The post How Do I Assess And Select Talent For A Rugby Team As A Coach? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post What Are The Best Practices In Sports Management For Sports Clubs And Associations? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post What Roles And Careers Are Available In Sports Administration? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post What Is The Role Of Sports Management In Talent Scouting And Recruitment? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post What Is The Role Of Sports Administration In Ensuring The Welfare Of Sports Officials? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post How Can Technology Be Used In Sports Administration? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post What Are The Key Strategies For Effective Sports Management? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post How Does Sports Management Navigate And Negotiate Sponsorship And Endorsement Deals? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post How Do Sports Managers Balance Financial Considerations With The Goals Of Athletes And Teams? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Sportsmen And Women Experience A Lot Of Pressures

Sportsmen and women experience a unique set of pressures in their jobs from scoring goals and winning trophies to having to confront media scrutiny as well as meeting the high expectations of adoring fans.

While these issues make for an out-of-the-ordinary workplace, in reality they are all linked to employment. The managers, coaches, clubs, governing bodies as well as player’s unions all have a role in supporting sporting professionals to manage their mental well-being at work.

What Is The Importance Of Sports Psychologists?

The significance of sport psychology has been realised for decades however many coaches and athletes pay far too little attention to how it can assist them with performing better. Physical aspects of sport are critical however they become even more significant when added to an effective mental training programme, including looking into relationships within the team, aspects of leadership, behavioural patterns as well as individual personalities.

Sport psychologists can assist sportsmen and women with, among others:

• Coping with competitive fears,
• Improving mental skills, preparing for competitions,
• Returning after injury, developing pre-game routines or routines before a shot,
• Improving practice efficiency,
• Coping with adversity,
• Performing well under pressure,
• Managing expectations,
• Maintaining confidence,
• Handling emotions after setbacks and mistakes, and
• Improving consistency in performance.

It all begins, however, with building a strong team culture that includes goals, values, attitudes as well as beliefs.

What Are The Three Pillars Of A Sports Team Culture?

A sports team culture consists of three essential pillars which support all team functioning as well as performance: values, attitudes in addition to goals.

Values

Values are defined as ideologies or standards of behaviour and your judgment of what is important in life. Values are so crucial as they guide the decisions and choices you and your sportsmen and women make as a team and as individuals. No matter what you value most is where you will dedicate your time, effort as well as energy.

Here is a list of values that we believe are essential for individual as well as team success:

• Ownership: no excuses,
• Hard work/best effort,
• Purposeful/focused,
• Quality,
• Teamwork,
• Trust/openness,
• Humility, and
• Respect of self and competition.

Attitudes

Attitudes are defined as the way in which you think and feel about something. Attitudes are extremely important because they guide how athletes think, feel, and act towards their chosen sport.

Here is a list of attitudes that we think are helpful in sports:

• Process, not outcome,
• Challenge, not threat,
• Seek out discomfort,
• Experiment,
• Mistakes/failure are good, and
• Never give up!

Goals

A goal is the object of a person’s ambition or effort and an aim or desired result. As you know so well, goals are extremely important for athletes to motivate them and to direct their efforts.

Here are some team goals that we believe are useful for a team:

• Support and communication,
• Process focus,
• Consistently fast,
• Respond positively to adversity,
• Total preparation,
• Bring it!
• No regrets: take your shot!
• Have fun!

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Do you want to become a sports coach? If you do then you need to do our Advanced Sports Conditioning Coach Course. Follow this link to find out more.

The post Why Is Mental Health Key For Sportsmen And Women? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Similarities Between A Sports Manager And A Fitness Manager

A sports manager focuses on the business side of sports and recreation, including facility management, promotions as well as marketing in addition to event management. Those who are interested in becoming a sports manager need to have skills in areas such as financial management, sports administration, public relations, and/or accounting.

Fitness managers are responsible for leading as well as maintaining the daily strategies and operations of their facilities, as sports managers do. A fitness manager works in the best interest of their customers in addition to their business.

It’s the fitness manager’s prerogative to:

• Buy, sell, and maintain on-site equipment,
• Requisition talented staff, and
• Manage their team of personal trainers.

Also, fitness managers plan employee schedules, generate ideas and actions for revenue growth, navigate crisis management and – in some cases – provide gym tours for potential clients.

Fitness Manager Duties

A fitness manager is required to carry out a wide range of duties which include preserving the equipment, providing the best services to the clients, maintaining cleanliness, ensuring boosted sales and general supervision. If you have a burning passion for physical fitness and also have good business acumen and then you can certainly take up the career of a fitness manager.

How To Become A Sports Manager

Do you live and breathe sports? Do you want to make sports your career? Fortunately, you’ve chosen a field with lots of diverse opportunities as well as strong future growth predictions.

When you think of sports managers, you may think of the high profile roles such as a talent recruiter or team manager at a football club. In actual fact, the field of sports management encompasses lots of different roles across professional sports, business, marketing, data analytics, event management, law as well as even human relations.

With such a varied range of job opportunities in front of you, you may be wondering, ‘where do I get started?’

The truth is, no pathway towards becoming a sports general manager is exactly the same. Some sports managers used to be professional athletes, while some have always been working off the field. Some people move sideways into sports from other industries, and some start at small clubs and work their way up.

Sports Manager Education Requirements

Although aspiring sports managers may benefit from free online courses in business management or other courses in areas like law, finance, and leadership, they must have a background in sports management. Sports management programmes may be available in online formats, often include hands-on learning experiences, and may include coursework in areas like:

• Sport marketing,
• Business finance,
• Sport facility management,
• Law, and
• Fundraising

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to study sports management then you need to do our Sports Management Certification. Follow this link to learn more.

The post Sports Manager vs Fitness Manager. Learn more appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Along with boosted strength and fat loss, battle ropes offer an intense cardio workout. They’re well-suited to Tabata training and also develop muscular endurance. What’s not to love?

It’s also an easy-to-obtain piece of kit which is simple to set up outside and also takes up minimal storage space. We’d recommend having ropes of different lengths in order to suit your experience and space available.

What Are The Benefits of Battle Ropes?

Improves Cardio And Strength

While battle ropes may look like fun to utilise, you might be asking yourself what the benefits behind them are. The main benefit of the battle ropes is that it boosts levels of significant elements of the body such as cardio, power, endurance as well as strength.

Doesn’t Require A Lot Of Time

Don’t believe us? Try using a battle rope workout routine for five straight minutes. Your lungs will be scorching, your forearms will feel utterly exhausted and the sweat will be pouring down your face.

Sure, lots of cardiovascular workouts can boast that type of benefit. You could sprint, perform jumping jacks, box jumps as well as a lot of other high-intensity exercises. However, those take a heavy toll on your body, especially your knee in addition to your ankle joints.

Low-Impact On The Joints

The fact that you are able to push yourself at a high-intensity level while the battle ropes are considered to be low-impact exercises is fantastic. This minimises the individuals’ chances of getting injured while still allowing them to push themselves close to their maximum capacity.

Essential Battle Rope Exercises

You are able to use battle ropes at the start of your session as part of a warm-up or activation phase. In addition, you can use them in the middle of your workout in order to build intensity with waves, slams and whips. Or you can utilise them at the end of a workout as a finisher for time or reps.

Ropes are fantastic for time-based workout routines. You work at an increased intensity as opposed to what you do than with, say, dumbbells. Thus you get your heart rate up as well to burn more calories

Biceps Wave

Keeping the rest of the body still, wave the battle ropes as quickly as possible, concentrating on high reps as well as high amplitude. It’ll get your muscles ready for what’s to come. Remain in a quarter squat position, with your back up straight, and make sure that you keep your elbow movement to a minimum. Ensuring that you keep your elbows in will stop your shoulders from burning out and keep the movement in your biceps.

Lateral Whip

With a very minor bend in the elbows, bring the battle ropes up as if you were doing a lateral raise, making sure that you keep your thumbs pointing a bit forwards. Then whip them downwards. Carry on doing to do your raises at speed.

This is a marvellous way to target the rear delts and back muscles, which are muscles that are linked to creating better posture. Quite common errors include too much leg movement in and out of the squat and allowing the torso slouch. Keep your chest up and remain in a quarter squat position.

Outside Spiral

With alternating arms, make outward circles so that the battle rope moves like a corkscrew, working your shoulders as well as your rotator cuffs.

This exercise has a number of different variations for all levels of ability, from half kneeling to clockwise and anti-clockwise rotations. This battle ropes exercise will work the rotator cuffs, which are the small stabilising muscles of the shoulder joints and create core tension. This is why it is incredibly essential to keep your torso as strong as possible through not allowing yourself to slouch. It’s a fun as well as dynamic way to train the back muscles and rotator cuffs.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Do you want to become a battle ropes expert? If you do then it is very important to do our Battle Ropes Course. Follow this link to find out more.

The post Why It’s High Time That You Started Training With Battle Ropes appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Here’s what hiking has over going to the gym.

Vitamin D

You get tonnes of this when you go hiking. More like a hormone as opposed to a vitamin per se, this little guy plays an immediate role in over 2 000 functions in the human body. Pretty good to have around.

Interval Training

Interval training is demonstrated to be one of the most efficient forms of cardio as it burns more calories in far less time.

To put it quite simply, interval training involves rotating short periods of intense activity with lengthier periods of rest. As you hike with sporadic resting breaks, it serves as interval training as well as improving your fitness.

This kind of workout routine is beneficial even for those who are suffering from type 2 diabetes. As with every other form of cardio, this is good for your heart and assists in maintaining healthy blood pressure.

Long Aerobic Exercise

Low-level exercise for long periods of time gets the blood flowing, which in turn provides oxygen as well as  nutrients to your cells. This aids in their repair and assists them grow stronger. In addition, for those ‘calendar types’, muscles working at a consistent – but low-level pace – burn fat, which helps you ‘shred up’.

Strong Legs

When you’re engaged in hiking, you move your legs in a number of different of ways not like repeating as with the same movement as on an elliptical or a treadmill.  This works up nearly all muscles in your legs. Notice how it doesn’t concentrate only on the ‘major’ muscles?

With hiking, you’d build stronger legs. All your movements will get better. As your body weight falls on your legs, making them strong will make sure that you have a good posture while standing. In addition, strong legs are aesthetic and may boost your confidence to the next level.

A good pair of hiking pants will keep your legs comfortable throughout your journey.

Mental Exercise

Forget running mindlessly on a treadmill or stretching your mental capacity by counting to 12 (?), hiking frequently involves triangulating your position, calculating hours to next campsite based on average pace, following a bearing through forest, estimating needed water and food, predicting the weather as well as even calculating the time utilising the sun (if you’re keen).

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Do you want to learn more about gym exercises? If you do then you need to do our Gym Instructor Course. Follow this link for more information.

The post Is Hiking Better Than Gym? Find out in this article. appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

As with muscle, bone is living tissue which responds to exercise through becoming stronger. Young women and men who regularly exercise generally achieve greater peak bone mass (maximum bone density and strength) as opposed to those who do not.

For most individuals, bone mass peaks during the third decade of life. After that time, we can start to lose bone. Women and men older than the age 20 can help prevent bone loss with regular exercise. Also, exercising can help us to maintain muscle strength, coordination as well as balance, which in turn assists to prevent falls and related fractures. This is particularly important for older adults and people who have been diagnosed with osteoporosis.

Exercises Which Build Healthy Bones

While most kinds of exercise are good for you, not all kinds are good for healthy bones. For instance, weight-bearing exercises may build healthy bone. These exercises include challenging your muscle strength against gravity as well as putting pressure on your bones. So, your bones will signal your body to produce additional tissue in order to build stronger bones. Exercises – for instance walking or swimming – may be beneficial to your lung and heart health but won’t certainly help you strengthen your bones.

With strength training, you make use of weights, resistance bands, or your own body weight in order to strengthen your muscles. This is important as strong muscles – especially those near your spine – can assist with protecting your bones. However, strength training also puts pressure on your bones. This assists with building and maintaining bone mass.

It’s a very good idea to ask a physical therapist or certified personal trainer to assist you to create a strength training workout that’s safe as well as tailored to your needs. If you don’t want to go into a gym or physical therapy office, some fitness experts may be able to help you through video calls.

Foot Stomps

The goal for exercise to lessen the effects of osteoporosis is to challenge the key areas of your body which osteoporosis most commonly affects, such as your hips. One of the ways that you can challenge your hip bones is by foot stomps:

• While standing, stomp your foot, imagining that you are crushing an imaginary can underneath it.
• Repeat four times on one of your feet and then repeat the exercise on your other foot.
• Hold on to a railing or solid piece of furniture if you have difficulty keeping your balance.

Bicep Curls

You are able to perform bicep curls with either dumbbells weighing between ½ a kilo to 2 kilos or a resistance band. These can be done when you’re sitting or standing, depending on what you’re most comfortable with:

• Take hold of a dumbbell in each one of your hands or step on a resistance band while you’re holding an end in each of your hands.
• Pull the bands or weights in towards your chest and watch the bicep muscles on the fronts of your upper arms contract.
• Lower your arms in order to return to your starting position.
• Repeat between eight and 12 times. Rest and then repeat the exercise for a second set, if possible.

Shoulder Lifts

In addition, you’ll require weights or a resistance band in order to perform shoulder lifts. You are able to do this exercise from either a standing or seated position:

• Take a dumbbell in each of your hands. Alternatively, step on a resistance band while holding an end in each of your hands.
• Begin with your arms down and hands down at your sides.
• Gradually raise your arms out straight in front of you, however, don’t lock your elbow.
• Lift to a relaxed height, but no higher than your shoulder level.
• Repeat between eight and 12 times. Rest for a number of seconds and then repeat for a second set, if you are able to.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Do you want to learn more about exercises? If you do, then you need to do our Personal Training Diploma. Follow this link to find out more.

The post Exercises To Build Stronger Bones. appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Whether your fitness objective is to create muscle mass or achieve a fitter, more toned body, weight training can assist you with getting there. Weight training, which is also known as resistance or strength training, develops lean, stronger muscles, strengthens your bones and joints, and helps boost your metabolism. This means that you’ll burn more calories even when you’re at rest.

In addition, stronger muscles can improve your athletic performance and lower your chance of injuries. Even if you’ve never performed any type of weight training before, it’s never too late to begin. Strength training is appropriate for both men and women, and it can be started at any age or fitness level.

Knowledge Prevents Injury

You are able to avoid injury by using a cautious as well as knowledgeable approach to weight training exercises. Your technique — your form and how you do the exercise — is crucial to minimising injury. You also need to make good judgments regarding the type of exercise in addition to the load you try to lift, push or press, particularly in relation to your existing fitness, strength, bone and muscle health as well as injury status.

Check Your Technique

You may learn weight training techniques by watching friends or others in the gym, however sometimes what you see isn’t safe. Incorrect weight training technique could lead to sprains, strains, fractures and other painful injuries which may hamper your weight training efforts.

If you’re getting started with weight training, it’s advisable that you work with a knowledgeable physical therapist, athletic trainer or other fitness specialist who’s familiar with proper weight training technique. If you’ve been utilising weights for a while, consider scheduling time with a personal trainer in order to double-check your technique and identify any changes you may need to make.

