The effectiveness of plyometric training programme on some selected athletic events among the students of Federal Government College

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

             Sports has continued to have great impact in the area of health,  economy as well as serving as an avenue for integration and unity locally and internationally. It is a channel of curbing some problems associated with social vices in the society. Sport has become a veritable avenue for running multi-million dollar industries, coupled with promotion of fame and prestige. Sport enlightens/educates people, socializes people, develops and helps maintain the physiological functioning of man’s body creates wealth and leads to promotion of fame.  The above statement was asserted in the words of Sir Juan Antonio Samaranch (former President of the International Olympic Committee) during his opening speech at the 23^rd Olympic Games of Atlanta Georgia in 1996, when he said “sport is life, sport is health, sport is education, sport is wealth, and sport is everything in life”.

            Today, competition in sports is becoming tougher at all levels, to the extent that winning in sports has become difficult not only for committed part-time sport men and women but also professional athletes.  No wonder, that stake holders such as: coaches, trainers, team managers, institutions, state governments and even countries are all out in search of what will give their athletes or teams enviable wins.  Some even go to the extent of sending their coach packing. An example is Chelsea Football Club that sacked Coach Villa Boas during the 2010/2011English Premier League in England just because of lack of performance of the team.  Some stakeholders spend millions of dollars on athletes or players for instance a Russian Football Club spent one hundred million dollars on two players in a bid to win during any championship at all costs.

As a matter of fact, there can never be a win without one important variable which is ‘Performance’ which is not also possible without training.  Stake holders such as: coaches, trainers, managers, institutions, and even countries have been employing different training methods or programs to groom their athletes in order to bring out the best in them with a view to either improving or maintaining their performance.  Some training programmes that are employed by these stake holders include: circuit training, interval training, repetition training, weight training and plyometric training among others. The above statement was asserted by both Robinson and Owens (2004) and Yab and Brown (2000) who opined that “Plyometric activities have been used to build up athletes in sports such as  football, tennis, soccer and other sporting event that agility may be useful for their athletes. Even athletes are not also left out in the use of this Plyometric training Programme to build up themselves, as it is confirmed by both Yab and Brown (2000) and Chu (1998) who state that, “Plyometric are training techniques used by athletes in all sports to increase strength and explosiveness”.

            Plyometric according to Suthakar (2008), is any exercise that enables the muscle to reach maximum force in the shortest possible time. Baechle and Earle, (2000) with Craig (2004) describe plyometric as, “exercise training designed to produce fast powerful movement and improve the function of the nervous system generally for the purpose of improving performance in sport”. Jeremy (2009) explained, Plyometric as a training method that exploits the muscles natural circle of lengthening and shortening, to increase tension as the muscle is being stretched before the muscle can contract to elicit movement. The American Council on Exercise (2001), defined plyometric exercise as, specialized high intensity training technique used to develop athletic power (strength and speed). Therefore from the above definitions, plyometric may be viewed as, training method which involve jumping and squatting with burst of small, sudden movement to toughen tissues, stimulate and train nerve cells in order to make muscle produce movement in a specific way. Such training according to Ken, (2008), can condition the tissues and make the nerve cells to create a specific pattern of muscle contraction for that muscle to generate as strong a contraction as possible in a shortest period of time. According to Brainmac (2012), plyometric is used to describe the method of training that seeks to enhance the explosive reaction of the individual through powerful muscular contraction because of rapid eccentric contraction. Therefore, plyometric can be coined as, those exercises or training programmes that develop the neural pathways for some specific muscle movement through rapid stretching of the muscle immediately followed by a shortening action of the same muscle and connective tissues.

        Athletic is a physical activity that demands strength and speed. Athletic according to Wilson (2009) is “an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking”.

Plyometric movement can be found basically in all sporting activities.  Take for instance  in racket games like tennis, the explosive lateral movement required to run down one’s opponents sharply angled fore hand topspin and a very quick fast movement required to cover one’s next shot into the opponent’s court; or the fast drive and stretching of the legs with powerful swinging of the arms or hands to assist in propelling the body forward for good speed in track and field events as an explosive power, a combination of speed and strength required by a short putter in executing a very good putting in shot put.  The above statements is also confirmed by Tippett and Voight (2008), when they argued that all movement patterns in both athletics and activities of daily living (ADL) involve repeated stretch shortening cycles” which is the basic fundamental base for plyometric as it was observed by Jeremy (2009) in his definition of plyometric as “ the training method that exploits the muscle’s natural cycle of lengthening and shortening to increase tension as the muscle is being stretched before it can contract to elicit movement”.

         Plyometric training programme has been employed by athletes, to bring out better performance in them as it is confirmed by Chu (1998), when he that, “Plyometric are training techniques used by athletes in all sports to increase strength and explosiveness”. The 1972 Olympic 100 meters Gold Medal Winner, Valeric Borzor, who credited much of his success to plyometric training, also presents an argument in favour of the above assertion. Plyometric training is used by coaches to build up athletes or players for better performance.  The above statement is corroborated by Robinson & Owens, (2004);  Yap & Brown, (2000), who opine that Plyometric activities have been used to build up athletes in sports such as:  football, tennis, soccer and other sporting events that agility may be useful for their athletes.

