One of the most over looked aspects when it comes to training is a proper warm-up! I know most of us have done a warm-up before but is it really beneficial? Do we get anything out of it or does it just take up time that we can be using for other practice things; such as play development, skill development and team work? While all of these are important aspects, the warm-up might just be the most important. Without a proper warm-up we open ourselves and our athletes to injuries and other problems.
First let’s break down the meaning of the warm-up; it is a group of movements that are used to warm the body up. To get it ready for the activity of the practice, competition etc… . So when designing a warm-up, make sure it contains a few basic things. You want to first make sure that it gets the body to increase its temperature. We also want to get the nervous system to wake up and be ready to go (shock the system as I call it). Then it needs to have components of stretching to help elongate the muscles and get them ready to move though a full range of motion. The kind of stretching you should do is dynamic stretching which in basic terms is movement stretching, where you move as you stretch. You just do not stand there and hold a stretch for a certain amount of time. You want to be moving just like you would be when playing.
I have a bunch of different ones for certain teams, individuals, groups etc… I try and make it specific to the sport the person or team participates in. No matter how specific I make it I follow the general rules which is I first get the body moving with some type of run, high knees, butt kickers etc… we usually do this for about 2-3 minutes then we move on to the dynamic stretching making sure I get the hips, quads, hamstrings, shoulders, and anything else that needs to be used that day, stretched out and ready to go. After that I follow that up with some more movement activities such as backpedal, skips, jog, and sprinting. The whole warm-up routine should take about 10-15 minutes.
As a coach or player do not skip out on this. I know a lot of practices are cut short on time for one reason or another, but the warm-up is something that needs to be done correctly each and every time. A proper warm-up can help prevent against muscle pulls and strains and if we can help an athlete stay injury free then we are helping this athlete get better each and every day. Last thing to think about is if an athlete pulls a muscle that can take 2-6 weeks to completely heal. That means that athletes could lose over half a season. Make sure we help keep our athletes healthy and also improve their performance.
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EXSP Nation