Win More, Lose Less
How a Warm Up Could Be the Determining Factor
If you’ve been involved in organized sports or physical activity, you know what a warm up is and the expectation that you complete one before you begin. There are youth teams, adult fitness classes, and professional organizations doing warm ups all around the world. However, there remains a disconnect between completing a warm up and getting the ideal benefits from one. This may, in part, be because the warm up isn’t well-designed, but most likely the issue is that it isn’t well-executed.
A daily warm up can easily become routine and robotic, but without proper intent and consistency going through a warm-up may be pointless, unfortunately leading to an increase in injury risk and a loss of performance capacity.
Soccer coaches in particular should strongly consider the following information. Although all sports could use a “warm-up refresher,” soccer athletes specifically have shown vast improvements from close compliance to a good warm-up. Long seasons and long hours expose everyone to the potential of monotony, but the study below is linked directly to Division I and Division II athletes.
Article Title and Authors:
High Compliance with the 11+ Injury Prevention Program Results in Better Win-Loss Records
Holly Silvers-Granelli, Mario Bizzini, Bert Mandelbaum, Amelia Arundale, Ryan Pohlig, Lynn Snyder-Mackler
A good warm-up should follow the RAMP Method.
Raise - 5+ mins of light activity to raise your heart rate and body temperature.
Activate - movements completed should activate the necessary muscles required for tasks in the game or practice
Mobilize - ensure that proper range of motion is achieved to prepare the body for sport
Potentiate - prime the nervous system and musculature for high-force or high-speed outputs
This method completes the lighter and easier exercises first and “ramps” up the speed and intensity as you near the end of the warm up and the start of training or competition.
It should go without saying that if you don’t warm up well or often you will take longer to perform your best or even at your average ability level. If you aren’t your best, you won’t make an impact. If your team doesn’t warm up appropriately, collectively you are not at your best, resulting in more losses.
Let’s break down what the article says.
Firstly, they looked into the 11+ IPP. This is a warm up that I was introduced to as the FIFA 11+ Warm Up. The structure is specifically designed to include elements of core strength, plyometrics, and mechanics for proper change of direction. To understand the results better, you should look up that warm up.
About the warm up: “It is a twenty-minute field-based program that consists of 15 exercises divided into three separate components: running exercises (8 minutes) that encompass cutting, change of direction, decelerating and proper landing techniques, strength, plyometric and balance exercises (10 minutes) that focus on core strength, eccentric control and proprioception, and running exercises (2 minutes) to conclude the warm-up and prepare the athlete for athletic participation.”
Next, they broke up the results into varying levels of compliance - meaning who was consistent with implementing the IPP (injury prevention program). The levels were defined as high compliance, moderate compliance, and low compliance.
“Compliance was defined prospectively as follows: low (LC) ranged between 1-19 doses/season (<1 dose per week), moderate compliance (MC) ranged between 20-39 doses/season (1 to < 2 doses per week), and high (HC) was defined as utilization >40 doses per season (2 or more doses per week).”
The results speak for themselves! Not only did incorporating this IPP into the program increase wins, but it also decreased losses. Additionally, the more repetitions of it, the better the results.
Versus the control, doing the IPP had you winning 2 more games on average and losing 3 fewer games. There was no difference in ties.
On top of that, compliance with the warm up played a big role in the standings.
High - 13 wins, Moderate - 9/10 wins, Low - 8 wins (***All of these come with statistical variance +/-).
High - 4 losses, Moderate and Low had 6 losses on average
CONCLUSION:
These results should be taken into consideration for soccer teams. But keep in mind, warm ups are important for every sport! They shouldn’t be taken or done lightly. They need to be thorough and consistent to be effective. 11+ IPP is a good option for soccer, but other sport coaches and athletes should seek out appropriate warm up options and be serious about preparation to train and compete.
If you need help with your warm up or designing a training program, let us know! We help club organizations and high schools all over America. At ACES Nation it is our passion way before it is our profession. Email me directly, zwallace@acesnation.org, or reach out to our team at support@acesnation.org.
If you’re a coach, educate your staff and your athletes.
If you’re an athlete, set yourself up for success by PROPERLY warming up. Put your best into preparation so you are prepared to be your best!
- Zack Wallace
ACES Nation Athletic Performance Specialist
