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Physical Education - The core components of fitness: reaction time
Reaction time
the body's ability to take in, process, make a decision and make a
muscular response to incoming information through one of the five senses.
RT [1] is absolutely vital in timed sports, and many athletes in sprint
races also learn to anticipate well. Tennis players and hockey and soccer
goalies also need to react quickly and to make appropriate decisions. The
time delay between the starter's gun going off and the athlete actually
leaving the blocks is the most common example and measure of RT [2]. In the
sprint race, the athlete has only one decision to make and thus their RT is
usually quite small. As the decision-making demands of the game grow (for
example, which of four players to pass to and which of two players to avoid
in a game of rugby) the RT naturally would increase. Like balance and
coordination, reaction time is an extremely difficult fitness component to
train, but is relatively simple to test in non-game situations.
You need to be able to address the following for each component of
fitness:
* define each component
* link the component of fitness to energy systems
* identify factors affecting performance in each of the components; for
example, muscle fibre type, age and gender
* give examples of sports that require these components
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[1] http://alison.com/#
[2] http://alison.com/#
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the time taken from the start of the stimulus to the start of the response.
Why is reaction time a core component of fitness?
Reaction time Definition: the body's ability to take in, process, make a decision and make a muscular response to incoming information through one of the five senses. RT is absolutely vital in timed sports, and many athletes in sprint races also learn to anticipate well. Tennis players and hockey and soccer goalies also need to react quickly and to make appropriate decisions. The time delay between the starter's gun going off and the athlete actually leaving the blocks is the most common example and measure of RT. In the sprint race, the athlete has only one decision to make and thus their RT is usually quite small. As the decision-making demands of the game grow (for example, which of four players to pass to and which of two players to avoid in a game of rugby) the RT naturally would increase. Like balance and coordination, reaction time is an extremely difficult fitness component to train, but is relatively simple to test in non-game situations. You need to be able to address the following for each component of fitness: define each component link the component of fitness to energy systems identify factors affecting performance in each of the components; for example, muscle fibre type, age and gender give examples of sports that require these components
Explain reaction time in fitness is required?