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Waterhouse veteran McCallum retires
Experienced campaigner Richard ‘Spoon’ McCallum has retired as goalkeeper of Red Stripe Premier League club Waterhouse FC. He is now acting general secretary at the Drewsland-based club. “I have retired because of personal reasons, to pursue a bachelors degree in production and operation,” said McCallum, who stood between the sticks at Waterhouse for 12 years, during an interview with The Gleaner yesterday. “The club was notified two months ago, and it is effective as at December 31, 2015,” he added. McCallum was approached to take up a position as general secretary, at the club because Felix Porter has vacated the post due to health reasons. “The club (Waterhouse) approached me to be acting general secretary, and I duly accepted the post,” McCallum informed. He said the players in the senior team at the club expressed regrets with him leaving at this time. “I spoke to the players, and some have expressed regrets and want me to delay the decision, but I have to think about life after football. I can’t continue to focus on goalkeeping and school at the same time,” McCallum said. McCallum also represented Invaders FC for one year and Seba (now Montego Bay United) for three years, before journeying from St James to St Andrew. He made his international debut for Jamaica in 2006, and also represented the country at the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 levels.
Jamaica can top medal table in Rio – Blake
He considers both Hansle Parchment and Omar McLeod, who finished second and sixth, respectively, in the World Championships, as potential Olympic champions. “If he (McLeod) performs to his real technical excellence, I don’t see why he shouldn’t be up there among the medals,” said Blake in reference to McLeod, who was far from his best in Beijing. Regarding Parchment, Blake said, “He keeps getting better every time he performs in the big events.” “He should also be there,” concluded the JAAA President, “as a medal contender for the gold.” He welcomed the Government-funded athlete support programme and reported that his association is currently looking for sponsors to contribute to a feeding programme. “Right now, we’re looking sponsorship to put in a feeding programme, so that the clubs can optimise the performance of their athletes,” said Blake. Jamaica’s best-ever medal tally at an Olympic Games came in 2012 in London when 12 medals (four gold, four silver, four bronze) were secured, all in athletics. Potential champs Athletics chief Warren Blake believes that Jamaica can top the track and field medal table at this summer’s Olympic Games. Blake, president of the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA), says the 110-metre hurdles and the men’s 4×400-metre relays are the events that could make the difference. The JAAA president is quietly confident about the prospects for the nation’s athletes for 2016. Reflecting on the seven gold-medal haul achieved by Jamaica at last year’s World Championships in Beijing, Blake stated: “If we had gotten another gold, and there are places where we could have gotten another gold but it just didn’t work out, we would have topped the medal table.” In Beijing, Jamaica won gold medals courtesy of Usain Bolt in the men’s 100 and 200 metres, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in the ladies’ 100m, Danielle Williams in the 100m hurdles, both 4×100 metres relays and the ladies’ 4×400 metres. However, Kenya edged Jamaica to top the table by one gold medal. Blake is, however, foreseeing a change for the better. “Strategically, we think that come the Olympics this year, we are really in a good position to top the athletics medal table,” Blake said. “If you look at the areas in which we did well in 2015, we are set to still do well in those areas and we have a good crop of 400m runners coming up,” he added. “Our hurdlers,” Blake continued, “both on the male and female sides, are expected to do well again this year, and, with a bit of luck, we can do better in the male hurdles.”
