We train a lot of athletes. Before commencing any training with an individual, we conduct a very thorough assessment (maybe a topic for a later post) and as part of our assessment we run an audit on their current warm-up and activation routines. More often than not, athletes either look at us like a deer in the headlights when we tell them to go ahead and “get loose”.

At first, this response - or lack thereof - may not be alarming to you. However, when you really think about it, even a youth athlete with minimal training experience will have gone through a warm-up with their team hundreds of times. Surely that’s enough repetition to be able to be self-guided, right?

So why the blank stare?

I strongly believe that most athletes tend to write off the warm-up as something you “just do” and that very few see the warm-up as an integral part of their training. When you consider the fact that you typically perform some sort of warm-up prior to every practice, game and training session you realize that’s a hell of a lot of time dedicated to this practice that most athletes “just do”.

Clearly, the fact that most athletes don’t have a deeply engrained warm-up routine is clearly not due to a lack of repetition. Then why do they still not know how to get their body ready for the demands they’re about to place on it?

Is it lack of knowledge? Lack of direction? Lack of ownership? I would argue it’s a lack of all of these factors.

Think back… wayyyyy back to when you were a youth and high school athlete. Who led your warm-up? Probably your coach, trainer or someone other than yourself. How many times were you left in charge of getting yourself warmed up? When you were, did you follow the same routines and with the same attention to detail? The answer is probably “no”.

The human brain will always hunt for the path of least resistance. When left to their own devices, athletes will tend to do the same. We all will. However, is skipping out on reps, proper execution and going through the motions really the path of least resistance? Not when it comes to warm-ups. Quite often, this is sending them down the path of greatest resistance in disguise.

Athletes at every level and in every sport have the capacity to OWN their warm-up. However, it is still painfully apparent that the vast majority do not. If you’re reading this as a trainer or coach, educate your athletes on why you’ve assigned particular exercises and explain why you’ve formatted their warm-up the way you have. Of course, team warm-up will be slightly more generalized than when working with individuals, however, there’s still a reason you’ve given them a particular movement. Explain it.

We believe that athletes should own their warm-up. Regardless of who designs the protocols, prescribes the exercises and writes the routines it is still on the athlete to carry it out. Owning your warm-up is more than just doing as you’re told by your trainer or coach. Owning your warm-up is understanding the “why” behind the “how” and the importance of carrying it out to perfection every time.

When athletes feel involved in the process and are educated on why they’re performing the warm-up you’ve assigned, they will have greater retention when asked to “get loose” by people like us at Velo Baseball. Put the warm-up on paper, hand it to them and let them see the structure and that there’s a plan. Coach them through each movement and assist their understanding of how to move their bodies through space and time in an optimal way. When athletes truly understand that they are preparing their body to accept the demands of their sport and not just moving around for the sake of moving; their movements will become more repeatable, they’ll gain a greater understanding of how to manipulate their bodies and they’ll be primed and ready for battle.

OWN your warm-up in 3 simple steps:

1. Write it out. Whether you’re an athlete or coach, write out your warm-up. You’ll probably realize there are some things you’d like to change, add, shuffle or get rid of entirely. This will help you see the structure.

2. Explain it. If you’re a coach, understand each movement you’re assigning and then COACH it. If you’re an athlete, look up each exercise on YouTube and practice it.

3. OWN it. Repeat the warm-up day-in and day-out until you’ve achieved mastery of each movement. Change things around when necessary and keep building on your process.

About the author:

Tyler Soucie is the founder of Velo Baseball and the Velo Baseball Performance Centre. With a vision of creating a brighter future for Canadian baseball, he has come to be well respected within the baseball community and with the players he trains. He has playing experience at the Division I level as well as internationally.

Interested in working with Tyler? Send him an email.