Soccer players sometimes doubt the value of warming up before a game or practice and want to get straight to kicking and running. As a coach or player yourself, you’ll have to provide evidence to the other players of the value of a warmup. Phil Davies, a U.K.-based certified strength and conditioning specialist who operates the Sports Fitness Advisor site, notes the importance of following a set warmup routine before training or a match.
Purpose
A cold muscle is relative rigid and doesn’t handle a sudden increase in tension caused by rapid motion in sports, according to Roger Wilkinson, New Zealand’s technical director of soccer, and fitness adviser Mick Critchell in “300 Innovative Soccer Drills for Total Player Development.” The muscle can rupture if not warmed up enough to maintain elasticity when faced with external tensions. Warmups can help avoid sprained ankles and pulled muscles and help your players prepare mentally for the tasks they are about to perform.
Time Frame
An inactive muscle needs about 10 to 15 minutes of intense activity to reach a temperature that provides it with the elasticity to avoid injury. After warmups, proceed to stretching, training drills and the match or scrimmage itself. Have your players warm up again just before the start of the second half.
Types
Warmups need to make your players move so the large muscles have to work. Include running, jogging, jumping, skipping and heel kicks. Wilkinson and Critchell recommend starting with walking with long strides and on the toes and heels, with knees raised high and then the heels raised high, followed by jogging with changes of pace. Next, have the players do grapevines, which require running sideways with the right foot in front and then behind, followed by jogging sideways. Players can also skip, run with short and long strides, hop and jog backward.
Considerations
Have the players form two lines and jog and skip around the perimeter of the pitch. Call out exercises one at a time for the players to perform. Conduct variations, such as having the players jog around cones set up in an X pattern. Or have the players work in a square about 20 yards on each side, calling the players to make fast runs into open space, or run backward or sideways into space.
Solution
Players might need to warm up independently at times. Provide them with a worksheet listing suggested exercises.
Expert Insight
After exercises to warm up all the large muscles, focus on warming up muscles needed during the game, Wilkinson and Critchell advise. Pair off players to complete their warmups with passing drills. Have one player start 10 yards away from another and move closer to the other as she passes. Or have a player stand in a stationary spot and pass the ball in any direction, making his partner retrieve the ball and return it as quickly as possible.
References
- Sports Fitness Advisor: The Soccer Warm Up
- “300 Innovative Soccer Drills for Total Player Development”; Roger Wilkinson and Mick Critchell; 2000
- "Warm Ups for Soccer: A Dynamic Approach"; Mick Critchell; 2003
Member Comments