The Six Components of Sport
I
t is outside of a personal trainer’s scope of practice to work
with professional athletes or carded amateur athletes. How-
ever the personal trainer should understand the six compo-
nents of sport, as they may be teaching bootcamp or their client
may play recreational sport and wish to improve in that area.
Therefore a basic understanding of the six components of sport
or skill-related fitness, as well as the different training methods to
achieve improvements is important.Alike functional training, this type of training should be introduced
after the client has established a good foundation of muscular
endurance with static exercises, demonstrates proper body me-
chanics, and is ready for a change in their program. This type of
training is more advanced and is not to be used with beginners.Recreational Sport and Skill-Related Fitness
Recreational sport requires a different combination of physical
attributes, some of which are considered health related and oth-
ers which are skill related components of fitness. Health-related
components include cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength,
muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition. The skill-related components of fitness include:
• Power
• Speed
• Agility
• Balance
• Coordination
• Reaction TimeWith the addition of skill related components such as speed, pow-
er, agility, and balance the risk for injury may increase. This is es-
pecially true if the client is progressed too quickly or does not have
the appropriate and sufficient basic level of endurance, strength,
balance, and skill prior to engaging in this type of training.Power — Power is a combination of force (muscular strength)
and speed. Muscular power relates to the ability to generate an
increased amount of muscular force very quickly. Training with
the goal of muscular power will improve one’s ability to acceler-
ate and decelerate quickly, to change directions quickly, to sprint,
and/or to jump.Speed — Speed relates to how quickly the body can achieve
certain movements or tasks.Agility — Agility is the ability to accurately change and controlChapter 10 Resistance Training Program Design