Don’t Overdo It

Start with a weight you are able to comfortably lift 12 to 15 times. For most individuals, a single set of 12 to 15 repetitions with a weight that fatigues so that the muscles are able to build strength efficiently and can also be as effective as three sets of the same exercise. As you become stronger, gradually increase the amount of weight.

Remember To Breathe

You may be persuaded to hold your breath while you’re lifting weights. Don’t do this! Rather, breathe out as you lift the weight and breathe in as you lower the weight.

Rest

Don’t exercise the same muscles two days in a row. You may work all of your major muscle groups at a single session two or three times a week. Alternatively, plan daily sessions for particular muscle groups. For instance, you could work your arms and shoulders on Monday and your legs on Tuesday, etc.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you are keen to learn additional information about weightlifting, then you need to do our Personal Training Diploma. Follow this link to find out more.

The post How To Lift Weights The Safe Way? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Running a remote fitness business offers a lot of advantages:

• You’ll be able to access a broader potential customer base,
• Clients won’t need to pay a gym membership for your services, as well as
• There are plenty of passive income opportunities.

Online personal training is now more pertinent than ever. With the huge array of technological options as well as virtual training applications that are available, you are able to pivot to an online personal training business in a few relatively easy steps.

Decide On Your Virtual Fitness Model

The virtual fitness business realm offers a vast array of opportunities in a number of different formats. You will be able to pick the method which suits your business model or combine a few different setups in order to allow clients to choose the style and price point which works best for them.

Possible ways to structure your virtual fitness business include the following:

• Offer one-on-one personal training, where you are able to coach a client as they work out, often through a video call. The sessions are usually personalised in order to help the client work toward their fitness goals.
• Lead livestream “group” classes, where a number of different clients can follow along at once.
• Put together a workout routine (often as a PDF) which customers are able to access after purchasing. These programmes are usually non-personalised and are often written for a target audience such as pregnant women or older adults.
• Offer pre-recorded workout videos that clients can watch and follow by paying a regular membership fee.

Choose The Right Fitness Model

The thought of taking your fitness business online in order to offer virtual training services might be incredibly overwhelming at first. But don’t let the fear of the unidentified stop you from making a positive step forwards into the game-changing aspect of online personal training.

In order to set-up your virtual training space, you’ll require two devices:

• One device will be utilised as a camera, such as a tablet, laptop, or smartphone, and it will be utilised as you demonstrate exercises as well as observe your client during the session.
• The other device will be utilised to type in the client’s work out details, including completed reps as well as other relevant data.

You don’t need to make a large financial investment when it comes to these items. One device with a camera – as well as one that’s capable of running a word processing application (such as Google Docs) – will do.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to learn how to run a virtual fitness business, check out our great range of Fitness Business Courses here.

The post How To Run A Virtual Fitness Business? Find out in this article. appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Getting significantly stronger and remaining that way is mainly a matter of taking care of the finer details, such as:

• Training consistently,
• Designing a workout program which fits your individual needs,
• eating wholesome foods,
• taking nutritional supplements, as well as
• getting plenty of rest.

Most diligent strength athletes take care of these tasks carefully, however at the same time they’re neglectful when it comes to two other disciplines which are most important to success in the weight room: warming up and stretching.

The Importance Of Warming UP

It is incredibly important to perform a proper warm-up before any kind of physical activity.  The aim of a warm-up is to prevent injury by boosting the body’s core and muscle temperature.  Warm muscles boost the rate of energy production which increases reflexes and lessens the time it takes to contract a muscle.

A good warm-up should also enhance the range of motion and prepare you mentally for exercise. Warm-ups should be very specific to the type of exercise which you are doing, however it should be a full body warm-up even if you are only planning to work out a few muscle groups.  For instance, if you are planning to do a leg workout you should be doing a warm-up with mostly lower body exercises, but also include a few upper body/full body exercises.

Why Should You Stretch After Exercise?

Stretching gives the body the opportunity to cool down and also assists your heartbeat to return to normal. The releasing of lactic acid during an intense workout is broken with stretching. This allows for muscle recovery and repair. The blood circulation to the muscles is again resumed with stretching.

The moment that you work out your muscles, the body produces lactic acid which makes the muscles fatigued as well as sore. Hence, it is vital to stretch because stretching removes the lactic acid which has accumulated inside the body and also relaxes the muscles.

Boost Your Energy

If you stretch correctly, you’ll likely notice that your energy level is steady as well as consistent. When the body cools, the brain releases endorphins, which is a natural and healthy feel-good chemical. After a good post-workout stretch, you’ll be energised and will also be ready to meet any challenge.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Are you keen to get to grips with flexibility training – in addition to other types of training, such as cardio and strength training? If you are, then you should really do our Personal Training Diploma. Follow this link to find out more.

The post Why Is Flexibility Training Essential For CrossFit Athletes? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What Is A Team?

A team is a group of fitness professionals who are all working together for a common purpose. The people who comprise a team ideally should have common goals, common objectives as well as generally think along the same lines. Individuals who are not attuned with each other can never form a team. They should have similar – if not the same – interests, thought processes, attitude, perception and likings.

Teams are formed when people with a common taste, preference, liking as well as attitude come and work together towards a common goal. Teams play a very significant role in organisations in addition to our personal lives. Teams are what drives most organisations or sports, no matter what type of team it is, people get the most done when they work together. Unfortunately, when people do not work together performance and productivity suffers.

What Are The Symptoms Of An Unhealthy Team?

The symptoms of an unhealthy team are hostility, conflicting goals and unclear expectations. In order to avoid these symptoms, the members of the team have to be proactive in improving team performance and focusing on the common goal.

Creating and sustaining championship thinking team behaviour requires a coming-together of personalities with the skill and commitment to wisely give and take, lead and follow. For any team to be successful they must know how to balance the needs of the full team with those of the individuals and coaches. This team mentality is also required for the people who govern and administer the arrangements of the team.

What Is The Structure And Purpose Of A Team?

As we know a team is made up of people who have a common goal and that work together to achieve that goal. i.e. win the World Series, win the Iron Man Competition, Argus, etc. Each team has a purpose and is structured in a particular way in order to enable it to achieve its purpose or goal.

Within a team, there is a mixture of different people with different contributions. The best team culture develops where team members recognise that everyone else has important value to contribute. For each team, there needs to be a recognised leader who takes responsibility to drive and guide the team, e.g. a coach or a  fitness trainer.

The team structure develops both formally and informally, it is flexible as the right people have to work together for any given goal. It means that a leader for one issue might only be a contributor for another and vice versa.

Through the process of respecting the specialist skills, roles as well as responsibilities of other team members, a strong, collaborative team spirit may be created with each person recognising the value of others and the value of working as a team.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Teamwork is a crucial part of any sports team. If you want to end up managing a sports team – as a career one day – then you should do our Sports Management Course. Follow this link to find out more.

The post What A Fitness Professional Needs To Know About Working In A Team appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Resting Heart Rate

This is your heart rate when you are not engaging in any physical activity which elevates it, or when you are in a state of rest such as when you’re sleeping. As you become fitter, this number will decrease as your heart and lungs have become stronger.

Your heart is also then able to pump more blood (something which is called stroke volume) throughout the body while expending less effort. The lungs are able to take in more oxygen, which is called maximum oxygen uptake, with less effort. This means that more blood and oxygen to the working muscles which makes up the endurance portion of being fit.

A standard resting heart rate can vary as low as 40 BPM to as high as 100 BPM. 70 BPM is often the average for a man, and 75 BPM is average for a woman. The resting heart rate should be utilised as an index in order to improve your cardiovascular fitness level. Focus on decreasing your resting heart rate.

The best time in order to measure your resting heart rate is when you first wake up. The beats of the radial pulse are correctly measured in your wrist. in line with the base of your thumb. Put the tips of your index as well as middle fingers over the radial artery and then apply a light pressure to it. Do not utilise your thumb as it has a pulse of its own. Count the beats for one full minute in order to get the heart rate or for 30 seconds and multiply by two for the number of beats per minute.

Exercise Heart Rate

This is the rate at which your heart beats when body is in motion owing to a sustained exercise. The goal is to stay within your target heart rate range or zone, which is usually between 75 and 85% of your maximum heart rate. You maximum heart rate is the rate at which your heart beats at its full capacity.

During sustained aerobic activity , you never want to work at 100% of your maximum heart rate except if a professional has you on a specific programme which is designed for that. Your fitness level must also be able to sustain it. If you work out at 100% of max this will cause you to cross over the anaerobic threshold. These numbers can be different dependent on your age as well as fitness level.

The exercise pulse is most correctly palpated at the larger Carotid Artery on the side of your neck. It is usually to be found beside the larynx:

• Place your index as well as middle fingers alongside the bottom of your ear lobe.
• Slide these down to the side of your throat and then apply a light pressure.

DO NOT apply heavy pressure to the carotid artery when measuring your exercise heart rate. These arteries have bar receptors that sense increases in pressure. As a result they will respond by slowing down your heart rate. You will feel this pulse quite easily during a workout, so heavy pressure is not needed to locate this heart rate.

Take the exercise heart rate for 10 seconds,

always counting the first beat as “0,” then multiply by 6. This number is your Exercise HR.

Max Heart Rate

In order to see what your maximum heart rate is, take 220 and minus your age. This is accurate to approximately 15 BPM. Take this number and multiply it by  .75 to .85. This will give you your percentages of 75% – 85% of your maximum heart rate. This is the target range or zone that you want to stay in when doing any type of cardiovascular (aerobic) activity. When in this range your body is getting an optimum workout with maximum benefit, and it stays in a fat-burning mode.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

This is just some of the very valuable information that you’ll learn on our Personal Training Diploma. Want to enrol? Follow this link.

The post Want To Get Fit? These Are The Heart Rates You Should Be Measuring appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

1. Jump Slam

This move (and others performed in a squat position) are useful for building strength and core, with a focus on the upper body. Start with 15 seconds at a time, before building up to longer sessions.

• Stand feet hip-width apart, knees bent, back straight, and engage your core. Hold a rope in each hand.
• Jump up as high as you conceivably can and lift your arms up as high as possible. As you land, slam the ropes down into the floor. Try and keep the same level of energy as with each rep, jumping at the same height every time.

2. Wave Squat

As in Jump Squat start at 15 seconds at a time, before going for longer.

• Stand feet hip-width apart, knees bent, back straight, and engage your core. Hold a rope in each hand.
• Hold the squat position and begin moving your arms alternately (hands staying within the range of shoulder and hips) to create a wave with the ropes.

(You can also add a squat to the move, slowly squatting and rising up as you keep the wave steady)

3. Jumping Jacks

Try performing this move for 15 seconds at a time.

• Stand with feet slightly closer together than hip-width apart and standing straight up. Hold a rope in each hand.
• Jump, reaching your hands and feet up and out (into a jumping jack) before returning to the starting position.

4. Lunge Flys

This move challenges you to hold your position as the ropes will be pulling you off balance. Try beginning with 30 seconds at a time before moving up to longer sessions.

• Start in a left lunge position with your arms stretched out in front of you at shoulder height, in a V shape.
• Pull your elbows in so that your left forearm crosses your right, before returning to the starting position.
• After 10 reps switch your lunge to the right side, and continue, crossing your right forearm over your left.

5. Pushup To Slam

This move allows you to work your entire body and involves more mental focus to perform it while maintaining form. Start with 30 seconds at a time.

• Commence in a high plank position with the battle ropes placed on the floor in front of you (within reach).
• Perform a pushup, then jump to your feet (as you would with a burpee) grab the ropes, and then jump slam the ropes into the ground. Then drop the ropes and jump back into plank position to start again.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you would like to discover the ultimate way to use battle ropes effectively in your workouts then you should really have a look at our Battle Ropes Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post What Are The Best Battle Ropes Workouts to Burn Fat and Build Muscle? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Soccer is an intense as well as a demanding sport. To be a great soccer player, it is necessary for you to be in top physical condition. While practising with a team and participating in a competitive play can up your level of fitness, it’s also important to undertake some extra conditioning on the side. By increasing your stamina, enhancing your agility in addition to fine-tuning your footwork, you’ll be able to do better during games and even stay fit during the off-season.

Although natural talent certainly plays a pivotal role in a player’s performance on the soccer field, sufficient personal training is also of the utmost importance. While it is no secret that regular gym and field drills are an absolute necessity for players, home workouts can be equally beneficial.

Up Your Cardio

Get yourself on a treadmill or, alternatively, find any open space which you can run in. Interval training is not a traditional stamina-builder however it is what you’ll find most Premier League players doing in order to help them to improve their VO2 Max, which is the maximum rate at which someone’s body is able to consume oxygen during exercise. Hitting maximum sprinting at high tempo prior to jogging, and then going all out once more, allows them to build the stamina and flourish deep into added time.

Find Your Balance

The game of soccer is really a game of balance. Being able to elude defenders, jump over tackles in addition to just controlling your own body can be a difficult challenge. By creating a strong centre of gravity and building abdominal muscles, you can increase your sense of balance and control over movements. Creating a strong mid-section will also benefit your shot. With strong abdominal muscles your shot will be much harder and travel with a greater velocity.

Don’t Forget About The Plyometrics

As agility is so vital to soccer players, plyometric drills should form a part of each exercise routine. These drills usually consist of a lot of:

• Hopping,
• Jumping, as well as bounding exercises.

These are aimed at improving both explosive strength as well as coordination.  Even though plyometric boxes can be purchase from any respectable sporting goods store, anyone with a knack for DIY could easily make them at home. The exercises, which involve jumping onto and over the boxes, can boost a soccer player’s performance significantly. Studies have indeed indicated that regular involvement in plyometrics can decrease ground reaction times substantially, which enables players to react to plays at a much faster rate.

Why You Need To Work On Change Of Direction

It’s all very well and good if you’re fast however if that stops at straight line speed then you’ll be confined to the wings. Every soccer player should have the capacity to change direction at any second and do so quickly, without the danger of injury and making sure that the ball is well under control.

Traditional cone drills are a simple way in order to improve a player’s agility, including slalom runs as well as shuttle runs. Don’t forget the ball, either, because the real gamechanger is being able to run as well as turn at full tilt, but still keep the ball under control.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Do you want to learn the ins and outs of soccer coaching? If you do, then you need to study our Soccer Coaching Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post How To Enhance Your Soccer Fitness appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

This fitness test is a maximal aerobic fitness test, where those being tested run 20m shuttles at increasing speeds. The speeds as well as levels of the 20-m PACER fitness test are based on the original details of the shuttle run test which was developed by Leger. There is also a 15m PACER fitness test for use where space is limited.

The PACER fitness text is seen as being a particular effective test for younger children as it’s seen as an enjoyable activity for them. It also assists them with building up their self-esteem as the kids who finish last, or are in the least shape, essentially finish the PACER fitness test first. This helps the kids stay in shape, too, but doesn’t force them to run laps or sprint around the gym or field in order to do so.

