Implementing
Effective Team Warm-Ups
Derek
M. Hansen, CSCS
www.strengthpowerspeed.com
derek@strengthpowerspeed.com
October 2007
Warming-up has always been and continues to be an important
component of training and competing in all sports. There are obvious reasons
why athletes need to warm-up prior to their sport of choice, including
performance enhancement, injury prevention and mental preparation. Warm-up
can also be an opportunity for development of skills and movement abilities,
assuming the coach is closely monitoring the quality of those skills.
Unfortunately, developing an effective warm-up program is not a “one-size
fits all” proposition. Different athletes from different sports,
abilities, ages and environments need a warm-up that best suits them.
Thus, the first order of business is to determine what type of warm-up
progression would be most appropriate given the conditions you have to
work with.
Preparatory
Work
When developing a warm-up plan, it is important to consider the following
issues:
1.
Identify Your Time Constraints
How much time can you allocate to your warm-up? If you have a field or
court booked for 90 minutes and you want to make sure you can fit in a
good warm-up, part of the 90 minutes must be used for warm-up. If you
do not want to have the warm-up infringe on your valuable practice time,
it can be possible to use an end-zone, sideline or smaller room for a
preparatory warm-up.
At minimum, 15 to 20 minutes should be allocated for a proper group/team
warm-up. Remember also that the warm-up should never be seen as isolated
from the actual training session. A well implemented warm-up should seamlessly
progress from warm-up to the full intensity of a training session or game.
Elite athletes in high intensity sports such as the 100m sprint in track
and field may take as long as 90 to 120 minutes for an effective warm-up.
This warm-up is drawn out in a manner that slowly brings the athlete to
a state of readiness, while not creating unwanted stress and fatigue.
The shorter amount of time you have for warm-up, the more continuous
in nature it should be. If you only have 10 minutes to warm-up, you should
be moving the whole time and progressing from low intensity to high intensity.
If you have significantly more time for warm-up, you can intersperse continuous
movement with dynamic stretching sessions. Not only does it help to prepare
the athlete for intermittent exercise, it also adds variety to the program.
2.
Determine Your Group’s/Team’s Training Capacity
The amount of work you prescribe for warm-up will depend on the fitness
levels of your athletes. If your warm-up program does not reflect the
capabilities of your athletes, you will likely burn all of their energy
in the warm-up phase. Additionally, you run the risk of injuring athletes
with a warm-up that they cannot handle.
Remember, an athlete must be in good overall condition to complete an
effective warm-up. Athletes must put in enough work to raise their internal
body temperature adequately (i.e. they should be sweating), rehearse all
the necessary skills and movements required in their sport, and put them
in a good frame of mind for competing.
3.
Evaluate Your Training Environment
Where can I conduct my warm-up? In some cases, you may have a choice,
and the ability to choose the best possible warm-up environment. In other
cases, you may be stuck with what you deem an ‘unacceptable’
warm-up facility. Space limitations can be frustrating, but can be worked
around. There are different ways to implement a continuous warm-up with
limited space.
a. Shuttle Warm-Up Method
A shuttle warm-up involves doing various drills, movements
and runs in a back-and-forth fashion. The distance of the shuttle length
can vary between 10m and 40m, but it may depend on how much space you
have and the sport you play. For example, a volleyball court is much
smaller than a soccer field. Thus, a shuttle warm-up for volleyball
can be performed from side-line to side-line (approx 10m), while a shuttle
warm-up for a soccer player can be over 20-30m.
Regardless of your sport, you may have space limitations
that require that you only perform short shuttles for your warm-up.
The drills that you can use in this configuration are discussed later
in this paper. Figure 1 below provides an illustration of the shuttle
configuration for various distances.
Figure
1: Shuttle configuration warm-up with short and longer distances.
b. Box or Rectangle Warm-Up Method
The box or rectangle warm-up method involves doing
various drills, movements and runs around a specified course, with drills
and intensities changing for each ‘side’ of this configuration.
The square or rectangle conforms to many spaces that will be available
to you including a portion of a basketball or volleyball court, the
end-zone of a football or soccer field, or a small space away from your
main practice area. The dimensions of the configuration will depend
on the space you have available, as well as the type of sport for which
you are preparing (i.e. squash may have 10m sides, while field hockey
may have 25m sides). Figure 2 provides an illustration of this type
of configuration.
