Category: Sport. Title: Football warming up Can sports science change the football warm up.

Football warming up Can sports science change the football warm up

Football warm ups have been the same for as long as i can remember and yet so much has changed in terms of sports science. This article looks at types of warm up such as stretching, dynamic, proprioception and the psychology of warming up.

Warming up before playing football is something that has happened for nearly as long as football has been played however, what is its purpose? Raising the temperature, loosening the joints and increasing the heart rate are all supposed benefits but where is the evidence?

There has been much debate over what type of warm up to use and watching teams from professional through to grassroots you will see many different techniques. Static stretching is used by many teams however, recent studies have shown that this can reduce the power produced by the muscles. Tests used have included vertical jump and sprint tests which have shown large reductions in both the height of the jump and the speed of the sprint following a warm up including static stretches. Put simply, what happens to the muscle is like over stretching an elastic band and then expecting it to still be as tight and springy afterwards.

Dynamic stretching (moving the joints from a small range through to their full range of motion) is another technique used by many teams and this shows no damaging effect on performance. However, in some studies it has also shown little enhancement in performance when compared with general jogging and loosening off.

Warming up may not be solely about increasing the temperature of the muscles and range of the joints but instead be about the neuromuscular system. This is about how quickly the nervous system interacts with the muscles. It is vitally important in correcting situations when our leg may be in a vulnerable position for example, if our foot has gone into a hole on the pitch and our ankle is bent sideways then the neuromuscular system will react and straighten the ankle before any damage can be done. Recent studies have been conducted in this area known as propioception and shown positive results. Including proprioception training into a warm up can greatly reduce the number of injures sustained during games.

When working with older players there could be a negative effect in trying to change their mindset away from static stretching. This could even go as far as reducing their performance levels because they see you as breaking their pre-match habits and rituals. In this situation it is better to allow static stretching but position it at the start of the warm up and make it as minimal as possible. This should not be a problem with our younger players and they can be brought up to perform ball work and proprioceptive training during the warm up to prepare themselves fully for the match ahead.

Ask around and the main reason players and coaches will give for performing a cool down is that stretching reduces stiffness the next day by removing lactic acid from the muscles. This is not strictly true, the main reason being that current research shows that lactate in the muscles has no negative effect and can actually be transported around the body and used again as energy. Other coaches use stretching at the end of a session or match to help with players’ flexibility. This is fine but a word of warning would be that flexibility is sometimes a negative and can increase the risk of injury if joints become too loose/

In conclusion, Warm ups should be used to focus the players minds on the match or training ahead, get them used to the movement of the ball on the pitch, reduce the risk of injury with proprioception work and slightly increase the range of movement through dynamic/active movements. Cool downs can be important in slowing the heart rate down gradually after intense exercise and also be used to recap on details you have covered in training. However in terms of reducing muscle damage or preventing injury the research shows they have little impact. Just remember to question yours and others actions, doing something because it has always been done, does not make it correct.

Visit www.wineverything.co.uk to find out more about the warm up and other area's of sports science for football

Date written: Tue, 24 May 2011 07:58:00 +0100

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