What Equipment Is Needed For the PACER Fitness Test?

You will require the following equipment to conduct the PACER test properly:

• Flat non-slip surface,
• Marking cones,
• Up to a 20m measuring tape,
• PACER test CD,
• CD player, as well as
• Recording sheets.

Before the text, explain the procedures to the participants. Screen of health risks and obtain informed consent. Prepare the forms and record basic information such as:

• Age,
• Height,
• Body weight,
• Gender, and
• Test conditions (indoors/outdoors, weather, running surface).

Measure and mark out the course. In addition, perform a standard warm-up.

How The PACER Fitness Test Works

To complete the PACER fitness test, you’ll be required to follow a few fundamental steps. It’s important that you follow these carefully in order to avoid putting anyone, who is completing the PACER fitness test, at risk:

• Mark off a 20-m course which allows enough room for each participant to have sufficient space to run. Utilise the set of cones in order to distinguish a clear path for each runner.
• Play the PACER fitness test CD for the participants. This allows them to get used to it. The CD is intended to play for one-minute as well as to keep each runner on pace.
• Position the runners at the starting line and then press play on the CD. Each runner must then run the full 20 metres, touch the line at the end of the 20 metres with their foot and wait for the CD to beep.
• When it does, they are able to then pace themselves and run back to the starting place. Runners then wait for the following beep before repeating the run. They keep doing this until they are unable to get to the next line before the CD beeps.
• The beeps will start off slow, so make sure to tell them to pace themselves before attempting the PACER fitness test. Once they are unable to reach the other end before a beep twice, they are finished.
• Every 20-metre run counts as one lap. As a runner runs, have a partner at hand to mark down each lap that he runs. Once he does not make the run before the beep, they are finished. Their total laps completed amounts to their total score. The CD contains 21 minutes or 21 levels. The highest score wins at the PACER fitness test.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

In our Personal Training Diploma, we teach students how to measure other aspects of fitness using different fitness tests. To learn more about this diploma, please follow this link.

The post What is the PACER fitness test? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

As a result, professional athletes struggle to find facilities to train with the assistance of coaches. Halting all sports training can take its toll on athletes. This will, as a result, impact their performance. In the middle of chaos, disruptive sports technology innovation has come up from all parts of the world.

Disruption to the sports industry

The worldwide sports industry is experiencing more disruption than ever owing to continuing shifts in the consumption of media, the development of new technologies and a quickly evolving sponsorship market.

According to a recently published report, which is based on an online review of 189 sports industry stakeholders, the industry’s growth rate will slow down by in excess of 32% in the coming three to five years. This is even though it is expected that the industry will grow by an average of 6.4% over exactly the same period.

This trend possibly reflects the continuing rise of over-the-top (OTT) streaming solutions over a number of private platforms, in particular social media. These patterns also possibly reflect media consumption trending towards mobile, bite-sized and on-demand content.

Sport, exercise and technology

Sports training and exercise science, as with most areas of life, have been affected significantly by technological advancements. It is difficult to imagine modern sports, as well as the different sub-disciplines of exercise science, minus technologies.

The utilisation of technologies is, with no exceptions, stained with frustration as well as ambivalence. Ironically, it is the pervasiveness of technology which has contributed most to people’s inability to fully grasp the scope, in addition to the depth, of its influence and also doubt as to what role various technological advancements have to play in sports. Indeed, the flood of sport technologies has profoundly changed the landscape of sports training and exercise science.

The leaps in tech have had a profound effect on sports training, including:

• Evaluation of sports performance and enabling coaches to greatly improve the quality of feedback to players/athletes
• Increasing accuracy in time measurements regarding sport performance
• Enabling referees, umpires as well as sports officials to make better decisions regarding rule infringements
• Improvements in the design of sports equipment in addition to apparel
• Offering spectators a better viewing of sport performance

Technology is a constantly evolving process and we’re still decades away from achieving singularity, which is defined as machine superintelligence passing human intelligence. Up to 2018, technology has been mostly a one-dimensional in nature. As the next step, artificial intelligence and smart analytics will be needed for seamlessly integrating technology with sports training to guide the next stage of evolution and to ensure higher relevance to human society.

Over the last 20-odd years or so, the application of science had led to a swift development of sports equipment, footwear, clothing in addition to accessories. Nevertheless, the rate of technology evolution in sports training has been slow-paced. In a number of ways, humans have wavered and resisted adopting technology in competitive sports. Their primary argument states that the sports’ overreliance on technology will inhibit natural competition and reduce the thrill of competition.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you’re interested in studying to become a sports coach then why not check out our Sports Science Coaching Certification? For more information and to register, please follow this link.

The post The technologies that are disrupting sports training appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Sports psychology is ultimately an interdisciplinary science. Besides psychology, it is also involved with disciplines such as biomechanics, physiology, and kinesiology. A sport psychologist is working from the viewpoint that success in sports relies on both the body as well as the mind. To add one other key point, sports psychologists are often found working with top athletes—Olympians and professionals. However, sports psychologists can be found at work with athletes at all levels as well as with coaches and sports administrators.

What does a sports psychologist do?

Professional sports psychologists frequently assist with athletes coping with the extreme pressure that comes from competition and overcoming problems with focus and motivation. They also work with athletes to enhance performance and recuperate from injuries.

Based on this definition, sports psychologists can engage in various activities, mainly focused on working to comprehend what inspires athletes and just how athletes can enhance their performance. Such activities can range from counselling athletes who could have anxiety issues that hamper their performance to teaching athletes (individually or in groups) about methods of mental conditioning (e.g., visualisation, concentration, and relaxation) to assisting athletes deal with injuries.

To guarantee success, sports psychologists should be confident communicators with the ability to enhance an athlete’s performance through attention control training and mind awareness techniques. Top candidates will have incredible listening skills with expertise in using breathing, relaxation and/or cognitive techniques to instil focus and mental intensity that is necessary for athletes to increase their performance levels.

What is the importance of sports psychology?

If an athlete is interested in getting the most of their athletic endeavours, they can no longer treat their performance as a mixture of isolated factors which come together in some unexplained and integrated way on the day of the competition.

A long-distance athlete would never think of entering a long-distance race without spending time physically preparing his or her body to meet the conditioning requirements of a race. However, most athletes probably enter a race without defining what psychological skills he or she would need to help get the best physical performance. Virtually no one prepares and practises the necessary mental conditions.

As the science of sports performance develops, it is becoming increasingly important to integrate the mental and physical aspects of performance. Customarily, no attention has been given to the cognitive aspects of performance. Sports coaches – as well as athletes – have devoted most of their attention to the physical components of performance.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you’re interested in learning about how psychology can positively contribute to an athlete’s performance then you need to do our Sports Psychology Course. Follow this link for more information.

The post What is the psychology behind sports psychology? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Never before have sports teams played a whole season without fans. This will make the latter half of 2020 a fascinating time for the individuals who study sports as well as how psychology influences athletic achievement.

In the few cases in which fans were barred from the stadiums in the past, sports psychology researchers found that there were fewer penalties issued by referees and there was less of a competitive advantage for the home team.

Over the past several years, researchers have recognised a home-field advantage in basketball, football as well as baseball. These results are due largely to the reality that away teams have to deal with the:

• Fatigue of travel,
• Uncertainties of playing on an unfamiliar field and using a different locker room,
• Effects of crowd noise on referees, which tends to be associated with more fouls against visiting teams.

What is the psychology of the sports fan?

Ardent sports fans will hang onto the passion for their team regardless of anything that happens. However, even the most true fans could find that their faith is put to the test when things aren’t going well for their cherished team.

Social and sports psychologists have identified two patterns of reactions that sports fans have to their team’s performance.

BIRGing

This term does not designate a  type of an eating disorder, but applies to this phenomenon is called “Basking in Reflected Glory”.

At the time when your team is doing well, you feel wonderful.  Research demonstrates that on the day after a team’s victory, individuals are feeling better about themselves. They say that “we” won, and by “we,” they are not meaning themselves, individually.

The closer that you identify with the team, the more likely you are to BIRG. People who BIRG also will be more likely to wear their team’s regalia on the day after a win.

CORFing

CORFing means that you are “Cut Off Reflected Failure” from yourself.

Your team was defeated and now you want to distance yourself from them and their shame as much as possible. It’s no longer “we” who lost, it’s “they.”

The absolute last thing that a CORFer wants to wear on the day after the team’s loss are hats or, alternatively, shirts with the team’s logo. This is the test of the true fan as opposed to a fickle one.

It’s the CORFers who are the unpredictable fans. Their identification with the sports team rises and then falls with the box scores. True fans, on the other hand, will wear jerseys, hats, and virtually every item with the team logo no matter how badly their team performs. Real fans may feel disappointed, but their heroes remain their heroes, even if slightly tarnished by defeat.

Geisterspiele, or “ghost games,” has been the jargon adopted to describe the fan-less matches held as the Bundesliga continued its 2019–20 season Instead. The stadium magnifies only the shouts of the players on the pitch, strained and homogenised by endless layers of echo. Cheering as well as playing hard are expressions of the same social thinking. Without the cheering, the sports team lacks evidence that the fans are imagining the same thing they are, and the power of the collective thinking goes down. Without the fans being there to envision with them, and the other team to imagine the exact opposite outcome, it’s not a real game.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to find out additional information regarding sports psychology, and perhaps even become a sports psychologist, then you need to do our Sports Psychology Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post How no-fan matches is changing the psychology of sports appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

It didn’t even hurt that much when it happened but, after a day or two, the pain is unbearable. So, you head on over to the doctor who confirms your worst nightmare, a ligament tear in need of surgery.

The initial treatment is straightforward: surgery to repair the tear and then physiotherapy for the next few months. Seems simple enough, right?

Unfortunately, the psychological impact of these injuries is often downplayed, but they pose a major mental threat. You have gone from a lean, mean sporting machine to a person relying on others to complete basic day-to-day tasks. In the blink of an eye, all has changed.

Addressing the mental impact of injuries

Coaches and family members of injured athletes need to be sensitive to the issues that come with the injury. By understanding the strain being placed on the player, you can navigate any additional stressors and prevent further mental anguish.

It’s important to remember that the athlete has built their entire life around their sport. It is who they are and they’re often lost without this sense of identity. Another aspect to consider is the self-esteem that comes with being good at what you do. This recognition is a driver of success and acts as a great motivator. This all becomes a part of who they are and how they cope with various things.

So how do you cope when it’s all gone? What do you do when your body betrays you?

Top tips for making your mental comeback

1. Don’t hide your emotions. Let yourself be sad if you are feeling sad. Hiding your feelings and emotions will do more harm than good.
2. It is what it is. Unfortunately, you are injured and there’s no use in focusing on what could’ve been. This is your new reality.
3. As you start to make your recovery, set realistic goals for yourself to stay motivated and track your progress.
4. Try to stay positive, as challenging as it may be. Your attitude plays a big part in your recovery and can be the difference between a speedy and a slow recovery.
5. Listen to your doctors and work as hard as you possibly can – without overexerting yourself, of course! Don’t try to cheat the process. Take the time needed to make a full recovery.
6. Try to keep up with your training schedule wherever possible. Keep in touch what your team is doing and try to prepare for your official return mentally.
7. Let your team support you. It’s more vital than ever to maintain the connection with your team as well as the sport.
8. Reflect on the things which you have learned throughout your sporting career and find ways to incorporate it into a life where you cannot practice or compete as you did before.
9. Speak to someone if your feeling overwhelmed by it all. A professional may be able to provide additional insight and expertise.
10. Be patient throughout the process. Give yourself the time needed to make a recovery without rushing and pushing yourself when you’re not ready to do so.

It’s not an easy task and it’s a mind game. When it comes to making a full recovery, you need to focus on what’s going through your mind and use your mindset to drive your recovery.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

A sports psychologist is an essential part of an injured athlete’s recovery. If you would like to discover additional information about what it takes to become a sports psychologist, please follow this link.

The post How to Mentally Recover from a Sports Injury appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Such a view suggests that, in developing the sport in the community, it may also be feasible to contribute towards the development of communities through sport. However, evidence suggests that non-traditional approaches will be needed if such potential is to be realised and for sport’s potential to be maximised via partnerships with other agencies.

Developing communities

Residents in underprivileged areas are often subject to a variety of ‘development’ initiatives and are often naturally sceptical about new programmes. For example, it was found that a high level of scepticism about Action Sports programmes because they were viewed as short-term initiatives. Many of the projects suffered credibility problems with local community representatives who perceived them as being a short-term attempt to provide value for the younger unemployed community.

Emphasising the value that sport brings

The solution to the mistrust of local communities towards these programmes is a bottom-up approach which looks at addressing wider inclusion issues through sport. This is achieved by supporting present projects or by recruiting as well as training the unemployed in addition to operating a positive discrimination policy when employing sports leaders from the local community.

Research indicates that focusing on the productive contribution that sports projects can make to the local community can help with the development of a sense of ownership and commitment and is more likely to encourage voluntary contributions.

Although Action Sport tested the values of the traditional provision of sports, the widely used term ‘sports development’ still has connotations of coaching and competition for some community development agencies. This must be avoided. Objectives and, more importantly, performance indicators, must be set and judged by people who understand the nature of the work.

A new role for sports development workers

Consequently, a more all-encompassing responsibility for community/sports development workers is proposed, which is one that is obviously in tune with the new cross-sectoral, cooperative working, which is central to community planning. Their job would be to:

• Establish or general local interest in sports and engage the community in both planning and playing
• Develop within community groups and organisation the capacity to fundraise money for local sports activities and to prepare bids for appropriate resources
• Act as a catalyst and liaise with key agencies to ensure that they can intervene, when opportunities arise, to support individuals or groups in meeting other personal or community objectives
• Support groups and communities in their efforts to establish ownership of local resources such as sports facilities and thus increase participation
• Identify and train local sports leaders, team managers, coaches and helpers to provide an infrastructure for sustained activity

The need to train sports leaders and managers relates to a central feature of sport and one which has the potential to contribute significantly to the development of active citizenship – sport’s dependence on volunteers.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you would like to become a sports manager and deal with issues such as those dealt with above, then you need to do our Sports Management Course. For more information about this, please follow this link.

The post The value of sport in social participation appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What are the types of resources?

• Human resources include the physical talents, skills and mental abilities employed to create products and services. The value of the labour force, as a resource, depends on the level of education and training. In order for the human resources of an organisation to be of any value, they need to be trained to a certain level of skill.
• Financial resources are the amount of available money the organisation has to use for the expansion or, alternatively, the production of goods or services.
• Physical resources may include buildings, machinery and equipment with which to produce items or services to sell and other goods that we do not necessarily sell but help with the further production of final consumer goods.
• Informational resources may include internal and external information that the sports administrator could use to help the sporting organisation grow. Information within the company consists of the intellectual property or a body of knowledge that the business owns and that makes the production of its goods or services possible.

Resources are the basic inputs in the production of products and services, which is often referred to as a process. Within the integrated management process, these resources may be viewed as inputs, i.e. what the organisation will be using to produce goods or services and achieve its goals.