Figure
2: Square configuration warm-up.
4.
Guidelines for Warm-Up Activities
Now that you have determined your opportunities and constraints
for implementing a warm-up, you can identify the specific details of your
warm-up. Provided below are some useful guidelines for setting up your
group/team warm-up:
a. Start with General Movement Patterns to
Raise Body Temperature
This is as simple as going for a jog. Although many
people think this is “low tech” or “old-school”
it is one of the easiest methods to achieve this end. Any low intensity
activity that creates a circulatory response (i.e. increase in heart
rate) will help to physically heat the body. Heating the body primes
nerve passages, opens arterial and venous passageways, and enhances
the elastic properties of muscle and connective tissue. Other options
include skipping, walking or doing repetitive motions on the spot (i.e.
jumping jacks).
b. Incorporate Dynamic Flexibility Work
Intersperse dynamic flexibility work throughout your
warm-up. As your body warms up more and more, you will be able to achieve
greater ranges of motion. The dynamic movements you perform should include
activities that work through the required ranges of motion for your
sport. Dynamic flexibility work implies that you are actively moving
through a range of motion in a safe and progressive fashion. Actions
such as arms swings, torso rotations and leg swings are all examples
of dynamic flexibility movements. When you begin these movements, you
should start at a lower intensity/velocity and slowly progress to a
higher intensity/velocity.
c. Progress Toward Higher Intensity Work
As with the dynamic flexibility work, your entire warm-up
progression should be based on the concept of working from low-intensity
to high-intensity output. Starting at too high an intensity will shock
the system and potentially create unwanted fatigue or injury. However,
you do want to slowly build up to full-intensity to prepare you for
the demands of your competition environment. The saying, “Practice
how you play,” also tells us that our warm-up for training should
be no different than our warm-up for competition.
d. Incorporate More Dynamic Flexibility Work
As you move from lower intensity work to higher intensity
work, your dynamic flexibility work can increase in intensity as well.
When your body temperature is higher and your muscles are firing more
efficiently more specific flexibility work can be performed.
e. Finish with Game Specific Movement Patterns
If the beginning of the warm-up started with general movement patterns
performed at a lower intensity (i.e. jogging in a straight line), the
latter part of your warm-up will include more sport specific movements.
For example, at the end of their warm-up, volleyball players may include
more jumping movements similar to blocking or hitting. Soccer players
will incorporate more lateral movement and backpedaling, finishing in
a shot or a pass play. Basketball players will finish their warm-up
with more one-on-one type movement patterns such as jab steps, lateral
slides, jumping and pivoting.
f. Incorporate Limited Static Stretching Where Required
In some cases, static stretching may be required to assist with joint
mobility or simply a tight muscle group. This can be implemented on
an individual basis, and can be done with simply isolated static stretches
or more advanced partner stretching such as PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular
Facilitation) stretches. Too much static stretching, however, can dull
the reflexes and result in less force production.
5. General Structure of the Warm-Up Plan
6.
Sample Warm-Up Exercises
Provided below are just a few of the types of drills and exercises that
can be performed in a group/team warm-up (listed in increasing intensity
and complexity):
• Jogging forwards
• Jogging backwards
• Skipping forwards
• Skipping backwards
• Running high heels (butt kicks)
• Running high knees
• Skipping forwards with forward arm rotations
• Skipping forwards with backward arm rotations
• Skipping backwards with forward arm rotations
• Skipping backwards with backward arm rotations
• Lateral shuffles – tall stance
• Lateral shuffles – low stance
• Lateral shuffles alternating directions (3 shuffles one way,
pivot, three shuffles facing other way)
• Carioca steps (lateral running crossing over front and back)
• Carioca steps with periodic rotations to change direction
• Carioca steps with large bounding steps
• Carioca steps with small, quick steps
• Rolling lunges
• Backwards rolling lunges
• Power skips
• Single leg hops
• Alternate leg bounds
• Power skips
• Two leg hops
• Squat jumps
• Tuck jumps
• Sprints from falling start
• Sprints from lateral start
• Sprints from push-up start
• Multiple push-ups into a start
• Running high-knees into a sprint
• Multiple side-shuffles turning into a sprint
• Backpedal into a sprint
• Multiple hops into a sprint
• Multiple bounds into a sprint
• Multiple shuttle sprints (back and forth)
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