Achieving Excellence In Physical Training And Sports.

Matthew Syed, the British Table tennis champion emphasizes the importance of incessant and indefinite practice to achieve that goal of success that makes a star different from a mediocre player or performer in his inspirational and knowledgeable book, BOUNCE.http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bounce-Myth-Talent-Power-Practice/dp/0007350546/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315561831&sr=1-1  He describes how for those who excelled ,the many more hours of practice to master the technique distinguished their performances each time from the others. He describes practice as purposeful practice for progress. How this transformation can be achieved is by making it structured, designed for a purpose . For example, he gives how he himself achieved perfection in his game by practising with Chen Xinhua of China with a hundred balls.Another example he gives is training at Futsal for football. He describes how well designed  training can accelerate learning.

In order to prepare oneself for excellence for example, in a sport such as cricket again training and purposeful practice take precedence.
Bob Woolmar in his book Art and Science of Cricket http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bob-Woolmers-Art-Science-Cricket/dp/184773314X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1315587215&sr=1-1 describes how physical fitness is so important in achieving excellence.He emphasises the need to scientifically understand and pursue a fitness level by each individual in order to achieve the desired performance level. He even goes as further to say that countries who do not achieve these fitness goals for their players by utilizing, nutritionists, sports physiologists etc will not be able to compete at international level. He describes 8 fundamental principles of training like increasing overload progressively, training specific areas of the body to take challenges,quantity of training early on followed by quality, regularity of training,variety such as exposure to different players, change of venue in cricket,change of group leader will help improve the training.He also makes it clear that each individual has different approaches to learning, individual needs to training and differences in adaptation.His advice is to decrease the risk of injury and fatigue by doing appropriate warm ups and stretches and developing strength of muscles scientifically. For example he emphasizes the exercises for increasing the strength of eccentric muscles such as the quadriceps in cricket players especially batsman in order to alleviate the eccentric muscle fatigue that may hinder performance and success.
His emphasis on nutrition and fluid intake as a specialized field for players shows that in today's world of highly competitive sports, the human body is like a car, the better the design , the better the power and strength of performance.
Prevention of injury is very important.This only comes about by increasing the strength, endurance and performance ability of the individual.The repeated, specialized use of muscle groups in order to prevent injury can enhance the ability to achieve success. http://www.supersport.com/tennis/article.aspx?Id=1027021