Core Physical Attributes for Peak Athletic Performance

Posted on Nov 18, 2025 in Physical Education

Key Physical Attributes for Athletes

  1. Basic Physical Attributes:
    • Stamina
    • Strength
    • Speed
    • Flexibility
  2. Specific Physical Attributes:
    • Coordination
    • Balance
    • Relaxation

Understanding Athletic Stamina

Stamina is the attribute that allows us to sustain physical exercise for a prolonged time.

Anaerobic Alactic Stamina

  • It is the first energy pathway used to get energy.
  • It involves activities from zero to 10 seconds, no longer.
  • Intensity is between 90-100% of maximum.
  • Oxygen is not present.
  • Lactic acid is not produced.
  • Examples: Speed races like 50 and 100 meters, 50-meter freestyle swimming, jumps (long jump, triple jump, high jump, pole vault), and throws (shot put, discus throw, hammer throw, javelin throw).

Anaerobic Lactic Stamina

  • Used as the second energy pathway to get energy.
  • It involves activities from 10 to 90 seconds, no longer.
  • Intensity is between 80-90% of maximum.
  • Only a small amount of oxygen is present.
  • Lactic acid is produced and stored in the muscle fiber.
  • Examples: Middle-distance races like 400 meters, 800 meters, 400m hurdles, 4x400m relay, and 200-meter swimming distances.

Aerobic Stamina

  • It is the third energy pathway used to carry out an activity.
  • A large amount of oxygen is necessary.
  • Lactic acid is usually recycled and used to get more energy.
  • A large amount of carbohydrates and fats is necessary.
  • It involves long-distance activities in three different categories:
    • Aerobic Power:
      • Length: Between 2 and 10 minutes.
      • Intensity: 60-80% of maximum.
      • Examples: 1,500 meters, 400 meters of swimming.
    • Aerobic Capacity:
      • Length: From 10 to 45 minutes.
      • Intensity: 50-60%.
      • Examples: 3,000, 5,000, and 10,000 meters; 1,500 meters swimming.
    • Endurance:
      • Length: For several hours.
      • Intensity: Under 50%.
      • Examples: Marathon, triathlon, cycling races.

The Different Types of Physical Strength

Maximum Strength

The ability to create maximum tension through a muscle contraction. It has the following characteristics:

  • Maximum mass or load.
  • Minimum or zero acceleration.
  • Example: A sportsperson lifting weights in a weightlifting competition.

Explosive Strength

The ability to overcome resistance or medium loads at maximum speed. It has the following characteristics:

  • Small or medium mass or load.
  • Maximum acceleration.
  • Example: An athlete competing in the long jump.

Strength Endurance

The ability to perform an action that requires strength for a certain period and resist the resulting fatigue. It has the following characteristics:

  • Medium mass or load.
  • Medium acceleration.
  • Example: Rowers in a kayak race or performing sit-ups for 60 seconds.

Strength Training Methods

  • Bodyweight Exercises: This involves using your own body as the load to overcome. There are many different exercises, and you can use your whole body or only a part of it as the load.
  • Partner Exercises: Use the weight or strength of a classmate as the load.
  • Light Equipment: Use tools like exercise balls and elastic bands.
  • Weights and Machines: Used in bodybuilding and weightlifting, items like dumbbells help you work and develop specific muscle groups.
  • Circuits: This consists of executing a certain number of activities located in a space called a station. You start at a specific station and finish the circuit once you have completed the activities at each station.

Factors Affecting Muscle Strength

The strength of our muscles depends on:

  • Muscle Section: The wider and thicker a muscle is, the more tension it will produce.
  • Muscle Fiber Type: White, fast-twitch fibers produce greater tension than red, slow-twitch fibers.
  • Muscle Coordination: The relationship between agonist, synergist, and antagonist muscles.
  • Moment of Inertia.

Practical Advice for Strength Training

  • To avoid injuries during strength training, maintaining the correct posture for each exercise is vital. A partner can help you control the load and the equipment you use.
  • Remember that increasing your body temperature helps with strength training. A general and specific warm-up helps prevent injuries and improves performance.
  • Strength training should be complemented by flexibility training. This is essential if you want to increase your strength.

