Levels of Performance.
Caitlin Hand.
Introduction.
Foundation Level.
Foundation level is the lowest level and is aimed at young children, it takes place within school time. It involves introducing the children to the sport and the building of a basic understand of the skills within sports and sports events. The aim of it is to build a positive attitude towards sports and not much analysis is done at this stage.
Elite Level.
Elite level is the highest level and involves adults which are at Olympic or world class standard. A lot of different types of analysis will occur at this level with many different purposes, more resources will also be needed for this level. Athletes at elite level put all of their time into their sport as it is their job and they need to train on a regular basis to be ready for the different world class or Olympic events occurring.
Purposes of analysis.
At foundation level the only real purpose of analysis is for talent identification. No other analysis is required as it is young children and just the introduction of sports. However if the teachers notice that a certain individual or set of individuals stand out from the others and catch on with the basic skills very quickly and easily and basically show a talent within that sport they would recommend them to go on to participation level. Participation is the next level on from foundation and is for individuals who play more for enjoyment rather than competitiveness they are Sunday league players and could possibly then move on to performance level which is at a county and national standard. In talent identification they would compare an individual to normative data such as the one they used for David Beckham and see if the individuals do show a real talent within a specific sport.
Purposes of analysis at elite level.
At elite level there are a lot more purposes of analysis as the sport is a lot more serious than at foundation level. Analysis is used to monitor the recovery of an athlete after an injury, this is because the athlete could do a lot more damage if he/she was just put straight into full time high intensity training. The athlete needs to be slowly introduced back into training at a steady pace, monitoring the injuring and the exercise the athlete is doing will ensure that he/she wasn't injured further.
Analysis is also used for goal setting. Although the athletes in this level are at the highest standard that is possible it is still essential to keep setting goals as it gives them individual objectives to aim for. Goal setting will also give them motivation to keep striving for something, even though they are at the highest level there is always something that could be improved.
At an elite standard analysis is needed to assess the athletes performance levels this is to see if they are still performing to the level they should be at. They need to be at a level where they will succeed at any event they are involved in, therefore training and improving is always beneficial and analysis of this using different fitness tests will keep track of the level each athlete is at.
Analysis is needed at elite level in order to monitor the health and fitness levels of each individual athlete. The athletes health and fitness needs to be monitored because every individual on a team has to be of a certain health and fitness status as well as any individual athlete being entered into events. Without being fit and healthy there is no way that athletes can be of a world class and Olympic standard because they will not be suitable to compete against other more fit and healthy athletes, they would not have a chance of succeeding.
Resources.
At foundation level time isn't really an issue because it is done within school and is normally in their physical education lesson which will be 1 hour long. This is all that is needed as it is just an introduction to the sport. However at elite level they are professional athletes and it is their job so therefore they put the majority of their time into training for the event to ensure they stay fit and are still performing to the best standard they possibly can.
Facilities.
At foundation level the facilities used will be the hall or the field which ever is available at the time. Whereas at elite level there will be a range of different facilities, the sports hall, the gym, the field, the track for athletes which do track events etc. The elite level will need a lot more facilities because they are training for upcoming serious events and need the best facilities to do so. Foundation is just basic so therefore the introducing to the sport can be done in any open and safe area.
IT software.
No IT software would be used at foundation level because it is not needed. However at elite level IT software is needed for video analysis. Video analysis is needed at elite level so that both the coach and the athlete can watch back the performance and identify the strengths and areas which could be improved, from this the athlete can set goals to improve their weaknesses.
Equipment.
At foundation level the only real equipment needed will be the basics such as balls, a whistle, a stopwatch, cones etc. Whereas at elite level a lot more expensive equipment would be used such as high quality camcorders, IT equipment to view the performances which were recorded, timing gates to eliminate human error from stop watches etc. The equipment needed for elite level is obviously going to be higher than for foundation because the sport is their profession and the best equipment is needed to ensure that they are also performing to their best.