Rocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano was born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, on September 1, 1923, in Brockton, Massachusetts. During his career, Marciano held the heavyweight boxing title for four years in the 1950s, and he is the only boxing champion to ever retire undefeated.
His father, Pierino, worked at a shoe factory. His mother's name was Pasqualena, and Rocky would spend much of his life making sure she didn't have to live in the poverty that Rocky knew growing up. Marciano was a typical American kid, playing baseball and football and dreaming of a professional career in one of those sports. He didn't take up boxing until after 1943, when he was drafted into the Army. He took up the sport mainly as a way to avoid KP (assisting the cooks) and other less desirable activities, but he showed a natural ability and fought as an amateur following his discharge in 1946.
In 1947, Marciano had a tryout with the Chicago Cubs as a catcher, but was let go because he couldn't make the throw from home plate to second base with accuracy. It was the end of his baseball dreams, and the following year he turned professional in the ring. By the spring of 1949, his boxing skills had garnered some attention, as he knocked out his first 16 opponents. The quality of his opponents improved over the latter half of 1949 and 1950, but Marciano continued to beat challengers, knocking out most of them.
There were those who didn/'t think much would become of the 190-pound heavyweight from Brockton in the early days. Goody Petronelli, noted fight trainer, caught one of his early fights and recalled for Sports Illustrated, "I never thought he'd make it. He was too old, almost 25. He was too short, he was too light. He had no reach. Rough and tough, but no finesse." The hometown folks became believers, though, traveling in groups to Marciano's fights in nearby Providence, Rhode Island, and yelling "Timmmmberrr" when Rocky had an opponent ready to go down.
Trainer Charley Goldman taught Marciano his trademark technique, which would serve him well as champion. On October 26, 1951, with 37 wins and 32 knockouts under his belt, Marciano faced his most formidable opponent in former heavyweight champion Joe Louis. Louis was past his prime and when Marciano knocked him out in the eighth round, he had such mixed feelings at beating his hero that he cried in Louis' dressing room after the fight. Sentiment aside, however, the fight established Marciano as one of the marquee fighters in the heavyweight division, and assured him of a title shot before too long.
Rocky Marciano Quotes:
"In the ring, I never really knew fear."
"I believe, in my prime, I could have fought with anybody alive."
"What would be better than walking down any street in any city and knowing you're a champion?"
The sport I have choose is Boxing.
Boxing is a combat sport and martial art when two people fight with there fists. There are four ways to win in boxing: knockout, technical knockout, judge points decision, disqualification: if the opponent is knocked out and unable to get up before the the count down (ten seconds) is called a knockout or KO or if the opponent is injured this is called a Technical knockout or TKO.
In Boxing you need: Health Related Components of Fitness such as:
- Cardio vascular (CV) Endurance: This is the most important Health Related Component because you need it to carry on to beat you're opponent.
- Muscular Strength: You my need this for hard Punches.
- Flexibility: You have to be flexible to dodge punches
- Speed: you need speed to hit the other person before you get hit, the faster you are the less chance you're going to be hit. You also need speed when dodging.
- Agility: You need this if your opponent punches you, you can dodge it without losing balance.
- Power: This is very important in boxing because you need power for punching.
Assignment 2
Exercise
Press ups: when you do a press ups, you’re back should be straight and hands shoulder width apart, then extend your arms then put your arms straight to go back up stay there for two seconds and repeat.
Isometric Exercise
Isometric exercise is practiced by pushing or pulling an immovable object like a wall or bar anchored to the floor. Research has shown that a muscle contraction during Isometric exercise produced more force then a contraction generated by lifting weights. Although research shows that Isometric exercise increases muscle tension significantly, it still fails to change the length of the muscles. Today, it is primarily used for rehabilitation purposes.
Advantages of Isometric Exercise
• Can achieve maximum muscular contraction as opposed to Isotonic exercise also known as weight training.
• Workout is much faster. You would hold a position for each set for 6 to 8 seconds and do 5 – 10 sets per exercise. So you can do each body part in as little as a minute or so presuming a few seconds rest between sets.
• Can gain strength. Unfortunately, you will only strengthen very isolated areas of the muscle group.
Disadvantages of Isometric Exercise
• Decreased muscular endurance. When you lift weights (Isotonic exercise) blood is pumped into the muscles very frequently increasing muscular endurance. Isometric exercise does not generate the same blood flow, thereby potentially reducing muscular endurance.
• Building strength during a static contraction can potentially reduce the speed of the muscle response. This would slow down your athletic performance.