Jennifer Ellison-Brown: The best training methods
STRENGTH TRAINING This is used to develop strength, power, muscular endurance, and speed. Methods used include weights and plyometrics. Weight training Using weights as a form of resistance training, ( either free weights or weights in machines). Any weight-training programme can take account of your current state of fitness – the amount of weight, the number of repetitions, and the recovery periods can all be adjusted to progressively load muscles. Training for strength involves high resistance (weights) and few repetitions. Training for muscular endurance involves low resistance and many repetitions. Plyometrics This is a series of explosive movements designed to improve muscular power (explosive strength). This involves rebound jumping (on to and off boxes), bounding, leaps, and skips, press-ups with claps, hopping, throwing, and catching a medicine ball. Exercises that involve the contraction of muscles from a stretch position are known as plyometric. Plyometric training puts great stress on the muscles and joints and should only be attempted as part of an organised training programme. CIRCUIT TRAINING This involves a number of different exercises at work stations, which affects the different components of fitness. A circuit usually involves six to10 exercises or activities that take place at the stations. Circuits should be designed to avoid working the same muscle groups at stations that follow one another. The number of work stations, repetition, and the rest periods should add up to 15-20 minutes for one complete circuit. Repeat three to six times, depending on their length. Circuits can be designed for a particular sport. For example, a skill circuit can be constructed for games players wherein exercises can be replaced by short skill practices. FARTLEK TRAINING The name Fartlek comes from Swedish meaning ‘speed play’. It involves ‘run as you please’, alternating fast and slow effort over varied terrain such as grass, sand, flat, hills, etc. Fartlek training doesn’t precisely control the work and rest periods. This is very good for game players since games have many changes in speed. The mix of fast and slow work can be changed to suit the sport and energy system. It is used to improve aerobic and anaerobic fitness, depending on how the training is done. There are a wide variety of training methods based on the ways in which the body adapts to regular exercise. All the methods can be adapted to suit particular training programmes.
CONTINUOUS TRAINING This involves the aerobic system and improves endurance. The aerobic system includes the heart, lungs, and vascular system. Activities such as brisk walking, jogging, running, dancing, cycling, swimming, and rowing are ideal examples of aerobic training. The oxygen demand must be matched by oxygen intake. Continuous means you do not stop to rest. It is submaximal, meaning you do not work flat out. This type of training should last for at least 12 minutes in order to achieve adaptations. The intensity of training can be judged from the heart (pulse) rate. Therefore, if you train within certain target heart rate training zones during aerobic exercise, the most efficient gains in aerobic fitness will be achieved without starting to work anaerobically and developing an oxygen debt. This is dependent on age, gender, and resting heart rate of the individual. The target heart training rate zone is worked out by subtracting your age from 220 and then aiming to keep your heart rate between 60% and 85% of this maximum figure. For example, for a person of 45 years who wants to exercise for 20 minutes, three times per week: Max Heart Rate = 220 – 45 = 175 60% of 175 = 105 85% of 175= 150 approximately. Therefore, the person should aim for a target heart rate of 105-150 beats per minute during exercise. INTERVAL TRAINING This involves exercising at a certain rate (work interval) for a certain time then resting for a certain period (rest interval) in order to recover and then repeating the process. Sessions of interval training can be organised into sets with longer rest intervals between sets. For example, running 200 metres in sets of six with a one-minute jog round between each one then resting for a longer period of 10 minutes before repeating the whole process another two times. Both the aerobic and anaerobic systems can be improved using this method. The length of the rest-recovery period depends on how hard you exercise (intensity) during the work interval.
Nadal on course in Monte Carlo
MONACO (AP):A ninth Monte Carlo Masters title is getting closer for Rafael Nadal with most of his rivals out of the way – including Roger Federer, who again misses out on one of the few trophies not already in his glittering collection.But Federer – a four-time runner-up on the French Riviera – was not too disappointed, considering that his priority was to come back safely after more than two months out following knee surgery.Nadal beat Stan Wawrinka 6-1, 6-4 yesterday to set up a third semi-final here against Andy Murray. Federer lost 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, despite being two points from victory when 5-4 up in the decider, with Tsonga 15-30 down on his serve.This was Federer’s first tournament play since arthroscopic surgery on his left knee for torn cartilage on February 3, and defeat was softened by relief at avoiding any relapse.”It was good to play back-to-back, yesterday and today, good to play 2 hours 10 (minutes) today,” Federer said. “It was nice to play an intense match. I’m happy how the body reacted.”With top-ranked Novak Djokovic and Wawrinka – the French Open champion – also out, Federer himself picked Nadal when asked about the favourite.Nadal leads Murray 16-6 in career meetings and 6-1 on clay. For the other two semi-finalists, Nadal is 11-2 up on Gael Monfils – 4-0 on clay – and 8-4 on Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, having beaten him here in the semi-finals three years ago. Nadal went on to lose the 2013 final to Djokovic, who was stunned in the second round this year by Czech Jiri Vesely, an unheralded Czech player ranked 55th.In a one-sided contest between former champions, Nadal broke Wawrinka four times and made the semi-finals for the 11th time.Murray took out Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-0 for the second time this year.The Briton thinks patience will be the key factor against the nine-time French Open champion.
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