Inputs need to be planned in advance to ensure that everything is available at the right time and the right place for the business to run efficiently. Examples of inputs would include:

• The human resources of any organisation that provide management skills
• Technical labour and knowledge
• The equipment available
• The building that the sporting organisation owns or rents
• The capital at the disposal of an organisation
• The stock required and used in the business process

The transformation process refers to the activities during which resources are combined and changed in such a way that a service is provided or a physical product is made and sold. The work done during the transformation process results in a product or service which can be delivered to the market.

Outputs are the outcomes of the transformation process. The results have to be controlled to determine the success of the planning which preceded the transformation process. If this is not managed the organisation will not achieve is goals and could even fail.

Resource management may be a real hassle if it is not done properly. The drawbacks of an inadequate resource management system include failure to make use of the potential of your existing resources which makes the entire organisation suffer. Poor resource management will lead to resources being under-utilised or over exhausted. It can also result in wastage of assets which could have been utilised to generate revenue if a proper management system was implemented.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to become a Sports Administrator then you need to do our Sports Administration Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post How to make best use of your sporting organisation’s resources appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Soccer is a different game and so are the requirements it places on the player’s body. Long-lasting workouts develop endurance as well as strength and agility since the players are running plenty of sprints at high speed.

The neuropsychological load is considered as the matches are emotional and the situation is ever-changing. So, during the execution of these max and sub-max efforts lactate builds up in the person and, as a result of the accelerated metabolism, waste products are eliminated by athletes during pauses and at the break at half-time.

What does a soccer player eat?

The characteristic of a player’s nutrition determines the biochemical changes in their bodies. The foods that they consume have to cover the energetic deficit which is around 627 – 646 kJ (149 – 154 cal) per kilogram of body weight in order to obtain the essential substances to aid the development of the soccer-specific physical characteristics. It is imperative to follow an appropriate diet as well as maintain an adequate liquid intake.

The diet of the players has to be well balanced and include a broad range of food at all times. This is especially during the pre-season period. It has to contain:

• Enough complete proteins which are necessary for the development of the strength and the speed
• Optimal quantity carbohydrates which are essential for the increase of glycogen reserves in the body of the soccer player.
• Fewer fatty foods.
• Sufficient quantities of vitamins, minerals, microelements and other biologically active elements.

The ingredients of the food have to vary, considering the character of the loading and the physical qualities which are being mostly developed at that particular period.

Hydration requirement of a soccer player

As a result of the sweating during a match, the soccer players can lose from about two up to 7kg from their body weight. Dehydration may occur, which could lead to poor thermoregulation and prevent adequate oxygen and energy supply to the muscle tissue. That’s why it is recommended, during the hot months of the year, to increase the liquid intake. However, more than the required amount of liquids doesn’t improve performance or progress.

The food distribution during the day is influenced by time, more specifically, when the significant physical effort occurs. If the initial training is in the afternoon breakfast should be more substantial and higher in calories. Lunch should be lighter. If the practice is in the morning, breakfast should be lighter and the lunch richer and more restorative. It is recommended to eat between four and five times a day if the players’ workout twice a day. In such cases, the meals should be evenly distributed.

Soccer is a very energy‐intensive sport for which players need to be in superb physical condition. Proper conditioning techniques are an essential part of coaches’ and players’ soccer training.   So too must be the knowledge of proper nutrition and hydration.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to become a soccer coach, then you should really check out our Soccer Coaching Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post What are the nutritional needs of a soccer player? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

In today’s business culture, a successful sports manager should know that customer satisfaction must always be top a priority. Customers now are more knowledgeable and have higher expectations than they ever had before.

In order to achieve success in sport management, it is important for sporting organisations to have an exceptional plan in place in order to be able to effectively manage customer expectations. It can often be the defining factor which makes or breaks an organisation. Quality customer relations practices are vital to the success of any sports club.

How to manage customer expectations

The organisations which do not wait for complaints to come in the door excel at managing customer expectations. They try to anticipate the needs and problems of customers and to set realistic expectations through customer education and communication strategies. Research shows that 40% of complaints come from customers who have inadequate information about a product or a service.

Making use of customer feedback to understand customer expectations and needs, sporting organisations educate their customers and/or the public on what it is possible for them to expect from their services in addition to what obligations and responsibilities their customers have.

Know how to say no

When it is not feasible to give the customer what they would like it is still possible for a customer to get the feeling that he or she has been heard as well as that they have been treated fairly.  A number of techniques convey concern – calling customers and then telling them the company understands, giving the customer the best explanation they can and being open and honest with customers concerning laws and policies of the sporting organisation.

Being professional as well as considerate of customers enhances their view of the sporting organisation – even when the customer may be disappointed with the result. In a small percentage of instances, it will be required to close a complaint when it is felt that the organisation has done everything that can be done. Recognising that it is not always feasible to satisfy a customer, having procedures in place and trained staff to handle these cases is a key part of an efficient complaint-handling system.

Keep the human touch

Keep the human touch with respect to customer service. Don’t let automation between the frontline employee and the customer. Eye-to-eye contact may be lost with computers.

The key to good customer service, which should be drummed into anyone that deals with sports management, is building good relationships with the people who buy your goods and services. Thanking the customer as well as promoting a positive, helpful and friendly environment will make sure that they leave with a great impression. A happy customer will come back often and is more likely to spend more.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Are you keen to get into management and love sports? If you do, then you should absolutely consider becoming a sports manager with us! Have a look at, and sign up for, our Sports Management Course today! Follow this link to read more.

The post Why sports managers need to know about managing customer expectations appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• Employees in the sporting organisation are expected to follow when carrying out the operation of the organisation.
• Customers and other sporting organisations can expect when dealing with the organisation.

Examples of topics that are usually addressed by codes of conduct are:

• Preferred style of dress
• Avoiding illegal drugs
• Following instructions of superiors
• Being reliable and prompt
• Maintaining confidentiality
• Not accepting personal gifts from stakeholders
• Avoiding racial or sexual discrimination
• Avoiding conflict of interest
• Complying with laws and regulations
• Not using the business’ property for personal use
• Not discriminating against race or age or sexual orientation
• Reporting illegal or questionable activity

The importance of values in the sporting organisation

Values are important to the study of organisational behaviour because they lay the foundation for the comprehension of attitudes and motivation as well as because they influence our perceptions, our attitudes and behaviour. If our values are not aligned to the prevailing culture within the sporting organisation we can experience job dissatisfaction and lack of motivation.

When staff buys into and pursue the mission of the sporting organisation, their behaviours and practices will reflect the values of the organisation. Let us say that the stated values of the organisation are also respect, fairness and excellence. Then staff behaviour will be characterised by:

Respect for others:

• Acknowledgement of cultural, gender and occupational differences
• Professional and ethical behaviour
• Consultation with staff on issues which have an impact on their work or career
• Treating others at all time with dignity

Fairness:

• Consistent and fair treatment of staff in similar circumstances
• Clear and consistent application of merit principles in recruitment and advancement
• The belief that everyone has a right to be heard

Excellence:

• Excellence is rewarded
• Staff are encouraged to learn and to develop
• Success is affirmed and celebrated
• Staff are encouraged to provide high-quality service and to achieve continuous improvement

When sporting organisations set values, they do so based on the ethics that they hold to be important. The values of a sporting organisation are used to indicate the manner of conduct:

• Necessitated by employees when carrying out the operations of the sporting organisation
• Those customers can expect from the organisation

Organisational values often cover the following areas:

• Compliance with legislation
• Employment of staff
• Customer service
• Receiving gifts from suppliers and customers
• Giving gifts to customers
• Discrimination in the workplace employee integrity
• Employee privacy
• Quality standards of products and services.

Abiding by a sporting organisation’s policies is a phenomenal way to show integrity. Cutting corners – as well as neglecting to follow workplace regulations – can lead to mistakes, problems in addition to even dangerous situations. Your readiness to properly record financial transactions, safely dispense of hazardous or toxic materials, follow the sporting organisation’s protocol for dealing with clients, perform clean-up or set-up procedures as well as properly maintaining equipment shows others that you’re not just looking for the easy way out. Setting yourself up as a trustworthy worker – who submits to company policies – shows the head of the sporting organisation and co-workers that you’ll carry out your duties.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Want to find out additional information about becoming a sports administrator? If you do, then you need to do our Sports Administration Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post How to put together a code of ethics in a sporting environment appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Having the knowledge of how to draft a budget is more important to some people than it is to others. If you have never prepared a budget, or possessed a budget, you will want to ensure that you do some research in addition to finding out what type of budget would work the best for you.

There are various types of ways in which a sports administrator could draft a budget that there is at least one way that you can find to prepare your budget. A financial advisor can demonstrate to you exactly where you are as far as finances go and they will also be able to draft you a budget to show you if you spend your money in different ways the results that can come from it.

Why should a sports administrator budget?

Arguably, if you are budgeting on a one-year cycle, you should plan the net budget at least three months in advance of the end of the current budget. If you are budgeting for much shorter periods, say a month, you should be preparing next month’s budget within one to two weeks before the start the period.

The timing is very debatable, but you should plan your next budget in good time so that your objectives and proposed income and payments are clear for the next budgeted period.

How a sports administrator should prepare a budget

As we said earlier in this article, budgets are made to help sports administrators meet the objective. For example, are you trying to minimise costs, increase revenue, gain a higher market share (through increase sales), etc. it is, therefore, essential that you highlight your objectives so that you can coordinate the budget in order to help achieve them.

After you have identified your objectives and determined the period that you will budget for, you need to gather information which will guide you when compiling the budget. This will include past and current performance figures obtained from:

• Profit and loss accounts
• Balance sheets
• Previous cash flow forecasts.

This data can then be made use of in order to identify likely sales numbers and costs in the future.

Sometimes, it is common for people to compile a budget from scratch, ignoring all previous history and current performance. This is known as zero-based budgeting but can be very risky.

When preparing the budget, there may be figures that you will feel confident to state (mainly costs) but sales figures can be much harder to predict due to the number of variable s that can take effect at any time (in/decrease in demand, level of competition, etc.).

Many sporting entrepreneurs launch a new business without carefully analysing the financial prospect in advance. They think that all they are required to do is sell enough of the product to put together a profitable business, but this is seldom the case.

The act of budgeting for your sporting business forces you, as a sports administrator, to think through all of the essential numbers as well as to develop a picture of what your fitness business is going to look like in three, six, nine and 12 months. A budget is a strong business tool that will help you make improved decisions. It enables you to develop as well as maintain a thorough understanding of the internal workings of your business.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Want to become a sports administrator? If you do then you need to have completed our Sports Administration Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post A guide for sports administrators: how to manage expenditure against a budget appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• Manage proactively rather than reactively.
• Borrow money more efficiently. Not only can they plan for their financing needs but sharing budgets with the sporting organisation’s banker will assist in the loan-approval process.
• Provide financial planning information for investors.
• Make the sporting operating more profitable and efficient.
• Access a fantastic decision-making tool for critical financial considerations.

Financial planning and control help the sports administrator to become a better micromanager by enabling them to:

• Avoid investing too much money in fixed assets.
• Maintain short-term working capital needs to support account receivable and inventory more efficiently.
• Set sales goals. You need to be growth-oriented and not just an ‘order-taker’.
• Improve gross profit margins by pricing your services more effectively or by reducing supplier prices, direct labour, etc., that affect the cost of goods sold.
• Operate your businesses more efficiently by keeping selling and general as well as administrative expenses down more effectively.
• Perform tax planning
• Plan ahead for employee benefits
• Perform sensitivity analysis with the different financial variables involved

A financial assistant to assist the sports administrator

Being a sports administrator, and in charge of a sports club, is a massive job and quite time-consuming. This means that you may want to hire someone, like a financial assistant, to help you in the running of the club’s finances.

A financial assistant is typically someone who provides a combination of administrative assistance and financial help to his or her co-workers.

A financial assistant will typically have more knowledge about finances and accounting principles than most administrative assistants and may be responsible for running reports or checking data in addition to administrative tasks. Otherwise, this individual will also be responsible for tasks such as answering the phones, greeting clients and scheduling meetings or appointments among other typical office duties. Many businesses will hire a financial assistant to work in their payroll or accounting departments.

If you want to hire a financial assistant, here are some things that you can expect them to do:

• To investigate and answer routine queries arising from budget holders, management and other financial staff as well as external bodies.
• To be aware of the policy and relevant legislation concerning client confidentiality and communicate appropriately.
• To develop and maintain a good knowledge of the process and procedures and the accounting system relating to the activities of a section of the finance directorate.
• To have knowledge and awareness of the application of relevant national accounting standards.
• To attend finance meetings and document key information and decisions as required.
• To apply basic accounting knowledge and techniques to all areas of work, including the production of journals, routine costing and variance analysis.
• To perform financial calculations to support business transactions relating to a section of the finance directorate
• To analyse necessary financial information in response to queries from managers, suppliers and customers
• To identify and resolve errors and discrepancies
• To be able to process high volumes of information while also evaluating the data’s relevance for inclusion in costing and other reports.
• To plan, organise and manage own workload to ensure your contribution to monthly financial reporting process is achieved in a timely and accurate manner.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Do you want to become a sports administrator? If you do, then you need to have completed our Sports Administrator Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post Why do sports administrators need to know about financial management? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• A goal is an end toward which you direct some specific effort. A goal is what needs to be achieved – what does the sporting organisation expect the outcome of the department’s action to be? That outcome must be measurable, i.e. how will you know that you have achieved the outcome?

There is usually a time frame attached to a goal answering the question:

When do I need to achieve the outcome by?” when considering a goal, you also need to consider the cost, i.e. is the cost within the agreed budget.

What are goals dictated by?

Goals are dictated by the strategy of an organisation. To achieve these goals, you need to set up objectives:

• Objectives are tactics you use to reach and achieve goals. They must be complementary to the purpose and the mission. Objectives are the step that we take to reach a goal. For targets to be meaningful, they must be defied, understood and accepted by each individual who will be involved in achieving them.

To ensure all the elements of a well-defined objective are included, you need to think ‘SMART’. That means that each aim is to:

Specific

Means detailed, particular or focused. Everyone knows exactly what needs to be achieved and accomplished and all details are spelled out. Specifying the expected result is the first step towards creating a ‘SMART’ objective.

Measurable

Means that each goal must be measurable; it must have a method of indicating when the goal has been reached.

Action-oriented

Means that the goal indicates an activity, performance, operation or something that produces results. They tell what needs to be done to achieve your objectives.thi action is indicated by the use of an action verb such as evaluate, appraise, inform or investigate.

Realistic

Means that the objective is practical, achievable and possible. It must motivate people to improve and to reach for attainable ends. Remember that objectives which are impossible to attain demotivate people and defeat the object. Goals must also not be too easy. So, the realistic aim is one that is a balance between being hard – requiring a person to stretch their abilities – and being easy to achieve.

Time- and resource-constrained

Means scheduled; regulated by time and resources to be expended; they give a fixed duration to the action allowed – a deadline. These objectives, therefore, encourage action to get activities completed.