Understanding Athletic Speed

Speed is the ability to perform one or several movements in the shortest time possible. When studying and developing speed, we need to consider a series of conditioning factors.

Speed Development in Non-Athletes

Our speed develops progressively, reaching a maximum at around 20 years of age. This skill develops quickly from 14 years old onwards.

Factors Influencing Speed

Many factors influence speed, including technique, power, flexibility, and concentration. Regardless of an athlete’s training level, two groups of factors make some people faster than others:

Genetic Factors

These are inherited factors that cannot be improved with training. They include:

  • The speed of nerve stimulus transmission.
  • The speed of muscle contraction.
  • The percentage of white muscle fibers (fast-twitch) versus red muscle fibers (slow-twitch).

Acquired Factors

This set of factors can be improved with training:

  • Sports technique.
  • Strength and flexibility.
  • Concentration and attitude.

Types of Speed

Reaction Speed

This is the time a muscle takes to react in response to a stimulus. There are two types:

  • Simple Reaction Time: The time between the appearance of a stimulus and the completion of an action. For example, pressing a button when a light appears or the start of a sprint race.
  • Discrimination Reaction Time: The person must choose between various responses depending on the stimulus. For example, a handball goalkeeper deciding how to block a penalty shot based on the ball’s trajectory.

Contractile Speed

The ability of the muscle fiber to contract in the shortest time possible. The basic factors influencing muscle contractions are:

  • Strength: The ability to create tension. The speed of contraction is greatest when the muscle has the least external or internal resistance.
  • Stimulus Frequency and Intensity: Greater frequency and intensity stimulate a greater number of fast-twitch muscle fibers.
  • Temperature Increase: This improves muscle fiber function because blood flow increases due to the dilation of arteries and veins.

Travel Speed

This can be defined as the ability to cover a short distance in the least time possible. It is important to emphasize that the distance must be short, as a non-athlete typically reaches maximum speed at 20-30 meters, while a sprinter reaches it at approximately 50 meters.

Basic Advice for Speed Development

  • Learn the correct sport-specific technique. Failure to respect this principle will lead to acquiring bad habits and injuries.
  • Workout activities should be at maximum intensity; you will only improve your speed by working at 100%.
  • The training should contain short and infrequent efforts, as maximum speed can only be maintained for 8-10 seconds.
  • Breaks between efforts should be extended to allow for full recovery.
  • Warm up thoroughly, as speed training has a high risk of injury.

Training Systems for Speed

Travel Speed

  • Interval Training: Consists of short distances of 20-60 meters at 100% intensity with complete recovery between repetitions.
  • Assisted Speed: Using tools like rubber bands or running downhill can help you reach greater speeds than usual.

Reaction Speed

  • Varied Starts: Perform starts from different positions (standing, crouching, sitting, lying down, etc.) and react to different stimuli (voice, whistle, clap, a ball bounce, etc.).
  • Reaction Games.

Contraction Speed

  • Technical Training Activities.
  • Gestural Frequency Training.
  • Assisted Gestures: Training with smaller or lighter elements.

Understanding Athletic Flexibility

Factors Influencing Flexibility

  • Anatomical and functional limitations.
  • Heredity.
  • Sex: As a rule, women are more flexible than men.
  • Age: Flexibility decreases progressively with age.
  • Daily Activity: A sedentary lifestyle reduces flexibility.
  • Muscle Temperature: A well-warmed muscle stretches more easily. This highlights the importance of warming up before any physical activity.
  • Muscle Fatigue: Exhausted muscles with high concentrations of lactic acid are difficult to stretch.
  • Intramuscular Coordination: Good coordination between agonist and antagonist muscles allows for better stretching.
  • Type of Sport: Not all sports require or develop flexibility to the same degree.

Types of Flexibility

  • Absolute Flexibility: The maximum range of movement of a joint.
  • Working Flexibility: The degree of movement necessary to complete a movement.
  • Residual Flexibility: A degree of movement greater than working flexibility that a sportsperson needs to develop to avoid stiffness (lack of coordination).

Flexibility Training Systems

Passive Stretching

Passive movements are produced by an external force (for example, gravity or the help of a partner).

Active Stretching

Active movements are produced voluntarily by the force you generate yourself.