Warming up and youth athletics.
I don’t know about you but when I was a kid we rarely went through any kind of a warm up before we played or practiced. Whether it was on the baseball field before practice or a game, we usually just picked a ball up and started throwing. In basketball, it was sort of the same thing, we just grabbed the ball and started doing our drills. On the rare occasion that we did do some type of “warm up”, it was usually stretching. Well, that was a long time ago and since then, much has been learned about the importance and benefits of athletes warming up and on what is the correct way to do instruct warm ups. and what is just flat out damaging in terms of “The Warm Up”.
Kids are very resilient. Their bones are not brittle. Their ligaments are not hardened by years of inactivity or poor nutrition. Young athletes just don’t get hurt as often as their High School, College or Adult athlete counterparts. However, none of those are good reasons for us to skip the few minutes that it takes to prepare our young athletes for their sport of choice. What I am going to share today is WHY we need to warm up our young athletes and a little about HOW to warm them up properly. What sport they are practicing or playing will not change their basic warm up. I recommend following up their general warm up with more sport specific warm up drills. i.e. throwing a ball, kicking a ball, etc.
Why not stretch to start practice or a game?
Stretching is important and has its place without a doubt. However, there is no real upside to stretching a cold muscle. In fact, over the course of time, stretching cold muscles may cause microscopic tears that could lead to injury down the road. Also, stretching pre-work (sports in this case) may reduce power output. Don’t misunderstand what I’m saying here. Stretching is vital because it gives us flexibility but, timing is everything. Save the stretching for after the game or activity is over. Warm up pre-work, stretch after work.
So, why warm up?
There are many reasons that warming up young athletes is absolutely crucial. A good dynamic range of motion (DROM) warm up will increase core body temperature, prepare the joints for activity, dilate the vessels in the muscles which will help them operate in their most efficient way. All of these reasons will benefit the athlete in many different ways and it will help them to perform better! Aha! We all like that. But, even more importantly, it will help them more easily AVOID INJURY.
That is hands down the most important reason to warm up. It has been proven over and over that a good dynamic warm up keeps athletes both young and old from getting injured as often. Also, one of my favorite reason to take kids through a warm up pre-practice or pre-game is, you are teaching them a lifelong lesson on health and fitness. Warming up makes you feel good. That is your body signaling to you (or the child) that “hey, I like this moving around. Can we do more”. Over the course of a week, I’ll see well over 100 athletes spanning ages from 10-60. The first thing that we do every day is go through a dynamic warm up. Every day. No exceptions! That is how strongly we believe in it. So, what is that fancy pants fitness term there? Dynamic Range of Motion? All that means is, get them moving. Get them moving and involve multiple joints while doing this warm up. That’s it.
What movements should we use and for how long?
1. I like to start with something like running in a straight line. In our gym, we will run, stationary bike, row, jump rope, etc.
but, on your field (court) of play, you don’t need those fancy machines at all. Get them to run at about a 60% pace. Not lolly gagging, not sprinting but, at what we call a “conversational” pace.
2. Arm rotations. Start with small circles and progress to bigger circles. Both forward and backward.
3. Go right in to about 10 pushups. 5-10 if they don’t seem very good at them yet.
4. Leg swings. Send them to a wall, fence, anything they can hold on to. Leg swings forward/back as well as face the wall and do them sideways. This is perfect for warming up the hip area. I see college baseball teams do these all of the time. They are getting good advice from somewhere.
5. 10-15 squats. Again, this will prep the legs and hips for nearly anything that your sport entails.
6. You can go through the 10 pushups and 10 squats twice if you feel it’s necessary.
In terms of how long to warm them up, 5-7 minutes will do the trick for most people, most of the time. That will be 5 minutes very well spent.
Recap.
Warm them up in 5-7 minutes. They will play better, get injured less, be happier and develop great lifelong habits. Stretch after they have had an amazing time playing.
Coach Matt Boyd is a Strength and Conditioning Coach and Co-Owner of CrossFit Combustion in Spring Hill, TN