If you have been competing against my daughter’s school track team, then you might want to read this post. In the spirit of competition and because I want your young athletes to compete well, I’m about to tell you why some of your athletes haven’t been winning as consistently as you think they should.

They aren’t warming up properly before their events.

There are some fast athletes in this league I help coach in. And track is a sport where it is as simple as the time you run. But, if these athletes don’t warm up properly they end up losing a race that on paper they should have easily won.

First example: Two athletes are anchoring a 4×200 relay. Athlete A has the fastest time in the league in the 200 by almost 3 seconds over Athlete B. It is cold and rainy and Athlete B did a proper warm up. Athlete A warmed up at the beginning of the track meet, but that was over 45 minutes ago.

The baton is given to both athletes about the same time, but Athlete B wins the race and beats Athlete A in the split by almost a second.

Second example: Athlete A and Athlete B are running a 50M dash and also competing in the 200M dash which is the very next event. Athlete A is the league leader in both events. In the 50M dash, Athlete A barely beats Athlete B, winning by .25 of a second. Athlete A hadn’t warmed up prior to the 50M.

Now that she has run the 50M, her body has warmed up and when she runs the 200M some 15-20 minutes later, she wins by over 2 seconds against athlete B. Potentially, if you take her victory in the 50M (.25) and multiply it by 4 that is 1 second. That could have been the difference if the 200M had been her first race. Or maybe it could have been a loss.

Warming up is HUGE not just in track, but in all sports. A line I get a lot is, “I just came from practice do I have to do the warm up?”

Normally, I respond with a “YES”. Why?

First off, it could be winter time and cold outside. You are bundled up and then sitting in a car for X amount of minutes to get to my facility. You’re telling me you can stay warmed up like that?

Secondly, if your rest is longer than 15 minutes, you need to re-warm your body up. That is too long for your body to go without activity to start firing efficiently the same way it was. Sprinters will rest between 10-15 minutes in between reps sometimes, but never longer than 15 minutes.

If you were driving in your car longer than 15 minutes, then yes you need to warm up again.

What should your warm up consist of?

  • First, do something that will get your blood flowing. A light jog, jump rope, jumping jacks, etc. Do this for anywhere from 1 to 5 minutes.
  • Now that the blood is flowing, you want to do a dynamic warm up – high knees, butt kicks, walking toe touches, inchworms, duck-walks, power skips, for example.
  • Static stretching can be done now if you are extremely tight.
  • Once you have done the above, you want to progress into your sport specific warm-up. That means, if you are a basketball player, doing your layup line and series of dribbles and shots. A track runner, should start doing some buildups or fartlek runs. A tennis player starts his/her serves and series of forehand/backhand shots.

Now, you should be warmed up.  Your warm up is going to take you between 10 – 20 minutes. If you need to re-warm up after starting your activity (halftime of a game or a long wait in between events), then the warm up can be reduced, but you still need to warm up.

The point of the warm up is to get your body physically ready to perform in that day’s sport. Temperature is warming up, you have broken a light sweat, your muscles are loose and ready to go.

Don’t neglect your warm up. Also, just because you warmed up at the beginning of a game or event, doesn’t mean you don’t need to warm up anymore. If you’ve been lying around for awhile, then your earlier warm up is moot. Warm yourself back up and play well.

Now I’ve let the secret out of the bag. Let’s see if the other track teams in our league will take note. If they don’t, well that is just fine with me and my athletes.

Photo courtesy of John Martinez Pavliga on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/virtualsugar/