Finally, each objective must contain resource limits to ensure that there is a practical cost/benefit relationship to goal achievement. The goal that has each of these elements will provide an excellent basis for setting targets, monitoring progress and achieving your objectives.

How to develop your objectives

Before exploring how you, the sports administrator, would go about developing your objectives, it would be helpful to understand what types of goals you might have to consider.

Objectives may be categorised as:

• Essential
• Problem-solving
• Innovative

1. Essential

An essential objective identifies everyday activities that need improvement. This improvement would be necessary to ensure successful results. They are recurring, ongoing, repetitious and significant activities of a business. They can be found in your area of responsibility. You need to assess the tasks you are responsible for to under those elements that must be dealt with regularly.

2. Problem-solving

Problem-solving objectives identify a current problem or opportunity. It is a statement of a current and/or future situation once a solution is implemented. These objectives outline the activities necessary to improve performance. They are essential for enhancing operational effectivity but may not be determined if not accomplished.

3. Innovative

These objective improve the current condition. They are not problems but the result of thinking about making something even better. They identify activities that can be done better, faster or cheaper. These goals are sometimes the more pleasurable they are to create because they represent dreams more than needs.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Creating goals and objectives is one of the fundamental tasks of a sports administrator. For more information on how you can become a sports administrator yourself, please follow this link.

The post How to Set Up Goals and Objectives for Administrative Systems appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• Remove the hazard
• Reduce the risk
• Utilise ‘back-up’ controls when all other options in the prior categories have been depleted.

The most optimal way to control a hazard is to eliminate it. The elimination of a hazard, concerning risk control measures, is the first choice in a system called the ‘hierarchy of controls’.

What is the ‘hierarchy of controls’?

There is an order of importance in hazard control and risk control measures:

• Remove the hazard from the workplace altogether. This is the safest way to control a risk. An example of elimination is to take away a noisy machine from a peaceful area.
• Substitute or change the hazard by substituting it with something less dangerous, for example, by using paint that does not contain asthma-promoting agents.
• Cut off the hazard by actually removing it from the workplace or by sealing off the area in which a machine is utilised.
• Make use of engineering methods in order to control the hazard at its source. Tools, as well as equipment, can be redesigned or enclosures, guards or local exhaust ventilation systems can be used to close off the cause of a hazard.
• Utilise administrative controls. These are management strategies that can be introduced to ensure the health in addition to safety of employees. Managerial procedures can lessen contact with hazardous equipment as well as processes by reducing the period of exposure, for instance, by job rotation or adjusting the time when a particular method is performed.
• Establish personal protective equipment (PPE) as an interim measure in order to reduce exposure to a hazard.

Risk control measures to eliminate risk

When no hazard exists, no risk of injury or illness exists. For example:

• Remove trip hazards in a cluttered corridor
• Dispose of unwanted chemicals
• Eliminate hazardous plant or processes
• Repair damaged equipment promptly
• Increase the use of email to reduce excessive photocopying and collation
• Ensure new equipment meets the ergonomic needs to users

Risk control measures to minimise risk

Here are examples that a sports manager can apply to his or her environment, of what these measures must include.

Substitution

If it is not feasible to remove the hazard, replace it with something – preferably of a lesser risk – which will still satisfactorily perform the same task. For instance:

• Replace a hazardous chemical with a less dangerous one
• Telephone handsets with headsets where there is the frequent use of telephones
• Substitution of a less harmful material in order to control a vapour hazard
• Replace a smaller package or container in order to lessen the risk of manual-handling injuries, for example, back strain

Modification

Change the plant or system of work in order to reduce hazards. For example:

• Redesign pant to reduce noise levels
• Use a scissors-lift trolley to reduce bending while lifting
• Connect forced ventilation in photography darkrooms in order to remove vapours

Isolation

Isolate the issue from staff. This is often carried out by making use of separate, purpose-built rooms, barricades or – alternatively – sound barriers. This results in moving the hazardous process away from the key work area to a place where emissions may be controlled. For example:

• Isolate and store chemicals by correctly using a fume cupboard
• Isolate copying equipment as well as other machinery in soundproof rooms in order to reduce fumes as well as noise
• Make use of security measures in order to protect staff

Engineering controls

If you cannot eliminate a hazard or make a substitution to remove it, then reduce the chance of hazardous contact. Redesign equipment, work processes or tools to reduce or eliminate the risk.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Want to find out more about what it takes to become a sports manager? If you do, then do need to study our Sports Management Certification. For more information, please follow this link.

The post What sports managers need to know about risk control measures appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Many sporting groups adopt a written constitution as an agreement, where people are working towards mutually agreed aims. When a sports club or sporting league first forms, it is usually not a legal entity but merely a gathering of individuals who are brought together to share an activity or interest in a particular sport.

The moment your sports group starts to deal with finances or property, or attempts to raise funds in the format of grants or loans, a formal statement documenting decision-making processes, responsibility and rule for all taking part within the group’s activities is essential. This will also prevent individual members from exposure to possible risk if, for instance, your group incurs financial problems or packs up shop by dividing risk between members.

Find out how to put together the optimal constitution for your sports club in this article.

The sections of a constitution

Although every constitution is different, it should contain the following elements:

Name of your organisation

The name of your organisation needs to reflect what your sports organisation is all about. In addition, it is a very important factor. You remember that every member of your organisation should identify with the name of your group.

Aims or objectives of your organisation

Your objective should cover not only what you objective you aim to reach at this point in time but also what you may wish to do in the future. Keep your aims as wide as possible in order to enable you to change your activity without amending your constitution. This will give you flexibility as you develop.

Powers

The powers chapter of your constitution should discuss what the group is allowed to do in order to carry out its activities and meet its objectives.

Membership

All sporting groups are made up of members who want to work in association to achieve the stated aims. Members essentially own and control the group.

Management committee

A management committee is vital to managing not only your group’s work but to make decisions and direct policy-making.

Officers

It is not-unheard-of for committees to have named individuals, which are known as officers, to carry out different tasks on behalf of your group.

 Meetings

Within your constitution, you must state where as well as how often you will meet to discuss the work of your group and make any decision surrounding it.

Finance

For the finance section of your constitution, you will need to address several factors. To begin with, you should consider where you will keep the group’s money. If it often a good idea to open a bank account in the name of your organisation.

Amendments to the constitution

It is essential that you acknowledge, from the beginning, that your group may change as it grows. As such you may find that you need to make amendments to your constitution. You will need to decide how changes will be implemented

Dissolution

If for whatever reason, you need to wind up your sporting group you must adopt rules which are similar to those which you have put in place to make changes to your constitution. This may occur if your group is simply lacking in support or resources or if your activities have been transferred to another organisation.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Drafting a constitution for a sports club is just one of the many duties that a sports administrator has. If you want to learn more about being a sports administrator yourself, please follow this link.

The post How to draft a constitution for a sports club appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Safety in a sporting organisation is focused on making the working and serving environment free of accidents or injuries that staff and customers can suffer as a result of negligent behaviour or faulty equipment. It also aims to inform and educate the staff and customers regarding the measures taken to ensure their safety.

Safety measures are honed around hazards that can occur in areas in which sporting activities take place as well as those areas in which refreshments are served after matches or tournaments. These hazards must be identified and corrected before anybody is injured as a result thereof.

What is a ‘hazard’ in a sporting environment?

Remember that a ‘hazard’ is anything that could possibly cause damage, harm or injury to people or to property in a sporting organisation. Therefore, a hazard is a source of danger, in other words, anything that might be dangerous, such as slippery floors.

The staff are always responsible for taking note of and reporting any incident or anything that they see which may pose a danger to themselves, guests, colleagues and any visitors who may be around. Training is on-going and should happen bi-annually in order to be effective. Signage is placed over the dangerous areas to serve as a constant visual reminder of the dangers.

What to do in an emergency situation?

The best method of ensuring that the organisation says free of danger is to make sure that staff members know exactly what is required of them when the emergency situation arises. The most common item here is the fire evacuation procedure which sporting organisations are required to practise at least three times a year.

This procedure has to be explained to all new staff as well as documented at certain points. Signage in all the work areas must be placed on the route that has to be taken in the event that people who are not familiar with the route can safely evacuate should the need arise.

Accidents are prone to happen in all workplaces however it is the procedures that the sporting organisation has in place to regulate them which govern how safe the organisation is from making these accidents a frequent occurrence.

Any serious injuries must be referred for medical attention

This is usually paid for by Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases. A sporting organisation who abide strictly with the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) are certified and will then pay a monthly fee towards the compensation fund which is usually for these incidents.

Accident reports must be submitted to the relevant authorities and should the inspector deem it necessary, they will inspect the workplace to make sure that future incidents are avoided by preventative measures that the health and safety committee puts in place. Accidents which are not reported can lead to further accidents of a similar nature, which could lead to serious injuries if not prevented.

Taking care of the health and safety of a sporting organisation is just one of the sports manager’s tasks.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to find out what else the sports manager is responsible for, we would recommend that you do our sports management course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post How to maintain a safe working environment in a sporting organisation appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

It is important for sports administrators to know the following about the data they have:

• What personal information does their organisation have?
• How was it obtained?
• Why was it originally gathered?
• How long is it being retained for?
• How secure is it?
• Who has access to the information?

There are different ways to collect data:

1. On paper

If the organisation uses a paper-based system or forms to collect personal information, the sports administrator needs to understand how these records are managed and maintained.

The sports administrator needs to make sure that the member or person who has completed the form knows that the information will be stored and used.

2. Electronic

If the organisation collects and maintains personal information in electronic format, it takes away the work the sports administrator would have put towards managing paper-based information. However, it is still important to manage this data.

With electronic records, only authorised personnel have access to the information. The sport’s administrators have the ability to create accounts for the personnel and need to monitor how they use it. They also have the ability to restrict someone’s access.

It is important that the sports administrators and other personnel that have access to this information don’t share their usernames as well as passwords with anyone.

Concerned about the data?

When the sports administrator has reviewed the data and is concerned that some members are not aware of their data being stored in addition to used, the sports administrator needs to either delete the data or contact the members to make them aware and ask for permission. If the members deny permission, the sports administrator needs to delete the data.

Stay up to date with new data privacy laws

In May 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation was brought into effect. The new regulations brought in new rights for people to access the information companies hold about them and obligations for better data management.

The new rights include that members have a right to:

• Know what type of personal information is being collected about them;
• Have knowledge of if their personal information is sold or disclosed as well as to whom;
• Say no to personal information being sold;
• Access their personal information;
• Equal service in addition price, even if they exercise their privacy

Before it was enforced, the previous data protection rules were created in 1990, before technology had changed the way we do business.

With so many laws around data privacy, it is important that sports administrators review how they are working with members, teams and other individuals’ data. Whether it is captured on paper or electronically, the data needs to be managed and monitored very strictly. Members also need to be able to access and change their data at any time.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

For more information about becoming a sports administrator, you should have a look at our Sports Administration Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post The ins and outs of what sports administrators need to know about data privacy appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What is a sports administrator?

Sports administrators are pretty self-explanatory. They carry out the administrative tasks across various functions within sports clubs and organisations. These functions can include marketing, fundraising, procurement, supply chain management or general admin tasks. They also help organise and schedule sports events, manage the budgets and oversee the recruitment and training of staff.

What are a sports administrator’s responsibilities?

A sports administrator’s responsibilities can range from routine admin to managing complex projects, budgets and resources.

These are some of the responsibilities sports administrators can have:

• Making use of systems as well as processes that are relevant to the organisation
• Responding to enquiries as well as requests for information from other organisations in addition to members of the public
• Managing admin systems, processes and databases efficiently
• Providing admin support to managers and heads of the organisation
• Organising meetings, training, coaching, festivals, conferences as well as other events
• Promoting sport in schools
• Working with students or, alternatively, young people
• Liaising with local sports councils, regional committees in addition to national governing bodies
• Consulting with clients, members, the community as well as local sporting organisations
• Advising sports clubs regarding areas such as organisation, funding, promotion as well as regulations
• Regulating budgets, controlling finance allocated for community activities and sometimes coordinating or, alternatively, raising sponsorship
• Undertaking or, alternatively, commissioning research as well as collating, mapping and monitoring data
• Producing promotional literature, reports as well as event materials in addition to liaising with marketing and media organisations
• Making presentations to grant-making bodies and authorities who are relevant
• Managing, supervising and training staff as well as sometimes running an office
• Supporting colleagues in order to encourage as well as develop sport in the local, regional, national or international community
• Serving on regional as well as national government think tanks and task groups
• Participating in the resolution of political and ethical issues, for examples conflicts of interest between partner organisations, the use of banned substances and breaches of regulations.

What hours do sports administrators work?

Sports events usually happen on weekends and holidays. This means that the sport administrator, along with their 9 am to 5 pm working hours, sometimes needs to work over weekends and holidays, especially during tournament and professional league seasons.

As teams have to travel around to sports events, so does the sports administrator.

Sports administrators are what make sports organisations and clubs function properly and successfully. They are responsible for ensuring that the administration that goes into events, marketing, finance and more gets done. From something as simple as answering calls to something as complex as managing budgets, sports administrators do it all!

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Are you kneen to become a sports administrator? If you are then you need to do our Sports Administration Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post The ins and outs of becoming a sports administrator appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What is sports management?

Sports management deals with the business aspect of sports and recreation. It can range from managing the teams, their programmes, colleges and universities, recreational departments and sports marketing firms.

Sports managers can be event managers, facility managers, sports economists, financial managers, promotion or information experts, all relating to sports.

There is no spotlight

While the sports world is very public and always in the media, a sports manager is not. They work behind the scenes, making sure that whatever is in the media is good.

There are job opportunities where you least expect

The obvious employers for sport managers are sports teams. However, other companies often require the expertise of a sports manager. These include:

• Sports networks
• Athletic apparel companies
• Sales and advertising companies
• Marketing and public relations firms

You don’t make more than the athletes

Sport managers’ incomes vary and although they are the core behind a team, they won’t make more than the players. However, they do make enough money to live comfortably.

The upper-level sport managers – like team owners, CEOs and COOs, presidents and vice presidents, as well as executive directors – make the biggest salaries.

Sports managers that work in public relations, customer service, marketing or finance make less.

The lowest-earning potential is at public sector or educational level jobs.

You need the right skills to become ‘known’

Some sports managers are famous for taking a team from nothing and making them into something. These managers are often responsible for more than one high-profile teams.

In order to become “famous”, sports managers need to have the following skills:

• People skills
• Good communication
• Teamwork
• Decision-making skills
• Organisational skills
• Sound judgement

It goes without saying that they also need to have the passion and comprehensive knowledge of sports.

It’s a lot like a desk job

As a sports manager, you will spend a lot of time online. This is because sports managers use Internet marketing to promote their players, coaches, teams and games.

They also need to continually do online research into competitors, new trends and what the world thinks of their teams.

Sports managers are responsible for the admin that goes into a successful sports team. The sports manager’s role can range from overseeing a teams performance, to finance and admin. Either way, the sports manager needs to be equipped with the right skills. Sometimes, sports manager roles will even lead them to jobs outside of the actual game. And, depending on the specific role of sports management you take, the income can be great!

