Meaning and Concept of Sports Training

Training to achieve something in competition is not a new idea, but with time far more effort and science have gone into it. New techniques in athletics and new weight-training methods have shown very encouraging results, and training for any game or event has become highly technical — a scientific approach is now needed to get the desired results.

Sports training rests on many supports working together: individual care, improved fitness, scientific methods, psychological feedback, technical help, sound machines and apparatus, suitable climate, proper diet and safety precautions. Because its methods follow scientific principles in a systematic order, training develops the athlete's fundamental and advanced skills, technique, tactics and strategies, emotional stability during competition and motivation. It gives the trainee both practical and theoretical knowledge about performance and guides them on how to improve further. In short, sports training is the set of methods used to improve general and specific performance in games and sports.

What the experts say

Several authorities have defined sports training; together they bring out its scientific, planned and educational (pedagogical) character:

• Mathew — "Sports training is the basic form of preparation of sportsmen."
• Hardyal Singh — a pedagogical (educational) process, based on scientific principles, to prepare sportsmen for higher performance in competition.
• Harre — a scientific, pedagogical process of sports perfection that, through a systematic effect on performance ability and readiness, leads the sportsman to top performance.
• Matveyev — the basic form of an athlete's training; a systematically organised, pedagogically controlled process of an athlete's development.
• Martin — a planned and controlled process in which, to achieve a goal, changes in complex sports and motor performance are made through chosen content, methods and organisation. …