Levels of performance
Task 1
Introduction
Levels of performance - Foundation
Levels of performance -Elite
Roger Federer - 17 Grand Slam Titles
Johnny Wilkinson - Former England International
Jessica Ennis -Olympic Gold Medalist
Four purposes
Recovery after injury
When it comes to elite level recovery after injury is a vital part if there individual is able to continue in his or her respective sports, regardless of whether it is a team sport like rugby or an individual sport like Tennis. Injury's in sport are inevitable at any level, but at the elite level when someone is injured it is important to monitor the person that is injured, specifically monitor there recovery from injury. This is because you don't want them to rush back into training for example if they are not ready. If this happens sometimes the recovery from injury can take longer which is not good for the individual or team if it is a team sport. But it is also important to monitor recovery from injury so that they can be back to full fitness as quickly as possible. For example a team like Newcastle for example won't want one of there key players injured for a long period of time, unable to play and also getting paid but not for playing football. At elite level there will be medical centers that will have doctors that analyse how the person recovers and slowly get them back into there sport. They will more than likely create a day by day or a week by week report on how the player recovers analyzing the player as he does recover.
Goal setting
So having a set goal or a set of goals will help in terms of focus and motivation. This is because the athlete will have something to aim for, for example Roger Federer by his owns standards last year had a bad year. So for this season he has gone back to basics and also set himself a goal of winning tournaments rather than trying to get the world number 1 ranking back. Already this year it has worked as he has already won a tournament, setting that goal will have helped him focus more and also helped him more determined to get to that goal.
This is not so important at foundation level purely because it is a lot of pressure to put on a child that is just starting out in sport. Setting goals for a young child can sometimes create more pressure on them and as a result make them stop wanting to play because of the added pressure. At foundation level that sort of pressure is simply not necessary as at foundation level most people are getting to know what skills they have and the sport they are wanting to do. So for example if there is a goal set at foundation level it may only be something like, take part more in tennis, or improve my basic ground stroke skills. Nothing to extensive, just something that will help them move forward but not put them off taking part in the sport anymore.
Identifying strengths and areas for improvement
At the elite level when it comes to identifying strengths, this is key to the successes of any athlete. When someones strengths or strength is identified you know that it will be a key shot or skill. Every player will have a strength that will use to there advantage.
For example, johnny Wilkinson had a brilliant left foot, lot of distance and power behind his kicks, he had an almost perfect technique and was known for hardly every missing. But you can almost guarantee that he practiced and practiced. This strength would have been identified very quickly and once it was identified it would have been worked on continuously because at the elite level it is very important that the strength whatever it may be stays a strength and gets even better as a strength. The analysis done at this level would be extensive, coaches would watch and watch looking to find the strength or the weakness.
At the elite level identifying weaknesses is just as important as identifying someones strengths. The reason why it is important is because if you don't identify it, it's more than likely that the weakness will crop up when you don't want it to, like in a game for example. So it is important that the weakness is identified fairly quickly, this i because once it has been identified it can be worked on so that the weakness turns into a strength or to try and make sure it's not so big a weakness that it will be targeted by other teams which will happen a lot at the elite level.
When it comes to foundation level this is not so important, just because most people at foundation level are just finding there feet within there chosen sport. Trying to identify someones strengths and weaknesses can be done at this level and sometimes is. But generally it is not important at foundation level because it is not a massively competitive environment.
Talent identification
Talent identification is something that is generally not done at elite level. If you at the elite level the talent identification will have been done in the earlier levels, normally foundation to participation level is where most of the talent identification is done. To be at the elite level you are clearly talented at your sport otherwise you would not be at that level in the first place. But some people are found quite late, for example Arsenals Ian Write was found in his late 20's and went onto be one of Arsenals leading goal scorers.
Four Resources
Fiscal
When it comes to elite level however it is a very different story, at the elite level you have clubs like Newcastle united and Arsenal that have state of the art training facilities. That is because the finical restrictions at the elite level are no where near as bad as they are at foundation level. That is just the way it is, when you are at the elite level you are one of the best at your sport. So because of this you will be getting paid a fair bit of money but also so will your club. At elite level the people at this level will have the money to throw into analysis, so for example, Van Persie will be able to pay someone if he needed to, too analyse his performance and tell him and help him find out where he may need to improve.
facilities
Where as as elite level a lot more facilities are needed. At elite level the athletes will be the best in there chosen sport. So because of this they will have the best facilities. They don't stay the best players without the training and all of there training will more or less be done in state of the art facilities like an all weather astro turf, a full side field or pitch with under floor heating and maybe also a gym and sports hall for indoor training. All facilities that not a lot of foundation level clubs will have. An example of this could be Manchester United football club, they don't just have Old trafford to train on and play there matches on, they will also have pitches at there own training ground that are just like the old trafford pitch. They will have there own private gym and facilities for massages, and ice baths.
Equipment
At foundation level the equipment needed will be very basic. Sometimes some clubs may not even have the equipment needed. But generally the equipment at foundation level will be basic, for example at foundation level for rugby they may only have 4 or 5 rugby balls some cones and maybe even a stop watch. The foundation level clubs will use equipment like this to try and get people involved. Say coaches wanted to measure someones vo2 max, at foundation level it is highly unlikely they will have the equipment needed for that so they would have to do the bleep test to get the result rather than a treadmill for example.
At elite level the clubs will more than likely have all the equipment they need. Instead of having a stop watch they may have timing gates, this will take away the human error problem with a stop watch. They may have recording equipment so they can record a training session or match and review it and analyse it. If for example they wanted to measure there V02 max, it would be a lot easier at elite level as they will more than likely have the equipment needed for the test which is a treadmill and heart rate monitor. So tests like that will be easier and a lot more accurate at elite level.
Time
When it comes to foundation there is not much time spent on the analysis on sport performance. Off course there will be some, any coach will want to see how someone performs at any level but the amount of time spent analyzing someones performance at foundation level is not really relevant and can put a lot of pressure on someone at that level. It is important not to forget that at foundation level they are just starting out and just finding there feet so spending a massive amount of time analyzing someones performance at foundation level is simply not necessary because people at that level are just finding out what sport they like and are good at.
When it comes to elite level the time spent on the analysis of sport performance can sometimes go on for days even weeks sometimes. At elite level the amount of time spent analysis performance can determine how well and individual or team plays in the next game. Sometimes teams an individuals can spend hours going over footage of matches they have previously played. Not just necessarily on themselves, the time they spend analyzing an opponents sport performance to see what they are like, what there weaknesses are and how they play.