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you feel that you want to become a sports manager, then you need to do our Sports Management Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post All that you need to know regarding sports management appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What is HR?

HR is the use of a distinctive set of integrated policies, programmes and practices to manage the human capital of an organisation to achieve competitive advantage.

It is a process that consists of planning, recruitment, selection, retention and replacement, orientation, training and development, and appraisal and rewards.

What does HR do?

An organisation’s effectiveness can be defined by a set of goals, its acquisitions of resources (in this case athletes), and the efficiency and effectiveness of its processes.

The athletes are not always aware of the bigger picture of an organisation. It is up to HR managers (in this case the sports administrator) to guide and supervise the athletes towards achieving the organisation’s goals and objectives.

Organisations need to constantly manage their resources. Doing this strategically can lead to a competitive advantage. It is up to the HR manager to facilitate appointing skilled athletes, coaches and managers. The HR manager is also responsible for keeping them committed to the organisation.

Following good HR practices can help to enhance the sporting performance of an organisation.

HR can be divided into three areas:

1. Recruitment, selection and appraisal.
2. Fulfilling resource policies.
3. Philosophies that specify the values of an organisation’s policies and practices.

HR needs to meet these three conditions to deliver a competitive advantage:

1. It must add value to the production process. In sport, the product is human performance. If you are managing the needs of your athletes well, they will perform at their best.
2. The skills the organisation wants from its HR must be rare. In sports, organisations look to recruit and retain the best athletes and coaches they can find.
3. Human capital investments should be managed in a way that gives you a competitive advantage. In sports, making investments into your athletes, coaches, managers and admin personnel has been proven to make the teams better and more efficient.

Recruitment

The recruitment process of an HR manager involves identifying, attracting and choosing suitable people that meet the organisation’s requirements.

This can include advertising the openings in newspapers, on the Internet and in journals. Recruiting people from universities is also beneficial as you have access to young professionals.

Training and induction

Training is the stage in the HR process where a new athlete, coach or manager is taught the basic skills that they need to perform their jobs.

The sports administrator provides them with background information to the organisation, including health and safety, terms and conditions, as well as its ethics and values.

In a sporting organisation, it is usually up the sports administration to fulfil the human resources needs of the organisation. This includes the appointment of new athletes and staff, training them, as well as managing their performance throughout their career.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you want to become a sports administrator, then you need to do our Sports Administrator Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post A sports administrator’s guide to HR appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Directors

Directors in a sporting organisation need to act competently, honestly, in good faith and in the best interest of the organisation. If they aren’t able to do this, they are legally liable for compensating members of the organisation and other third parties who have suffered loss as a result of their failure.

They’re responsibilities include:

• Monitoring the management of the organisation
• Knowing the fundamentals of the organisation’s business
• Remain informed about the organisation’s activities
• Assessing the safety and legitimacy of the business’ management practices
• Monitor the organisation’s affairs and policies
• Maintain familiarity with the organisation’s financial status
• Enquire into financial matters that need action or more information

Board members

The board of a sporting organisation helps to navigate the organisation toward its goals and through obstacles.

The board can consist of a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Operations Officer, Chief Marketing Officer, Chief People’s Officer or more. However, some boards only consist of volunteers.

These board members need to have the required business literacy skills in order to not put the organisation at risk when making important decisions.

Advisors

Sometimes, boards will hire advisors onto the committees to support them when making important decisions. These advisors use their years of experience and knowledge to give the appropriate guidance and input before big decisions are made and during periods of change.

These advisors can also assess and predict risks around making certain decisions and taking specific steps.

Their roles include:

• Assisting the board with the organisation’s governance in addition to exercising due diligence throughout its operations.
• Supporting the board in its strategic decision-making process by the review and provision of advice

They can provide advice about:

• The integrity and reliability of financial, budgeting and audit reporting processes
• The adoption of risk management strategies to manage and monitor current emerging risks that the organisation might face
• The compliance of the organisation’s health and safety policies and practices
• Protecting the organisation’s assets through the right business policies and practices
• The effectiveness of ensuring compliance in the organisation’s internal control

Together, all these people are responsible for making the sports organisation as successful as possible. The directors are responsible for overseeing the entire organisation and the internal management thereof. The board members are responsible for managing the organisation and advisors can be appointed to give an independent, objective insight into the decisions and integrity of the organisation.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Sports administrators form an integral part of the management team of a sports organisation. For more information on how to become a sports administration, please follow this link.

The post What are the roles and responsibilities of people in a sporting organisation? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

For this reason, sports administrators need to have skills ranging from business knowledge to organisation to patience to crisis management. But they also need to know about communication, especially when they are trying to market, organise fundraisers and organise events.

Here are the communication skills that a sports administrator needs:

Writing

When sports administrators are doing sports marketing, they often have to define and express the value that each sport has to add. This is the reason why they are required to have a good knowledge of writing.

It is not only about checking the necessary spelling errors in the text they are marketing but being able to express and evoke the emotions in the reader. Sports administrators need to be able to touch people in a unique way through their marketing so that they engage with the brand.

Public speaking

As a sports administrator, you need to be able to give people the important information they need regarding a sport. This is why the sports administrator needs to be comfortable around, and with talking to, people.

It is important for them to practise this skill daily.

Active listening

Part of being able to speak to the public is for a sports administrator to be able to listen attentively to what the public has to say. In this way, they can strategise with clients.

Being an active listener requires the sports administrator to stay focused on what the person is saying.

Non-verbal communication

It is crucial, during any interaction with the public, that the sports administrator knows the right body language. They are required to pay careful attention to their eye contact, hand gestures, posture and other kinds of body cues.

The cues can be as simple as smiling with relaxed arms and good posture, which can make the sports administrator look confident. If they are slouched with crossed arms and shifting eyes, they will appear nervous and uncomfortable.

Interpersonal

In order to build connections, the sports administrator needs to network with people they have never met before. Interpersonal skills tie all the afore-mentioned skills together.

The sports administrator needs to understand how to interact with more than one group of people, all with varying personalities. The sports administrator needs to learn how to adapt to other people’s personalities.

Communication is an essential part of being a sports administrator. They are widely responsible for the administration behind marketing, fundraising and sports events, which all require the administrator to interact with other people. These interactions help keep people interested in the sport that the administrator is trying to sell.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Want to become a sports administrator? If you do, then you need to do our Sports Administration Course. For more information, please follow this link.

The post What a sports administrator needs to know about communication appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What is a life coach?

A life coach helps you improve a specific part of your life that you would like to be better at. It can be your relationship, career, finances, spiritual life and more.

What is a sports coach?

A sports coach helps you improve your athletic performance in a particular sport. They are responsible for training you by analysing your performance and instructing you in relevant skills.

What makes them the same?

Both life coaching and sports coaching adopt a solution-focused approach to personal development. They aim to help you make positive and lasting changes in your life.

First, your coach will help you define your vision, what it is that truly drives you and what’s at the basis of your goals. You then work alongside your coach to identify barriers, obstacles or limiting beliefs that have been holding you back. They’ll ask questions like ‘what negative things have you been telling yourself?’ and ‘how have these patterns gotten in your way?’.

They then ask you how you can move past these things. Together, you and your coach will set new challenging, but achievable, goals. It is up to your coach to make sure that you are not settling for limited goals and that you aren’t being too negative as you assess your position.

Review resources and courses of action

You and your coach will then review your resources and all courses of action which are available to you in order to that you can create a plan of action. It is up to you to decide which steps you want to take and when you want to take them. The coach will prepare you for potential obstacles and how to cope with them.

You then need to ensure that each of the steps you have chosen is leading to and supports your end goals. Your coach will assist you with staying on track while monitoring your progress. If the plan needs to be modified, your coach will help you with this.

Life coaches and sports coaches share a common goal to help you achieve the goals you have set for yourself. While a life coach focuses on things happening in your life, such as your relationship and career, a sports coach focuses on fitness and sports goals. Both use a set of techniques to help guide you towards your goal.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you either becoming a life coach or a sports coach interests you, you should really think about studying our Life Coaching Certification or our Sports Coaching Certification. To find out more about these courses and to register. Please follow this link.

The post How is life coaching like sports coaching? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

There are a number of key factors in evaluating project processes effectively. These are:

• Why evaluate project processes?
• What processes should be monitored/evaluated?
• Who should be involved?
• Timing of reports and reviews
• The need for a reporting plan
• Preparing status (progress) reports
• Form and format of the final report

Why sports managers need to evaluate project processes

Carrying out a project is usually a complex task involving a number of people. These individuals function as a project team. The success of the project hinges – to a large extent – on how well the team operates and is managed. This means that a focus on this aspect of the project is important.

Evaluating project processes involves the following:

Monitoring the processes during the formative stage of the project (in other words, during planning, design and development) can assist with diagnosing problems and allowing for suitable corrective action to be taken.

Critically reflecting on processes upon completion of the project (from output to implementation stage) can inform the management of future projects.

These evaluation activities that a competent sports manager takes in their stride and so are not additional tasks that they need to consider.

What processes should be monitored or evaluated?

There are a number of processes, in any project, which need to be evaluated. These are the following:

• The planning process
• The development process
• Communication or teamwork processes
• Monitoring and control processes

The planning process involves activities such as:

• Scoping of the project
• General work breakdown and task analysis
• Time estimation or effort
• Scheduling or setting of milestones
• Project team selection and placement
• Costing and resourcing
• Risk analysis and assessment
• Specification of responsibilities of the various project stakeholders
• Assumptions made.

The development process includes tasks such as:

• Meeting of milestones or slippage
• Budget or cost control
• Task management
• Resource allocation
• Personnel selection
• Quality assurance processes
• Training of, and support for, team members

Communication or teamwork processes include:

• Effectiveness of meetings as well as other communication challenges used
• Functioning and commitment of the team

Monitoring and control processes include:

• Monitoring and reporting processes
• Decision-making processes
• Management and authority structures
• Risk management

Project management is an essential part of sports management that every person who is aspiring to be part of this industry needs to know.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

This means that if you love sports and business, and want to combine the two, then our Sports Management Certification Course is the perfect fit for you! For more information, please follow this link.

The post What a sports manager is required to know about evaluating project processes appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• Net revenue;
• Cost of goods sold;
• Gross profit;
• Selling,
• General and administrative expenses;
• Taxes;
• Dividends and net profit.

We know that many sports managers quake in their boots when they think of monitoring income and expenditure. Don’t worry! We’ve prepared an easy-to-understand guide that will help you through this process.

Information that you will need

Before you start to prepare your income and expenditure report, you’ll need the following information:

• Net Sales
• Cost of Goods Sold (CGS)
• Selling, General and Administrative Expenses (SG&A)
• Other income and expenses (in other words, taxes or dividend income)

Your first step is to gather your data. As we mentioned in the preceding paragraph, you will need to know what your net sales are in addition to your other income and expense items.

The second step is to title the spreadsheet that you’re working with, or your piece of paper, with your company’s name as well as the period that the account will cover.

Next, you need to calculate your net sales. Add up total sales as well as any allowances in order to calculate this figure. Subtract the costs of goods sold (CGS) from net sales in order to obtain a figure for your gross profit.

After this, you need to calculate your net operating profit. This is the difference between pross profit and SG&A. Calculate net income based on total expenditure. Total all the other income and expense items such as taxes, disposition of assets, unusual income from dividends or royalties. Minus this figure from your net operating profit. This amount is your net income as well as the last line item on the income and expenditure account statement.

More guidelines for sports managers to follow

• Ignore opening and dosing cash as well as bank balances which appear in the receipts and payments account.
• Eliminate all items of capital receipts and payments.
• Ascertain the income of the relevant year by deducting from the total receipts the income received on account of previous and futures years and by adding the income accrued due in the year but not received as well as the income received in the previous year but relating to this year.
• Ascertain expenditure of the relevant period by deducting expenditure both relating to preceding periods and future periods from the total payments and by adding the expenditure outstanding at the end and the expenditure prepaid in the beginning.
• Make adjustments as per additional information such as depreciation and bad debts in there are any.
• Make adjustments as per addition information for depreciation and bad debts if there are any.
• The income and expenditure account, when balanced, will disclose surplus (if the credit side is larger) or deficit (if the debit side is larger). If there is a surplus add it to the capital or accumulate fund. However, if there is a deficit deduct it from the capital or accumulated fund.

Preparing accounts doesn’t need to be a daunting task for sports managers if you are systematic and follow the steps necessary. However, if you get stuck get into contact with your accountant.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you are passionate about sports and business, then you should combine these two loves and really become a sports manager. Check out our Sports Management Certification Course for more information.

The post How a sports manager needs to monitor income and expenditure appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

To best train those hamstrings and glutes, you’ll want to emphasise both leg curling (knee bending) in addition to hip extension (or straightening) actions to achieve balanced training. One of the best exercises which accomplish this is the glute-ham raise (GHR).

How to perform the glute-ham raise

For this exercise, you need to make use of a glute-ham developer (GHD). Adjust this machine so that, at the time when your feet are secured, your quads rest on the middle of the GHD. You must be able to lower your torso over the end.

Begin with bent knees at 90° so that your body is straight and is perpendicular to the lower part of your legs. Fold your arms across your chest. Brace your core and then, in a slow manner, lower your torso forward over the side of the GHD until you are in a horizontal position. In the next movement, return explosively to the position in which you started by contracting your hamstrings.

If there is no GHD to work with, it is possible for you to do the exercise by kneeling on a mat and getting a gym buddy to secure your feet in place as you lean forward

Glute-Ham Raise Variations: Pull-down glute-ham raise

The lat pull-down machine provides the same benefits as a glute-ham raise. However, holding onto a double-rope cable which is attached to the weight stack, counterbalances your bodyweight. This makes it a perfect beginner move for gradually building up your hamstring strength:

• Being by setting the weight stack to the correct level of resistance.
• Kneel and face away from the machine. Make sure that the backs of your calves are against the pad.
• Take hold of the double-cable rope attachment with both hands just behind your head. Ensure that your elbows are pointing up.
• Gradually, lower your upper body towards the floor. While you’re doing this, keep your core braced.
• After you’ve performed this movement, quickly return to your starting position by contracting your hamstrings.

Not many exercises can isolate the hamstrings as well as glutes without top-loading additional weight on your spine or, alternatively, testing your grip strength with a loaded barbell. Even though you may think that this exercise looks easy in comparison to a Barbell Romanian Deadlift or Hip Thrust, it is just as challenging (if not even more so) when performed correctly.

The bridge with toe raise is another move that does well in terms of strengthening your hamstrings and glutes. Over-relying on your quadriceps in order to generate power when you run or walk can cause strain in your quads. Also, it could cause IT band syndrome, knee pain as well as other problems. Likewise, if your glutes don’t fire as well as contract during each stride, your hamstrings will take over this role, which can lead to overuse injury. This particular exercise combats both sites of injury.

The muscles that these exercise work are:

• The back of your thighs (hamstrings),
• Your bottom (glutes),
• Transverse abdominis, and
• Calves (gastrocnemius).

