A different perspective on warm ups – Diversity and Variety.

“The purpose of the warm up is to prepare the body and mind for the activity to follow”.

That is my general explanation on what we are trying to achieve in a warm up. Warm up ideas tend to follow predictable patterns with no discernible purpose. Here are some thoughts for you to try.

Currently you might conduct our warm ups on physiological terms-

• raising heart rates
• increasing body temperature
• increasing range of movement-

or on technical terms, practicing

• catching
• jumping 
• throwing

for a skills session to follow.

I use the warm up as an opportunity for reinforcing fundamental movement skills (FMS).  I then introduce more Motor Skills activities that then allow my athletes to improve their skill acquisition.

This video is a simple example before athletics:

Physical development comes before skill development

That was the basis of a workshop I did with some sports coaches at Millfield School last week.

It is apparent that having a greater store of motor skills will enable the athlete not only to adapt to learning new specific skills more rapidly, but also to adjust to changing situations within open ended games more rapidly.

As Vern Gambetta says “We want adaptable athletes, not adapted athletes”.

Just practising “sport specific” drills or generic “dynamic stretching” (whatever that is) will not help develop more rounded athletes at a senior level.

If we can reinforce the FMS of rolling, crawling, walking, skipping, balancing and throwing in the warm up, then the athlete will be able to draw on this instinctively.

That is why I introduce gymnastics into the warm up.

Introduce learning into the warm up

Our current society and way of living eliminates the need for all of these activities, so despite being hard wired by evolution to perform these actions, the bodies are not rehearsing them. Some warm ups performed slowly, without variety and with little challenge, could actually inhibit learning further.

The second part of the warm up working on Balance, rhythm, movement choice, kinesthetic choice, spatial awareness and reaction to signals is an opportunity to stretch the athlete further. Building up a wider repertoire of these activities, not only keeps the body learning, it keeps the athlete fresh mentally.

All sporting actions draw on movement patterns and motor skills to a greater or lesser extent. By introducing more variety and diversity into your warm up, you will not only be waking up your bestial instincts and reflexes, but also creating a platform for learning more specific skills.

In order to learn more, you have to practise learning.

Futher reading:

• How to make your warm up more dynamic 
• Examples of gymnastics movements for your warm up