Melissa Witmer
The number one mistake teams make in their pregame warmup is too much focus on
the muscles and cardiovascular system and too little focus on the nervous
system. There is too much focus on volume and too little focus on intensity of
movement.
Last year when I was coming out of retirement I enlisted the help of some
speed and agility training professionals.
These guys specialize in training football players for the combine. I had an
hour session with them once a week for six weeks. The first session I was
shocked by how little warmup they had me doing before we went into trials of
sprint starts. The first exercises in the session was always sprinter stance
starts. Starting from a stationary position and accelerating as quickly as
possible is a fairly intense activity. This was preceded by a warmup that took
less than 8 minutes total. Most surprisingly this warmup did not literally
warm me up. There was little sweating involved. There was no stationary
biking, jump rope, slow jog, or jumping jacks. We skipped all of that and went
straight into the exercises that would be familiar to most teams doing dynamic
warmups. The difference was that they were done for distances of 10 yards or
15 yards, not 25 yard endzone’s worth. The second, and most important
difference was that there was sufficient time between plyos (high knees, but
kicks) for sufficient recovery.
The Physical Components of a Warm Up
Getting ready for sprinting is more about preparing the nervous system than it
is about preparing the muscles. The nervous system is what gets your muscles
firing in a coordinated manner. To get ready to play all out first point, the
nervous system has to be excited and ready to go.
What I often see at tournaments are teams doing iterations of shuffles,
cariocas, butt kicks, high knees, etc. with little rest between exercises. If
players are going a full 25 yards, by the end there is no way they are moving
at full intensity and full speed. Athletes might worry that it’s a sign of
weakness to take a break between warm up exercises but think about what it is
you are trying to accomplish. You want to be ready for explosive movements and
quick feet. If you do your warm up exercises under conditions that do not
allow for maximally quick feet, you are not ready to have maximally quick feet
on the field. If the purpose of the warmup is to get players ready to be
quick, the warmup must allow them to be quick by using shorter distances with
more rest. Plyos are not the time to increase the heart rate. This is the time
to excite the nervous system and get ready for 100% focus and effort. Trying
to do both at once is counterproductive.
People tend to focus on the other biological systems in the warmup because
those systems are more easily “felt.” You can feel when your muscles are warm.
You can feel when you’re sweating. You can feel when you are breathing hard.
The nervous system is a lot more tricky. It’s not something that’s consciously
felt very well but it is what’s most important for being ready to go on the
first point of the day.
The Psychology of the Warm Up
The first time I experienced such a short warm up before my sprint sessions I
was nervous. And for the next three weeks I was nervous every time. Then I
started to realized that if I could do zombie kicks and not pull something, I
would be fine. For the rest of the season if I ever caught myself wondering if
I was ready or if my muscles were too tight, I would do a few zombie kicks as
a kind of self check.
Was there anything really magical about zombie kicks? Are they a perfect
indicator of readiness? Probably not. the point is, I felt that they were.
They put me at ease and helped me feel confident in my body’s capabilities.
This is the tricky part of a team warmup. The physical part is important, but
the psychological aspect will trumph whatever physical things you take care
of. Even if you could design the perfect team warmup up, if players don’t
believe they are ready to go, it doesn’t matter.
This I believe is why teams focus on what they can feel versus what is
actually best for them. I would probably still be the same way if I hadn’t
experienced for myself week after week the success of a short but intense
warmup before my sprint workouts. But now I know.
(VIDEO CREDIT: Tommy Riggs)
Final Thoughts
If you are in charge of your team warmups I’d recommend making minor
modifications at first. Move your team toward the direction of doing slightly
less, allow slightly more time between plyos, and emphasize full intensity
effort movement on footwork (cariocas, high knees, etc) rather than doing a
lot of reps.
Melissa Witmer
Practice planning isn’t just for the team captain. Every player should take it
upon themselves to have throwing practice in addition to team practice. Make
the most of your practice hours by incorporating these habits into your
throwing regimen.
1. Choose the right throwing partner(s)
Before you can even practice, you need a throwing partner!
Find a good throwing partner or several partners. If you’re serious about
becoming an all-star handler, you will probably need more than one partner to
get in the amount of hours required. Your ideal partner should also be on a
mission to become a better thrower. Your partner may or may not be your best
friend on the team. You are not going out to toss around and socialize. You
are going out to practice. You need a partner that shares this mindset.