Exercise technique:

• Lie supine on a mat, on the floor.
• Put your feet flat on the floor. Make sure that your heels are close to your bottom.
• Lift your hips off the mat until these form a straight line between your knees, hips as well as shoulders.
• Squeeze your bottom. Pull in your tummy tight and maintain this position.
• Lift onto your toes.
• Gradually lower your heels. Then lower your bottom until you touch the mat. However, don’t rest completely.

If you feel a cramp in your muscles, rest for a few seconds. Reduce the number of repetitions. Build up until you can do the full set. Want to learn about exercising like a personal trainer?

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Check out our full range of personal training courses for more information!

The post Exercises to build glute and hamstring strength appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

There are so many social media networks for personal trainers to select from and Twitter is one of the more popular of these. If you’re pondering advertising your fitness business on Twitter have a look at the glossary put out by Twitter and learn just how to make use of this social media platform to its full potential.

Here are four valuable things you need to do when putting together your fitness professional profile on Twitter.

Follow Industry Thought-Leaders

The first thing  that you should be doing when you set up your Twitter profile is to start following other accounts. The only way in which you’ll learn what works, and what doesn’t work, is by looking at what the big hitters in the industry are putting out. What’s more, you can leverage thought-leader content to your advantage by re-tweeting it. When you do so, be sure to thank the content producer.

By following Twitter accounts that are significant in the industry, you gain key insights into what’s going on in the world of fitness. What this means is that you can be one of the first people to break any news and you will become a thought-leader in your own right.

Shape Your Own Following

When you’ve got a healthy collection of Twitter accounts that you follow in the fitness industry, the next step is to increase your own following. This is where leveraging off other social accounts will assist your greatly. Let followers of accounts on other social media accounts know that you’re on Twitter. Request that they follow you as this will skyrocket your follower numbers!

If you’ve got a bit of available cash flow, you can even run a competition on Facebook and give people the chance to win a prize if they follow you on Twitter. Ensure that you post on Twitter, at least once a day, in order  to gain a steady flow of followers.

Personalise Your Interactions

Want to know which fitness-related Twitter accounts perform the best? These are the ones that personalise interactions, make their followers feel special as well as appreciated. Think about typing out a short thank you message and keeping it stored on your computer. When you get a new follower, send the pre-written message to them and insert their name.

In the same way, when a person re-tweets or likes something you’ve posted, why not thank them personally for doing this? In these messages, include links to your website, your other social media accounts, or even your contact number as well as email address. However, do it in such a way in which people don’t get the impression that they’re being overtly marketed to.

Post Quality, Value-Adding Content

Last, but surely not the least important, is the requirement for quality content. We’ve added ‘value-adding’ to the heading above as the need for this cannot be understated. Anyone can make posts just for the sake of it. With countless fitness professionals already posting frequently, content which is average will get lost.

Ensure that you see what the fitness thought-leaders are doing on Twitter. Do even better than them. Try and make sure that the content that you share, be it images or videos or GIFs, add value to the lives of the people who follow you. Content that involves tips and tricks, fitness hacks, ‘did you know’ posts, and competitions do so well on Twitter.

Twitter is a formidable medium as people go onto this platform to learn new as well as interesting facts and figures. As individuals scroll through their feeds at a very rapid rate, as we’ve said before, you need to post something truly exceptional for the reader to stop and take notice of you. However, if you follow the tips that we’ve outlined in this article, you’ll be well on your way to making a success out of your Twitter promotions.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Want to learn more about how you, as a fitness professional, can use social media in your promotional activities? Check out Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Social Media Management For Fitness Professionals Course.

The post Twitter 101 for Fitness Professionals appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The term ‘sports psychology’ refers to an essential field in the world of fitness as well as and sporting performance. These professionals make sure that athletes receive the mental and emotional support so that they stay at the top of their game, irrespective of what life throws at them. A sports psychologist is just as important, in the life of an athlete, as a sports coach or a sports manager is.

So this begs the question: do you require a PhD to open a sports psychology practice? Not if you’re proposing to offer soft skills sports psychology. In this article, we’ll take a look at what the difference between soft skills versus licensed sports psychology is. We will also take a more detailed look at how to get a head start in the field of sports psychology.

Licenced Sports Psychology

This division of sports psychology necessitates a licence to practice. On a daily basis, this type of sports psychologist will perform duties such as:

• Counselling athletes, as well as
• Assisting sportsmen and -women with correcting any performance issues which have psychological origins.

A bachelor’s degree will be responsible for opening up some doors in the licensed sports psychology field. This is as long as you have a major in psychology as well as one or two sports-related electives. To learn where you can follow this type of qualification, you’ll need to have a look at the websites of various universities or fitness colleges.

If you rather want to become a clinical or applied sports psychologist, it is not possible for you to just stop at an undergraduate qualification. You’ll require at least a master’s degree and the best positions usually require a doctorate.

Clinical sports psychologists advise sportswomen and sportsmen who confront issues ranging from anxiety as well as performance barriers, to changing their behaviour in addition to how they respond to injuries and slumps. This means that to assist athletes to deal with these issues effectively, the sports psychologist will need to have the tools that this kind of advanced degree will give them.

Soft Skills Sports Psychology

As sports psychology is of an interdisciplinary nature, one does not need to go along the path of clinical or, alternatively, applied sports psychology in their usual formats. Soft skills development, from a sports psychology perspective, with teams and individual athletes is just as crucial. You don’t need to be licenced to do so.

‘Hard skills’, from a sports psychology point of view, are the technical aspects. These are, for instance, such as diagnosing disorders and designing mental techniques to help athletes when they perform their particular sports. Sports psychologists who offer soft skills coaching assist athletes with issues such as:

• Clarifying and upholding values,
• Setting as well as achieving personal goals, and
• Ensuring there is a regular healthy dose of encouragement present at all times.

Some offer the argument that soft skills are just as significant as those which are developed through clinical as well as applied sports psychology.

What type of individual should become a sports psychologist?

It takes a particular type of individual to be a sports psychologist:

• First of all, if you want to follow this career path you’ve got to be passionate about sport. Even better, you’ve got to be a keen sportsperson.
• As you need to get into your patient’s head and feel what they’re struggling with on an ongoing basis, it is advantageous that you have experienced the trials and tribulations yourself. When your patients describe what they’re struggling with, you need to know how this feels. The only way to accomplish this is if you’ve had these experiences yourself.

As well as being passionate about sports, to be a fantastic sports psychologist you need to be a phenomenal listener. Remember that the technique with any type of psychology is to allow the patient to come to the realisation – of what they need to do – themselves. You can’t tell them what to do as if they feel they are doing something as they ‘have to’ do it, chances are excellent that they will end up giving up on the practice.

There are a lot of roads that you can take to becoming a sports psychologist. You don’t necessarily need a PhD to enter the profession as there are other avenues – like soft skills sports psychology – that you can take.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

To learn more about our soft skills sports psychology course, please follow this link.

The post Do You Need a PhD to Become a Sports Psychologist? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Fitness boxing workouts can be done with or without a bag. In addition, they can also incorporate free weights as well as other equipment. Fitness Boxing routines are more than what you see on a televised match. While still based on martial arts-inspired movements, the variations in this exercise can offer challenges for all fitness levels – from beginning to advanced.

Unlike traditional boxing, which requires you to spar with an opponent, fitness boxing has no risk of  head trauma or massive blows to other parts of your body as this aerobic activity only involves throwing punches on  the air or the punching bag – usually in a class where ‘boxers’ follow the leader.

What are the health benefits of fitness boxing?

Fitness boxing has many health benefits. One of these is strength because as you’re swinging your arms around, as well as moving the muscles of your arms and shoulders, you’re increasing your upper-body strength. When you’re in the boxer crouch, having adopted a wide stance and have  your knees slightly bent, you’re strengthening your core muscles as well as those in your back and legs.

Boxing is one of the sports that is most demanding on your lungs and heart. This is including your muscles.  If you can survive this challenging and strenuous workout, you’ll gain health benefits such as a longer life expectancy, decreased stress and more muscle definition.

Aerobic Exercise

Boxing is an incredibly demanding sport. It is especially taxing on the heart and lungs. The 60-second-long rest period in between boxing match rounds is hardly enough time for the opponents to recover for the next onslaught.

However, the better the shape that your heart and lungs are in, the healthier you are – and the longer life expectancy you will have.

You feel the beneficial effects in your daily life when your lungs and heart are stronger and better at sending blood around your body. Your makes a quicker recovery from stress and physical exertion. Walking up stairs seems to feel more manageable. Another great benefit is that you can also sleep better and are less at risk for heart attacks in addition to a stroke.

Fitness boxing is also a fantastic aerobic exercise. This type of exercise gets your heart pumping. In addition, this type of exercise assists with lowering the risk of:

• High blood pressure,
• Heart disease,
• Stroke, and
• Diabetes

Aerobic exercise can also help to strengthen bones as well as muscles, burn increased number of calories, as well as lift mood. Aerobic activities can also elevate your endurance, which assists you to climb a flight of stairs or, alternative, walk increased distances.

A big plus factor is that aerobic exercise is related to certain brain functions being improved. Boxing, in particular, is famed for improving eye-hand coordination. This is especially true if you’re sparring on a bag, hitting targets which are padded or just “shadow” boxing. Studies show attempting to hit a target with your hands helps with improving eye-hand coordination. This action possibly makes you feel more alert and attentive. Improved hand-eye coordination may also translate into an easier time picking up a pill or a pen.

Fat Loss

Boxers are always athletes without much fat on them. This is because boxing is a weight-class sport (which is a sport in which you are required to fight people who are approximately the same weight as you). Thus the goal for boxers is to be in the lightest weight class that they possibly can be.

Even if they weren’t required to be in a particular weight class, boxers would be naturally lean. This is because boxing training can burn 30 calories per minute.  Thirty minutes of intense boxing could help you to burn up to 900 calories.

Losing fat ensures that you are healthier. In addition, you’ll be less likely to suffer from diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and even joint pain.

Muscle Gains

It’s challenging to keep off muscle when you box. This is because when you quickly snap out a punch you used all the muscles of your lower and upper body. You’ll then retract your arm and move around your opponent. In this way, you’re continually pushing your muscles to their maximum.

Stress Relief

Training like a boxer can help you decrease stress. Generally speaking, exercise has a stress-relieving effect because it triggers feel-good hormones to be released. Relieving stress can lower blood pressure and increase feelings of happiness.

How do you get started with fitness boxing?

The first thing that you need to know, when you get started with fitness boxing, is the basic boxing stance.

The basic boxing stance is an easy position for beginners to attack from and defend easily. You’re well covered in this position with both hands ready to easily attack. Fitness boxers who are more advanced will use different boxing stances for more complex body movements as well as counter-punching opportunities. Here’s a ‘blow-by-blow’ on how to get into this stance:

• Make sure that your front toe and back heel are on the centre line. Your dominant hand must be at the back. If you are right-handed, put the right hand at the back.
• Your weight must be evenly distributed across both legs and your knees must be slightly bent.
• Ensure that your feet are diagonal, little wider than shoulder-width apart. Your back heel must be raised.
• Keep your elbows down and your hands up.
• Maintain your head behind your gloves, your chin slightly down so that your eyes see over the gloves.

Now that you can see the fantastic benefits of fitness boxing in terms of maintaining your health, the time is ripe for you to get on down to your nearest gym and check out the timetable for the next fitness boxing class.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Trifocus Fitness Academy has workshops on boxing for fitness fanatics – just like you. Please contact Trifocus for more information.

The post What is fitness boxing? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Who needs to study exercise science?

If you want to go into one of the following professions, studying an exercise science course is a good idea:

• Exercise physiologist
• Fitness centre manager
• Personal trainer
• Secondary school teacher
• Sports administrator
• Sports coach
• Sports development officer
• Sports therapist
• Clinical scientist, cardiac sciences
• Event manager
• Health promotion specialist
• Higher education lecturer
• Nutritionist
• Outdoor activities/education manager
• Sport and exercise psychologist

Most exercise science courses require that the prospective student has studied at least one science-based subject in high school. Biology is without a doubt the most valuable subject. Physical education, chemistry and physics are all beneficial subjects and would give a future exercise science student a good foundation.

What will an exercise science qualification teach you?

A tertiary qualification in exercise science gives you an understanding of exercise performance as well as the factors which affect behaviour in exercise. Subjects that you’ll study are:

• Anatomy
• Learn what how bones and joints are made up
• Discover what the structure of muscles is
• Uncover how muscles, joints as well as bones work together in order to promote optimal movement
• Physiology
• In the physiology module of your exercise science course, you’ll learn how the following bodily systems function:
• The Nervous System,
• The Cardiovascular System,
• The Respiratory System,
• The Cardiorespiratory/Cardiopulmonary System, as well as
• The Endocrine System.
• Biomechanics
• Discover how forces work with the human body.
• Uncover how muscles work.
• Learn what the concept ‘planes of motions’ means.
• Concepts of Fitness
• Learn about the Three Energy System.
• Unpack what the FITT Principle is.
• Discover more about motivation methods for personal training clients.
• Assessments
• Perform tests on clients’ cardio-respiratory endurance capabilities using well-known measuring methods.
• Assess clients’ muscular fitness as well as flexibility using well-known measuring methods.
• evaluate the composition of your client’s body.
• Nutrition fundamentals
• Recommend how your clients can enhance their performance with nutrition.
• Evaluate and correct people’s misconceptions about nutrition.
• Read as well as interpret food labels.

With an exercise science qualification, you’ll also develop a set of core skills which can be used in lots of different careers. This skills include:

• Research and data analysis
• The ability to function on your own initiative and as part of a team
• Presentation and oral communication skills
• Written communication skills, including report writing
• Time management and planning
• Effective problem-solving
• Professionalism and customer focus
• A good understanding of information technology.

While modern medicine has enabled people enjoy longer lives, many people believe that it has not necessarily helped to improve the quality of life of those who rely on conventional health-care services. These people often seek out wellness professionals like exercise scientists who help them to gain and maintain the vibrant health that they crave.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

If you are interested in embarking into the fitness industry – contact Trifocus Fitness Academy for All your fitness course needs.

The post What exactly is exercise science? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What business fundamentals does every fitness professional need?

Although being a superb fitness professional means having an accredited qualification as well as heaps of experience, taking that skill and running a successful fitness business takes a bit more.

Business plan

First you need to put pen to paper and write a business plan. The business plan is the blueprint for the fitness business that you’re going to be starting. In other words, it describes exactly how you’re going to make your business fly.

Often, we make the mistake of thinking that a business plan is a single document that you put together when you’re first starting out and then leave it along. However, in actual fact, the business plan for any business will change over time as the organisation develops. Any particular business may have multiple business plans as its objectives change.

