor in the ability to produce force quickly. When it comes to sports, athletes need to be able to exert force quickly and produce explosive power on demand in order to be successful. Jumping, sprinting and throwing are a few examples of this. The best way to go about performing explosive power movements an athlete needs to lift weights, and do specific explosive exercises pertaining to their sport. Muscle power is the ability to generate maximum force in the fastest possible time, (1: 141).

Muscle strength sounds similar to muscle power but they are two different components. However, when it comes to muscle power, muscle strength plays a role within it. The stronger a person is, the easier it will be to exert more force while doing an activity, although being stronger does not mean that a person will be able to produce quicker movements. This type of training predominantly stimulates fast twitch muscle tissues and helps provide a stronger nervous system base for future muscle power development, (5: 1). Power is essential because it allows athletes to be more explosive within their sport on cue. "If you want to improve your athletic performance, the transition from strength training to power training will play an integral part in your success", (3: 1).

Strength is important, but when it comes to being an athlete explosive power is what's used most throughout an athletic event. "Although explosive power exercises may not directly increase hypertrophy or muscle strength, the muscular system contributes force to accelerate the limbs, (2: 3). This means that explosive power is not meant to make a person stronger; meaning that if you bench 200 pounds, if you do power exercises you will add 20 pounds to your max. It just means that these exercises speed up your reaction time, and help you become more explosive. "Strength and power tests should also be done to determine strength levels and to monitor strength changes in conjunction with training programs", (4: 2). The best way to develop and improve muscle power is training with faster movements.

By developing faster muscle movements while training, it will help transfer into your sport or activity. Training to increase fast muscle power does not affect a person when they need to produce slow muscle power. When training for muscle power development, one way to train is using plyometrics. When it comes to plyometrics, each action and each repetition should be performed with maximum speed, and less weight. The key to performing plyometrics properly is using less weight, producing more repetitions, but also a lot of rest in between sets. Power can be measured in any sport, and there are a number of exercises to increase power for each individual.

The best way to measure muscle power is by giving power tests. Giving power tests is different then the actual exercises an individual does to increase their power. Measuring can be done by tests such as a vertical leap. This will show an individuals leg strength.

The shot put and the medicine throw ball are a few other ways of measuring power of the upper body. The measuring of power is important because it will show where a person lies at the current time. This just shows the fact that they are either strong in one area, or weak in another. Each component of physical fitness is important but when it comes to muscle power, this is essentially important to produce quick power on demand. If an athlete does not have all the talent in the world, it doesn't mean they can't improve themselves. They can in fact improve their game by applying muscle power workouts and bettering themselves.

Bibliography

1. Measurements and Evaluation, David K. Miller 2. Training for Explosive Power in Sport, Tony Bauer and Dwayne Fuchs 3. Sports Fitness Advisor 4. Rob's Home of Fitness Testing 5. MTB Training, Steve Ryan.