The rookies on your team may be your best bet for a consistent, enthusiastic
throwing partner. If you are an upperclassman, they will be flattered by your
attention and less likely to bail on your scheduled throwing times.
Furthermore someone who is just learning to throw will be more likely to have
the insatiable appetite for throwing hours that you need. They will make sure
that you keep your throwing appointments even when it’s rainy or you just
don’t feel like it.
2. Warm up
If you want a quality session, it will be physically demanding. Killer low
release throws require a killer range of motion in your hips. Big hucks
require big time rotational forces at a high rate of speed. This is practice,
so treat it like one and prepare your body accordingly.
basic warm up sequence:
3. Choose a Focus Throw
While you will hopefully be improving all of your throws, I have found in
extremely helpful to have one particular throw that I am intent on improving.
The mind has limited resources and a limited ability to focus. Having one
focus throw will enable you to use those limited resources more effectively.
Your focus throw should be specific.
Not, “forehand” but “flat forehand.” Or “low release inside out forehand.”
4. Variation
One of the most important concept of practice is variability or practice. The
more variety the more efficient the learning process will be. Instead of
throwing 20 of the same exact throw in a row, you will learn better if each
throw is different from the one before it. This is counter-intuitive, I know.
But it is one of the most robust finding of motor skills research.
So how can you have a focus throw and still have variability in practice? I
recommend breaking up your focus throw trials with other throws in between.
You could throw three low release backhands, two forehands, three low release
backhands, two high release backhand, three low release backhands, two
hammers. Using this method, you will still have more trials of your focus
throw while still having variability and minimizing the effect of contextual
interference.
5. Visualization
Have a crystal clear picture in your mind of what you want your focus throw to
look like. Many of my signature throws are based on the throws of others. It
can help to have a model in mind. Pick your favorite handler. Do you like
their low release backhand? See if you can replicate it. The throw will, of
course, end up looking slightly different because everyone’s body is
different. Still, having the idea in your mind of what you want your throw to
look like will help.
When you’re throwing visualize the trajectory of your throw. Just as you’re
being specific with your focus throw, be specific in visualizing the
trajectory you want. How much angle? What velocity? Where are you hitting your
target? Visualize the trajectory you want before each and every one of your
focus throw trials. With practice this will become second nature and not take
any extra time. Don’t spend too much time thinking, the visualization is a
millisecond snapshot or film clip of the throw.
6. Have a pattern to your practice session.
This is what mine looks like:
- warm up
- mess around for about 5 minutes with whatever throws you feel like. (This is part of your warm up.)
- Get to work. Focus on the details. This is the time to work on any biomechanics you are trying to change. This is the most mentally challenging part, so we do it early while our focus is best.
- Conditioning. Here is where you want to get stronger in the motions that are specific to throwing or just gain some endurance. Throw harder, faster fakes. Throw longer throws. Do some give-n-go drills with your partner.
- Cool down. Decompress. This will often happen naturally when you reach the point of mental fatigue. This is when you’re allowed to throw your silly throws. Socialize a bit with your throwing partner and leave the field happy so that you want to come back for more!
7. Know when to stop
As I’ve said, the focus of the brain is a limited resource. Engaging in
deliberate, focused throwing practice is work. Eventually, your ability to
focus will wear out. Don’t fight it, accept it. If you start feeling
frustrated, you’ll become tense and your movement patterns will be affected.
Frustration also prevents objective evaluation and adjustment of each trial.
If you cannot recenter yourself, it is best to stop and try another day. As
you gain experience with throwing practice you will naturally gain a better
feel for when you are mentally done.
How long this takes is the length of your throwing sessions will also be
influenced by your level of conditioning. If you aren’t used to lunges, your
legs will wear out before your brain. Your shoulder can also wear out quickly
if you do too much hucking too fast. For learning motor skills, the more you
do the better. However, you still need to respect your physical limitations.
Start with shorter sessions and build up to longer ones to allow your body to
adapt.
Final Thought
Putting a large chunk of time into throwing practice early in your career will
have a huge impact on how it unfolds. Fitness can come and go but motor skills
stay with you for life.