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The Active-Dynamic Warm-up
How Should You Prepare Your Body for Practice and Competition?

Although there are many ways to warm up, not all produce the same results. Sit on the sidelines at a tournament and you’ll see some teams do mostly soccer specific drills while others choose the “jog around the field once then sit and stretch” warm-up. Warm-up is not often considered an integral part of practice and game prep but recent studies tell us that a scientifically based warm-up can reduce injuries and improve performance. Because every coach and parent has a vested interest in keeping their athletes healthy and helping them perform well, this article breaks a warm-up into four simple steps that will properly prepare athletes for competition and help them avoid injury.

1. Elevate the heart rate. 

By increasing an athlete’s heart rate you also increase blood flow which has multiple benefits. First, the increase in heart rate will increase oxygen delivery to the body which leads to prolonged muscular endurance. Also, joints will become lubricated reducing friction between bones and muscle.  This is essential to preventing injuries from sudden or unexpected movements. You will need to have athletes jog, skip, or carioca (grapevine) to get blood flowing. If an athlete does not elevate his or her heart rate during warm up, endurance during the game will suffer and joints will be more vulnerable to injury.

2. Mobilize the joints.

Start at the neck and move through the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles taking each joint through a range of motion exercise. The following are all good examples of this process:
            Neck Circles
            Arm Circles
            Trunk Twists
            Side Bends
            Squats
            Lunges
            Toe Raises

3. Get the heart rate back up!

The seven mobility exercises above are all stationary and will allow athletes to recover. When they finish them they should get active again. Again, remaining stationary will not prepare an athlete to compete during the game and can lead to the “flat” period that often marks the beginning of a half. Have athletes jog or skip backward to get blood pumping again.

4. Perform sport specific movements.

Soccer is dominated by explosive movements of lower body, such as: sprinting, jumping, cutting, kicking, etc. Athletes must prepare for these movements. Having athletes hop back and forth over lines in the field or cones for a few reps (not many) works well. Straight leg marches and high knee skips prepare hip flexors and hamstrings for explosive movement. Try weaving through cones while staying low or shuffling side to side as the coach calls directions. This helps prepare joints and the core for quick changes of direction.    

Pre-practice vs. Pre-game

Pre-practice - An adequate warm up before practice should include higher reps of strength exercises and agility drills than a pre-game warm up. The benefit of squats and lunges over an entire year can be great. Practice warm-ups will also serve to increase teams’ fitness levels. Make sure your athletes are breathing hard and sweating before you wrap up warm up and begin practice.

Pre-game - Reduce your warm up time by half and take out all of the strength exercises before a game as you will want your athletes to have the freshest legs possible. Look for a light sweat to indicate their readiness. Ten to fifteen minutes tops before a game is perfect before you get ball drills going. 

Brent Callaway, Sports Performance Director at Velocity Sports Performance in Carlsbad, has trained numerous talented soccer players from the club, collegiate and professional ranks. Callaway holds a degree in Exercise Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he was a 7 time All American in track and field. Callaway is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, is a USAW Club Coach and a certified SPARQ trainer.

About Velocity Sports Performance:
Velocity Sports Performance is a national network of training centers where athletes of all sports, ages and skill levels go to improve their core athletic skills - speed, power and agility. Athletes train in small groups with degreed and certified performance coaches. Velocity Sports Performance is the Official Performance Training Partner of Cal South Soccer. Players who train with Velocity Sports Performance can expect to get to the ball quicker, cover more of the field faster, increase their shot power and reduce their chances of injury. Velocity Sports Performance has training centers throughout Southern California including Irvine, Redondo Beach, Anaheim, Carlsbad, West LA and Santa Clarita.