• Boring, boring, and boring. Go to the wall and press against it for a few sets. It’s like standing in the corner during elementary school. You must enjoy something to maintain consistency at it, and few could enjoy Isometric exercise.
• Increased blood pressure. Isometric exercise increases blood pressure more than any other form of exercise. This could lead to a ruptured blood vessel or irregular heartbeat.
• The strength gains achieved during Isometric exercise occur only within 20 degrees of the angle you hold. Lifting weights (Isotonic exercise) allows you to build strength throughout the entire range of motion.
Weightlifting
A lot of people especially women disregard the idea of lifting weights as an excellent fitness routine as they believe it will leave their bodies looking masculine.
Surprisingly this isn't true. Men and women have different hormones in their bodies and it is the mainly male hormone testosterone that encourages muscle development. As women have little of this hormone in their bodies they don't gain muscle mass with weight lifting the way men do.
Resistance exercise or strength training has been shown by research to have profound results on the mucsulosketal system. This type of exercise which includes weight lifting and weight training aids the body keep in shape and functioning well and can prevent back pain, sarcopenia and osteoporosis amongst other disabilities.
Muscle conditioning which is aided by weight lifting is essential for overall strength and firmness of the body. A well looked after body is important and will be beneficial right throughout life. Muscle conditioning will help the bones grow stronger and denser as it puts stress on the surrounding muscles.
Weight lifting will also encourage the muscles, tendons and connective tissue to grow stronger.
Your posture and the way in which you sit and stand will be influenced by many muscles in the body, namely the shoulder, back, neck, abdominal and hip muscles. The stronger your muscles, the more your body will be able to sit or stand more comfortably. This will also encourage stability and improved balance.
As your body begins to change physically as you continue your fitness routine, you will also notice benefits mentally. Weight training will promote a better quality of sleep and help you fall asleep faster. Your capacity for handling stress will improve. Research has shown taking some form of regular exercise is one of the best ways of managing stress effectively.
Like most types of exercise, weight lifting will raise the metabolism therefore the body will burn off more calories, helping achieve our weight loss goal. It's possible you may not notice a big change in weight, however your body will be gaining muscle and losing fat and gradually there will be a marked difference in waist measurement and overall body fat.
Remember it's better to do something even if it is little, rather than do nothing. Start by lifting some shopping bags or rocking your baby, it may make all the difference to your health and muscle strength in later life.
It is important to check with your doctor first if you intend to include weight training as part of your daily exercise.
Dynamic Tension
Dynamic Tension is the name Charles Atlas gave to the system of exercises that he first popularized in the 1920s.
Dynamic Tension is a self-resistance exercise method which pits muscle against muscle. The practitioner tenses the muscles of given body part and then moves the body part against the tension as if a heavy weight was being lifted.
However, Dynamic Tension exercises are not merely isometrics, since they call for movement. Instead, the method comprises a combination of exercises in three disciplines: isotonic, isokinetic, and some exercises in the isometric discipline.
Proponents assert that it is nearly impossible to be injured during exercise using this method because one's own muscles provide the force and, as they tire, so the force used also decreases. Likewise, the benefits can continue beyond the more traditional exercise methods because as the practitioner grows stronger, the exercise becomes more intense.
Assignment 3
Power: Rocky Marciano was the most powerful boxer because he was found to carry the same amount of energy needed to spot lift a 1000 pounds 1ft into the air.
Speed: The fastest and most powerful heavyweight was Mike Tyson.
Assignment 2.1
Lifestyle factor that can affect a sports performer
Stress:
- Media because the Media tells people about what’s happened to people in the last week and it will bring them down, they also change the story so it sounds more interesting and they don't just talk about sport they talk about there personal life's as well
- Fans because you may lose fan if you don't succeed.
- Sponsors because you could lose you're sponsors
- Wheezing, shortness of breath
- Lack of energy, poor concentration
- Dull skin, nicotine-stained fingers, premature wrinkling
- Reduced fertility, risky pregnancy, baby at risk
- Damaged taste buds, stained teeth
- Lung cancer, emphysema, stroke, heart attack ect
- Damaged circulation, gangrene, amputation
Exercise:
- You need to exercise for improving your strength, power ect
- Exercise improves your mood
- Fights diseases
- helps you lose weight
- Not good for you're health and could get hang overs.
- Sleep is needed for the body to recuperate.
- Sleep is needed for growth and development
- Sleep affects metabolism
- Sleep affects our ability to perform
- Sleep influences our ability to learn and our memory
- Sleep affects mood
- Effects your Testosterone which is needed if your a bodybuilder
Diet
A healthy diet makes a sports performer
