Overview
A primary aspect of the human performance profession is the development of progressive programs intended to meet the individualized needs of an athlete. To establish the specific needs of an athlete, it is imperative to perform a quality performance and fitness assessment that establishes a current baseline and provides the ability to compare the athlete’s current status to normative data. The purpose of this assignment is to prepare you for the Program Design Project: Assessment and Plan Assignment submission.
Instructions
For this assignment, you must select a topic that is related to the case study for the Program Design Project: Assessment and Plan Assignment and that warrants further investigation. You will evaluate current peer-reviewed sources on your chosen topic and submit a reference list of at least 4 peer-reviewed journal article references (no more than 5 years old) in current APA format. Additionally, you must include a 1-page summary explaining why the topic was chosen, what you learned from evaluating the literature, as well as at least 2 areas of intended further exploration regarding the topic.
Note: Your assignment will be checked for originality via the Turnitin plagiarism tool.
Case Study
Background: A high school baseball player comes to you and says he wants to improve his bat speed, overall explosiveness, and change of direction speed. He is a switch hitter, plays third base, and considers himself to be a power hitter. He has been following a 3-day-per-week resistance training program for the past two off-seasons but has not done any type of specific plyometric, speed, or agility training outside of normal baseball drills in practice. When you test him on his upper and lower body strength, he is above average in all tests. Additionally, he is above average on traditional fitness assessments (body composition, muscular endurance, etc.). However, he performs below average on power, speed, and agility assessments.
Considerations: While strength in the sagittal plane (squats, pull-ups, push-ups, deadlift) can certainly benefit baseball players, baseball is largely a rotational sport that requires quick accelerations and rapid changes of direction. Therefore, training to enhance power, speed, and change of direction ability would seem to benefit baseball players. Additionally, enhancing rotational power and explosiveness with various medicine ball throws can provide a method to increase bat speed.
Implementation: Develop and implement a late off-season to early pre-season 6-week program to enhance overall explosiveness, bat speed, and change of direction speed with this athlete. He will spend 10–15 minutes performing your program prior to each of his 3 resistance training sessions per week. You are not responsible for developing or implementing his resistance training program. You will develop the program using appropriate plyometric exercises, change of direction speed drills, and/or agility drills. You should ensure that you follow appropriate guidelines for each training modality in your program and remember that he will only have 10-15 minutes per session. The program should progress from a lower intensity and volume as the athlete learns the movements. As the athlete progresses in the program, intensity and/or volume will increase. Speed of movement should be maximal throughout the entire program.
Results: Determine and explain your rationale for the expected results of his training program.