Here are the sections of a business plan:

• Executive summary which is a snapshot of your business.
• A company description which describes what you do.
• Market analysis consists of research about your industry, market and competitors
• Organisation and management looks at your business and management structure
• Service or product deals with the products or services you’re offering
• The marketing and sales section details how you’ll market your business in addition to your sales strategy
• Funding request looks at how much money you’ll require for the next three to five years
• Financial projections contains information such as balance sheets
• The appendix is an optional section that includes CVs and permits

Marketing and sales strategy

Once you’ve put together a detailed business plan, the next business fundamental that you need to have – as a fitness professional starting out your own business – is a marketing strategy. You may have developed a superb business plan but unless you know the best way of getting your business to market, you mind as well pack up shop right now and start looking for a job.

Together with a marketing strategy, you’re going to need to know how to sign up those clients and to start making money because you can have the best marketing strategy in the world – and get all the leads for new clients that you can – but unless you know how to convert these leads into sales your business is not going to do well.

Social media

One of the best ways that fitness professional – particularly a personal trainer – can market their business is by using social media. Some of the best platforms to use for this include Facebook and Instagram as these are visual and do justice to what a personal trainer is trying to portray.

The fabulous aspect about social media is that it is possible for you to target people locally, in the area that you work in, or otherwise you can expand your reach nationally and internationally. This brings in the possibility of putting together new product offerings such as online training.

Study the Fundamentals of a Fitness Business Course with Trifocus Fitness Academy

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy 

Want to learn more business fundamentals about running a fitness business? Check out Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Fundamentals of a Fitness Business Course to learn more.

The post The business fundamentals that every fitness professional needs to know appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• Planning,
• Organising,
• Directing,
• Controlling,
• Budgeting,
• Leading, and
• Evaluating

These activities happen within the sphere of an organisation or department whose primary deliverable is related to sports or physical activity.

Sport managers find jobs in a variety of organisations, such as:

• Universities or Colleges,
• Professional Sports,
• Amateur Sports,
• Sports marketing and management firms,
• Sports communications and news media firms,
• Corporate sponsorship and advertising firms,
• Sporting goods firms.

What tasks are involved in sports management?

Sports management is currently ranking as the fourth-largest growth industry. Owing to this growth, the field has a need for new people to fill roles. Positions in sports management administration may provide stimulating prospects for those who wish to combine their business skills and sports knowledge.

In professional sports, it is a sports manager’s job to employ athletes. Together with other employees, the sports manager draws up contracts for each sportsman. In addition, he or she negotiates with the athletes in order to reach a contractual agreement.

At university level, a sports manager works together with a recruiting team in order to review high school talent as well as attract the best athletes. The sports manager makes use of scholarships as well as other benefits to do this. Sports managers take up the role of sports agents for individual athletes and assist them with negotiating contracts with the teams.

The management duties of a sports manager

The sports manager is responsible for management duties at several different levels:

• For professional teams, sports managers – together with coaches and trainers – make sure that each athlete has the training resources that they need to be the best at their position.
• Sports managers who work for universities as athletic directors manage all the facets of that university’s athletic programme.
• A sports manager can also act in the role of facility manager. If they do this they will:
• Oversee the sports facility,
• Hire food and service staff,
• Develop game schedules, and
• Oversee the facility’s maintenance.

Marketing and Communications

Often, the sports manager will be the face and spokesperson for the team. As such they must take interviews and hold press conferences with the media:

• Some sports managers act as sports marketers or fundraisers. They bring in corporate sponsorships as well as endorsements.
• Sports managers also function as public relations personnel or sports information directors. In this role they will coordinate media days for their team and act as a link between the team and media to arrange interviews, scores as well as share updates on the team.
• A sports manager function as an event planner for a team or athletic organisation.

Sports managers take on a number of other duties and jobs that don’t fall into the professional, amateur or university sporting programmes. Some work at gyms or health clubs and are in charge of operations. Others take on management duties for recreational, community and education sporting programmes. Sports managers can even work at resorts and organise sports and athletic activities for guests.

Study Sports Management at Trifocus Fitness Academy

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Does the sound of sports management tickle your fancy? If so, why not have a look at Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Sports Management Certification Course. This will make you into the best sports manager that you can be! Follow this link for more information.

The post What is sports management? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

• Qi is an energy force which is thought to flow through the body. It is said that tai chi unblocks and encourages the proper flow of qi.
• Yin and Yang are opposite elements. These make up the universe and need to be maintained in harmony. Practising tai chi is said to promote this balance.

Tai chi is easy to learn for beginners

What is helpful to know is that it is easy to learn and very quickly delivers its famed health benefits. For many, tai chi continues as a lifetime journey towards the ultimate goal of being well.

Many people describe tai chi as “meditation in motion”. But this being said, this exercise might as well be given the term” medication in motion” according to experts at Harvard. There is because there is mounting evidence that tai chi – which started life as a martial art – is valuable in treating or staving off many health problems.

It doesn’t matter if you are unfit  – you can start tai chi right now

Tai chi can be modified for anyone – from the fittest to people who use wheelchairs or recovering from surgery. During a tai chi session – which is low impact and slow motion – you are taken (without pausing) through a series of movements that are named after animal actions.

For instance “white crane spreads its wings”. In addition, the moves in tai chi are named after martial arts moves, for example, “box both ears.”  Breathe deeply and naturally as you move. Focus your attention — as in some kinds of meditation — on the sensations that you feel in your body.

Tai chi is different from other exercises

The movements are generally circular and they are never forced. Muscles are relaxed as opposed to being tense. Joints are not fully extended or bent. The connective tissues in your body are not stretched.

When performed correctly and practised regularly, tai chi can play a decisive part in a holistic approach to improving your health. The beneficial effects of tai chi may incorporate:

• Less stress, anxiety as well as depression
• Enhanced mood
• Increased aerobic capacity
• Increased energy and stamina
• Increased flexibility, balance in addition to agility
• Improved muscle strength as well as definition

Some evidence shows that tai chi may also help:

• Improve the quality of sleep
• Improve the immune system
• Help to decrease blood pressure
• Correct joint pain
• Improve symptoms of congestive heart failure
• Improve overall well-being
• Lessen the propensity of falls in older adults

Tai chi is an excellent exercise for everyone. The fantastic thing about this exercise modality is that it is not stressful on the joints. This means that it’s low impact and can be used successfully in a rehabilitation programme.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Want to learn more about how the mind-body connection works? Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Mind-Body Specialist Certification will help you gather this knowledge! For more information, please follow this link.

The post What is Tai Chi? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The Role of Fitness in Sports Management

Sports management encompasses the management of all elements of sport. Fitness is a significant part of any type of sport. Many sports management professionals, like personal trainers, get a sound understanding of anatomy and bodily mechanics through qualifications and courses in exercise science. This allows trainers and coaches to manage athletes’ fitness and professional sporting careers.

Many will probably wonder what the term ‘being fit’ actually means. There is no one explanation of what this means as there are four forms of fitness:

Cardiovascular fitness

If you are cardiovascularly fit, you can perform activities such as running, swimming or cycling without losing your breath very quickly. This is because your body makes efficient use of the oxygen in your body while performing the exercises.

Muscle endurance and strength

People who display good levels of muscle strength and endurance are able to lift heavier weights than the average person. Examples of activities that increase this type of fitness include weightlifting, kettlebell training and Pilates.

Flexibility

If you are flexible, this means that your joints display an extended range of motion as opposed to people who are not flexible. Ways in which to increase flexibility include Yoga and foam rolling.

Anaerobic fitness

This type of fitness allows one to exert short burst of energy during an exercise routine. Anaerobic fitness allows body builders and sprint athletes to perform at the top of their game.

Exercise Science in a Nutshell

Exercise science takes a look at the mechanics of fitness, and how we can optimise fitness in athletes with precision. Our exercise science certification covers the concept of fitness by looking at the Three Energy Systems, the FIIT principle, and how athletes can be motivated to bust through fitness barriers. The course also covers fitness elements such as the various physiological systems, like the cardiovascular system, and the roles they play in fitness and athletic performance.

Fitness-Related Sports Management Careers

Thinking about a career in sports management or exercise science? These are a few positions with healthy doses of fitness and physical activity thrown in!

• Athletic trainer

Train a team of athletes playing a specific sport, like a rugby, cricket or netball coach. If you prefer working one-on-one, coaching tennis or another solo sport could be a good idea. The places that you can look for a job include universities and schools.

• Kinesiotherapist

These fitness professionals work with athletes who have been injured, rehabilitating them with carefully crafted fitness programmes.

• Personal trainer

Personal trainers deal with a range of athletes and are skilled one-on-one fitness practitioners. Help non-professional and professional athletes alike achieve their fitness goals.

• Group fitness instructor

Think fitness feels best when in a group context? Zumba, Pilates, and every other group fitness programme requires you to exercise some of the skills that a sports manager has to display on a daily basis!

Get Accredited in Sports Management Today

Our sports management certification looks at sports ethics, managing the sports environment, sport and fitness marketing, sport safety, and more. Get a holistic sports management accreditation and take the first step into a fulfilling career in the fitness industry. For more information about this and our other online fitness courses, visit our website.

The post Why is it a Good Idea for Sports Managers to Know About Fitness? appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

What Does a Fitness Instructor Do?

A fitness instructor will work with clients to help them achieve their fitness goals. The instructor will also have been trained in the safest forms of exercise for each client at every stage of their fitness. For instance, some people might be able to tackle more challenging exercises from the very beginning, while others will be better with more basic tasks.

A fitness instructor performs a vital function in keeping people fit. This is because – say medical experts at the University of Minnesota – keeping fit and healthy has loads for benefits. Among others, these are:

• Helping clients sleep better,
• Allowing clients to keep in shape, and
• Giving clients the opportunity to strengthen themselves and avoid injury.

What Kind of Training is Required to Become a Fitness Instructor?

In order to embark on this career, you need to have a recognised qualification in personal training. There are various courses available, from advanced diploma courses to personal trainer certification qualifications as well as a gym/fitness instructor course. Ideally a good first step to take is to embark on a course in Exercise Science if you don’t already have a background in anatomy and physiology.

The type of course you will choose will depend on the exact type of career you want as a fitness instructor

It also depends on where you want to work. However in all cases you should ensure the course you choose is accredited by the the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). This will assure you that your qualification will be recognised when it comes to applying for suitable jobs. Several different training centres have been approved by SAQA to provide accredited courses in South Africa.

What Kinds of Jobs are Available and What do They Entail?

To become a fitness instructor there are several avenues you can go down. Some people work with individuals to help them achieve a desired goal for example:

• To lose weight, or
• To become fitter and/or stronger.

In other cases fitness instructors take group classes in one or more areas. For example, these could be in:

• Yoga,
• Aerobics, or
• Spinning.

There are many possibilities in this area.

In fact, once you qualify as a fitness instructor with a basic qualification, you can think about furthering your fitness education by training in a particular specialist subject. For example, you might learn how to teach Pilates or how to become a Kettlebell trainer.

Indeed most fitness instructors focus on specialising in one or two areas, rather than trying to cover everything. It means you will be more employable as you can act as a general fitness instructor as well as taking classes in those specific subjects.

So you can see that attaining your first accredited qualification is just the beginning of what can be a very rewarding career. Explore the world of a fitness instructor now and think about whether this job could be ideal for you.

Contact Trifocus Fitness Academy

Trifocus Fitness Academy is South Africa’s leader in health and fitness education; offering the most extensive array of fitness and health qualifications on the market, at the most competitive prices. Our dedicated team of educators and facilitators are there to coach and mentor you every step of the way so that you can make your passion your career and join the exciting world of health and fitness, today!

What’s more, our courses are affordable and easily accessible through our flexible payment options. You can study through facilitated, correspondence or online programmes. Carefully and comprehensively designed, our programmes are perfectly suited to meet the growing demands of the fitness industry; carrying the trusted benchmark in accreditation through Culture, Art, Tourism, Hospitality, and Sport Sector Education and Training Authority (CATHSSETA) and REPSSA.

Register on the Trifocus Fitness Academy website and start anytime, anywhere. Take the first step towards making your passion your career today and be the best version of you!

The post Becoming a Fitness Instructor appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post Crucial Skills for a Career in Sports Administration appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

The post How to Develop your Clients’ Mental Fitness appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.

Known to be at least 30% more effective than a regular stomach crunch, with six regular sit-ups equating to one Pilates Roll Up, we single out the Roll Up because of its efficacy in stomach sculpting and overall strength-building prowess.

 How To

• Begin lying supine.
• Legs are extended out straight and adducted, with toes plantar flexed.
• Arms extended straight above your shoulders and fingers together.
• Ensure your pelvis is in neutral. At this point your pubic bone and hip bones will be on the same plane.
• Draw in your abdominal muscles, with a scooping in and upwards movement, as if you were trying to get your belly button to touch your spine.  This concept can be simply phrased as ‘naval to spine’.

Breathing Sequence

• Inhale: Float your arms up to the sky until these are in line with your ears. Make sure to keep your shoulder blades (scapulae) flat and settled on the mat.
• Exhale: Bring your chin towards your chest as if you are nodding your head,  squeeze your abdominals tightly and start rolling your entire body up articulating vertebrae by vertebrae working your way up from the neck (cervical spine) through to the mid back (thoracic spine) and the lower back (lumbar spine), until you are sitting up onto your sitting bones. Your arms travel with you as you roll up through each section of the spine.
• Stretching from the base of your spine, reach towards your toes in an up and over motion, ensuring your head stays down with relaxed shoulders that are far away from your ears.  Keep shoulder blades settled on your back as you stretch forward. Focus on the deep pull in your hamstrings and back muscles.
• Inhale: Hold position.
• Exhale: Slowly roll your torso back down onto your mat, stacking each vertebrae one ontop of the other as you start to lower your spine, working back through to the cervical spine (neck) and head, floating your arms along with you as you pass through each region of the spine ending off with your arms extended behind your head.

Body Benefits

• Promoting stability and strengthening  of the abdominal muscles (large group of muscles located in the front of the abdomen between the ribs and the pelvis, consisting of the rectus abdominis, external obliques, internal obliques and tranverse abdominis).
• Stretching of the hamstrings.
• Encourages spinal strength, mobility and articulation.

Points to Ponder

• Squeeze your bum, keep legs together and give a deep exhale in order to help initiate getting you up off the mat.
• Keep your shoulders depressed throughout this exercise. Have a tall giraffe as a visual when you think about your shoulders. You want them far away from the neck, make sure your shoulders don’t round. Focus on their stabilisation.
• Keep abdominals tight contacted and connected throughout  the entire exercise.
• Focus on spinal articulation working through every region of the spine when lowering and lifting the torso.
• To increase or decrease level of difficulty within this exercise would depend on changing your leg position. An example of this would be to bend your knees for a weaker or injured person versus straight legs for someone stronger.
• Repeat the exercise six times.
• A follow-on exercise from here would be to the more advanced exercise called the neck pull.

If you are interested in starting an exciting career as a Pilates instructor Trifocus Fitness Academy’s Comprehensive Pilates Course is just for you! On it you’ll learn basic mat, ball and band exercises IN ADDITION TO the more advanced cadillac and reformer exercises. Click here to find out more.

The post The Roll Up appeared first on Trifocus Fitness Academy.