Goals of the Program

Goal #2: Implement Warm Ups that Improve Performance

Goal #1: REDUCE THE RISK OF INJURY needs to be addressed first and foremost when designing or implementing an athletic development program. Goal #1 also notes how “biomechanical flaws in movement or biological structure could lead to slower, less efficient movement, or even worse, it could lead to injury.” By keeping an eye on “The Specific Causes of Injury” we learned how to better prepare the body for the demands of the particular sport.

Here we are going to discuss Goal #2: IMPLEMENT WARM UPS THAT IMPROVE PERFORMANCE. This allows us to further expand on the aspect of Goal #1 in which one of the specific causes of injury was said to be inefficient warm ups, cool downs, duration or recovery time. We discussed how a lack of preparation and recovery can set the body up for decreases in performance and potentially further injury.

Your typical warm up, consisting of jogging, static stretching and some light drill work is not only outdated, but just a huge waste of time. This has become no more than a gossip session, followed by inefficient drills that no one really understands why they are doing them, and therefore don’t put much effort into doing correctly.

If you spend 20 minutes per practice warming up, and you practice three times per week, you have just wasted any hour per week of quality practice time if your warm ups are not geared towards increasing performance. This adds up to 12-15 hours, or 2 or 3 weeks of missed practice time in a typical 3 month season with practice lengths of an hour and a half to two hours.

Warm ups need to be the part of the practice where the attitude is set for the work that is to be done. It is the time to “wire” the athlete physically and mentally, preparing the body for the demands of the game, while teaching the body how to better handle the stresses of the game. Warm ups should be improving proprioception, improving core and joint control, developing the aspects of awareness necessary for success in this sport, and most importantly, prepping the movement, speed, force, timing, and mechanics of the game.

The first step is to relax the muscles that, due to tightness, are inhibiting efficient movement. Through a combination of dynamic flexibility, reciprocal inhibition, and controlled movement through various ranges, the body will feel more balanced and stable with less pain and or tightness in the joints. Think of it as going through a dark house (your body at rest) and turning on all the lights (your muscles) that need to be on to get through the house efficiently (athletic movement).

The next step is to increase proprioception for efficient neuromuscular function. In other words, you need to wire the body and mind so that the signals move quickly and more efficiently through the body. This will result in increased balance, quicker movement and improved muscle firing patterns (the timing, sequencing, and effectiveness of movement). As they go through this phase of the warm up the core temperature should rise, and the heart rate should increase slightly.

Now that the athlete is balanced, stable, warm, and wired, you need to start to add the specificity to the warm up that will define your focus of the day. This is where technical drills that will improve performance need to be taught. 10 minutes a day, 3 days a week will give you an extra 6 to 7 hours of explosive, technical work per season (wouldn’t that be nice).

At this point the body should be wired and ready, physically and mentally connected, alert and attentive for anything the coach will through at them.