Statement of the Problem

             In the resent times, many sport coaches have been fired, An example is, Villa Bosa who was sacked in 2011/2012 European Premier League season by Chelsea Football Club, Before Villa’s turn, the club had sent about eight coaches packing within eight years; athletes that had retired called back to come and support their clubs. For example, Paul Scholes after retirement in 2010/2011 was invited back by Manchester football club during the 2011/2012 European Premier League season to fortify Manchester Football Club. Some club managers spend millions of dollars on athletes; a Russian Football Club went as far as spending one hundred million dollars on just two athletes. All the above developments are in the name of ‘Performance’ which is capable of giving an enviable/victory. To achieve this winning through performance, stakeholders have been employing different training method or programme to groom their athletes in order to either improve or maintain the performance in their athletes.  Among training programmes that are employed by stake holders include: circuit-training, interval training, repetition training, weight training and plyometric training among others.   

Many researchers have carried out studies on ‘plyometric’, such as Krishnaswamy et al, (2008), who delved into the ‘Effects of plyometric Training  on Arm and Leg strength in Tennis and Field Hockey Players’ and Jeffery et al, (1999), who examined, ‘Muscle power and fiber characteristics following 8-weeks of plyometric training’, among others. But there is no documented study that examined the effect of plyometric training programme on tracks and field (Athletics) events in Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State . So this study will examine the effect of an eight-week plyometric training programme on performance in athletic events among the students of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Research Questions

1.  Will plyometric exercises have effect on the running speed of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State?

2. Will plyometric exercise have effect on the vertical jumping ability of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State?

3. Can there be any effect of plyometric exercise on the lateral jump ability of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State?

4. Can there be any effect of plyometric exercise on shot putting ability of athletes of federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State?

Research Hypotheses

Ho1. Plyometric exercise has no significant effect on running speed of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Ho2. Plyometric exercise has no significant effect on vertical jump ability of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Ho3. Plyometric exercise has no significant effect on lateral jump ability of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Ho4. Plyometric exercise has no significant effect on shot putting ability of athletes of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Objective of the Study

        The purpose of this research study is to show the effect of an 8-week plyometric training programme on performance in athletic events so as to compare the effectiveness of plyometric training programme on some selected athletic events among the students of Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Significance of the Study

            The finding of this study will be of great assistance to many athletic coaches and trainers in selecting and planning training programme for the development and maintenance of their athletes’ performance. Adequate knowledge of this research finding on the effect of plyometric training programme will give the athletic coaches and trainers insight to discover the athletic events in which plyometric exercise is most effective.

            Moreover, it will be an eye opener for most of the stake holders in the field of athletic training programme on planning and execution of their training programmes. It will also pave the way for more research works.

Delimitation of the Study

The study focused on all the students of senior secondary school in Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State. Primarily, the study focused on those students that have been taking part in the selected athletic events, most especially those who represented their houses during the school’s 2013/2014 annual athletic inter-house competition in the selected athletic events (female and male inclusive).

        The data collected in the process of this research study were statistically treated with descriptive statistic; range, mean, and standard deviation for analyzing the demographic and some variables’ data. Inferential statistics of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine whether there is any significant influence of the training programme on variables in the hypotheses postulated at 0.05 alpha level, while percentage was used as a post-hoc test to indicate where the effectiveness of the training progrmme lies among the selected athletic events. The preparatory and the experiment time is not more than ten weeks (two months and two weeks).

Operational Definition of Terms

Amortization Phase: This is the brief transition period from stretching phase to contracting phase of a muscle during the act of carrying out any physical activity or movement. 

Pre-stretch phase: This is a brisk stretching period of the muscle to be quickly followed by contraction of that same muscle when carrying out any physical activity or movement. 

Road Work: Jugging through a certain route for some minutes to warm-up the body so as to prepare the body for the main Physical activities to be done.

Stretch Shortening Circle: The underlying mechanism of plyometric training. It comprises the three phases involved in the execution of plyometric exercise, the pre-stretch or eccentric muscle action, the amortization phase and the actual muscle contraction phase.

Stretch Reflex: An involuntary, protective response that occurs to prevent overstretching and injury when a quick stretch is detected in the muscles.

Series Elastic: That component of a muscle that makes it look like a stretched spring which want to return to its natural length. It is the resultant effect of a stretch that is immediately followed by a concentric muscle action in which the stored energy in the muscle is being released.

Athlete: An individual student participating in any sporting activity in Federal Government College, Ikirun, Osun State.

Athletics:-  An exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing , and walking (Wilsons, 2009). Athletic is a kind of sporting activity in which individual athlete compete among other athletes to decide a single victor.

Performance: “The accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standard of accuracy, completeness, cost and speed” (Bronwyn, 2010). It is an act of executing a task or carrying out an activity in relation to an expected or set standard.

Concentric contraction:  A type of muscle contraction because of the tension created between its origin and insertion resulting ina great decrease in the angle of the working joint. According to Jessica (2010), “concentric contraction occurs when muscular force is greater than the force of resistance, and the muscle shortens.

Eccentric contraction: It is a type of muscular force exertion that causes an overall lengthening of the muscle, and increase in the angle of the working joint. Jessica (2010) explained that, eccentric contraction occurs when the force of resistance exceeds the force exerted by the muscle.

Training: These are physical and mental activities undertaken to prepare any athlete for major competition.

Interval Training: A kind of training programme that involve series of low to high intensity exercise workouts interspaced with rest or relief period. A type of discontinuous physical training where we have exercise workout like; a 100meterjogging, followed by a 100meter striding, then a 100meter high knee raise stretch phase and finally into a 100meter real sprinting.

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