question_answer

Explain the physiological factors determining speed.

Answer:

Definition of speed - speed is the ability to move quickly aross the ground or move limbs rapidly to grab or throw.

Factors affecting speed:

Neuromuscular coordination - It relates to the ability of the nervous system to efficiently recruit a muscle or group of muscles in order to perform a specific task.

Neuromuscular coordination works on two levels:

(i) Intra-Muscular Coordination - If the fibers in the muscle all contract and relax in synchronization, then you are producing more muscle power.

Basically, the better intra-muscular coordination, the more efficiently the muscle in working.

(ii) Inter-Muscular Coordination-The coordination between different muscles or group muscles while performing a specific task or activity.

Intra and Inter-muscular coordination improve with repetition training; muscles adopt and learn to do that specific sport movement more and more efficiently, once a person develops a certain level of coordination in a movement they don?t need to focus as much on it.

Speed in the muscle contraction-Speed of contraction depends on the characteristic and? Distribution of slow and fast twitch fibres each person mainly has and it is genetically determines so it does not change significantly with training. The fast muscle moves 5 times faster than the slow muscle and the super-fast moves 10 times faster than the slow muscle fibre.

Muscle strength levels-there is strong link between speed and strength; both contribute to the power. Gender and age-speed level increases at the same time that the nervous system and the locomotor system develop. Boys and girls have the same speed levels until the beginning of puberty; during puberty muscular strength develops in both genders but is more pronounced in boys, therefore it provides them higher speed levels. The maximum speed development is achieved around the age of 20 years and with the appropriate training it can be maintained and even get better until 30-35 years of age.

Proper technique and sport performance-will allow being more efficient in movements, doing them faster and also avoiding injuries. It will also improve the biomechanical sport movements by teaching the body and the mind the correct motor patterns and store them in your muscle memory so you can repeat them without thinking particularly when you are tired.

Attentional states- Influence the response time to the stimulus. Developing anticipation skill one of the characteristic of great athletes. Anticipation is a sport specific ability to reduce the time it takes to respond to a stimulus, being able to react to an event before it has actually happened. A tennis player who anticipates the type of serve the opponent will use, detecting certain clues early in the serving sequence that predicts the potential type of server so that player can start moving towards the direction of server quicker than usual. Experience is also a very important factor in anticipation.