Q1) Short term preparation refers to the period prior to a competitive performance using the headings physiological, psychological and technical. Outline the strategies and considerations elite athletes take into account in their short term preparation for global games. (20marks)
Prior to an event/performance an athlete will need to do an effective warm-up, this will increase the athletes heart rate, increases the temperature of muscles to an optimum level this will reduce the risk of injury. The four stages of an effective warm up are gross motor activity e.g. jogging, stretching e.g. PNF, dynamic stretching. Also there is sports specific exercise and skills e.g. passing drills this is done for the opening of neural pathways and the preparation of firing patterns.
Closer to a major event and elite athlete should taper there training this is done so that the athlete is able to rest their body in order to perform at their optimum level during events, however all training should not be stopped during this period technique and skill training can be done. An athlete should also monitor their sleep pattern to get enough sleep in-between training and their events e.g. the British swim team were on different sleeping patterns during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
A factor the athlete should consider is the new form of carb-loading however this should only be used if the athlete is participating in a endurance event, if the athlete is a power athlete they may use creatine supplements to increase their PC stores as they will be using the ATP-PC system during their event. Another factor the athlete should consider in their diet is hydration, the athlete should take isotonic fluid before and during the event/ training and take hypertonic fluids after the event/training this is so that the athlete is able to replenish ions such as Ca+ and Na+ lost thorough sweat.
The athlete would also need to acclimatise to the climate of the venue, if the climate