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Game-related fitness has positive effect on performance

This is an excerpt from Creative Physical Education by John Quay & Jacqui Peters.

Game Fitness

Fitness is a very broad topic, as seen in the various interpretations of health-related fitness; these encompass cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and body composition. In creative PE, we are most concerned with game-related fitness, meaningful because it is associated with performance in the game although this can always have general health benefits. Game-related fitness usually concerns endurance, strength and flexibility. In terms more easily understood by younger students, this translates into fitness activities, strength exercises and flexibility stretches.

The benefits from strength exercises and flexibility stretches will vary according to the age of the student. However, we believe that incorporating them into a fitness circuit will help introduce younger students to some of these activities, an advantage for them in later years at school and beyond.

A circuit is a relatively simple activity to manage. Students can develop their own activities for fitness, strength and flexibility. These can be as simple as running around the perimeter of the game space for fitness, doing sit-ups for strength and touching toes for flexibility. Other exercise and stretching ideas can be developed by each team, possibly as homework. Thus the fitness circuits can evolve under direction of each team.

When a fitness circuit is devised, the number of repetitions of each activity that each teammate will do should be decided upon. In this way individuals set their own goals for the activity; these can always be amended as improvement is achieved. Indeed the entire fitness circuit can be regularly changed by a team as new ideas for activities are developed. Taking one's pulse is another way of measuring improvement in fitness.

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