I have found that to optimise the efficiency of my nervous system, I spend the last 3-5 minutes of my warm up on some basic balance and dynamic flexibility exercises.
My personal warm up broke down into these sections;
Pulse raiser: Generally I began by walking around a specific area for example the hall where I am training, just focusing my mind off the day gone by and the tasks in hand as I walk around. After a lap I begin to jog, as I approach different areas of the hall I begin to introduce new things, thus I include at different times, knee raises, changes of direction, touching the floor with either hand or hands, heel to bottom steps, sideways crossovers etc. Typically the “pulse raiser” also involves short sprints for no more than 10 seconds on the spot and jumps, at this point the second phase of the warm up comes into play.
Stretches:
Medial deltoid stretch (shoulders)
Stand up straight with your chest out and your hands behind your back. Grab your right wrist with your left hand. Pull your right arm gently towards your left side. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds. Swap arms and repeat.
Rear Deltoid stretch (shoulders)
Stand up straight. Move your right arm across your chest and place the back of your right elbow. Gently push your right arm across your chest. Hold the stretch for 15-30 seconds. Swap arms and repeat.
Chest stretch (chest)
Using a friend, a pillar or a wall, stand with your feet shoulder width apart in a split stance. Bend your right arm 90 degrees making sure your palms meets with your partner’s right palm or the wall. Your elbow should be level with your shoulder, with your resting arm on the opposite thigh. Make sure your hips face forwards and your looking straight ahead. Push gently towards each other, feeling the stretch, hold, then swap sides.
Swiss ball lat stretch (back)
Kneel on the floor with your right arm bent, palm up, on a swiss ball and your left palm on the floor for balance. Bend your knees 90 degrees, keep your back straight. Make sure the ball is positioned under your right wrist and you`re looking at the floor. Change sides.
Tricep stretch (Tricep)
Stand with one elbow pointing upwards and your hand hanging down behind your back. Use your other hand to hold your elbow above your head. Feel the stretch in the back of your arm as you hold onto your elbow. Repeat with the other arm.
Bicep stretch (Bicep)
Stand side onto the wall with your right arm stretched out, palm flat against the wall pointing behind you. To maximise the strength, rotate your hips slightly away from the wall, pause and swap sides.
McKenzie press-up (Abs and lower back)
Lie face down on a mat with your feet shoulder width apart. Keep your hips down and bend your arms so your palms face down. Make sure your arms are shoulder width apart and your palms are by the top of your head.
Slowly push yourself up on your forearms, keeping your chin facing downwards. Lift your chin and feel the stretch in your abs. Lower and repeat.
Lower back twist (lower back)
Lie on your back on a mat. Keeping your right leg straight, exhale slowly and bend your left knee over your body so your left knee is perpendicular to your body. Keep your shoulders flat and use your right hand to press gently on your thigh. Feel the stretch in your lower back. Repeat on the other side.
Rear leg hold (Quads)
Stand tall eyes focusing on a point just above eye level directly in front of you, raise your foot by bending at the knee to bring your heel into your buttocks, with assistance from your hand on the side of the raised leg, maintain balance and pull gently on your arm to increase the stretch, hold and change legs.
Hamstring stretch (Hamstrings)
Rest your right leg on a bench, keeping your left leg straight. The heel of the back leg should be flat on the floor. Bend your arms out to the sides for balance. Lean slightly forwards and feel the stretch. Change legs.
Calve stretch (calves)
Face a wall and lean against it with your arms wider than shoulder width apart. Place the toes of your left leg against the wall, keeping the leg straight and the heel as close to the wall as possible. The supporting leg should be pitched back and should gently push your hips towards the wall, hold then change legs.
Groin stretch
Sit on the floor with the soles of your feet together in front of you, elbows tucked inside your knees. Gently lean forwards. Feel the stretch on the inside of your thighs, hold and repeat.
Wrist stretch
Standing, place your palm onto the wall with your arm straight out in front of you. Keeping your hand in that one position, gently lower your hand on the wall, keeping it in contact at all time until the stretch is felt, hold and change arms.
Skill specific exercises.
My basketball skills that I am using in this PPP, are;
- Jump shots
- Steals
- General basketball warm up.
General basketball warm up
The majority of this section involves hand to eye co-ordinated exercises, getting the body used to the conditions, i.e. the surface of the floor and feel of the ball, this also helps to prompt the brain into recalling schema according to Schmidt. This only takes several minutes but is vital to help make the practice as productive as possible.
These driberling drills are carried out with the head facing directly forward all of the time, and with the knees bent, back straight and as low to the ground as possible, changing pace on the turns, see diagram below.
Steals
This is helped to prepare for by tuning the body into the style of defence that is to be used in this case the “Shell drill” see diagram below.
This with practice makes the player move into the correct position for defence and steals sub consciously, allowing the layer to focus attention on other important stimuli, such as the advancing opponent, for steals to be made the defender has to be able to interpret stimuli and psychomotively prepare an option or options. As you will react quicker if you believe a certain stimulus is going to happen, this can however work to your disadvantage if the opponent dummies
It is also vital to warm up the fast twitch fibres in the body as these are key to fast movement, this is done by running imaginary ladders in the floor, using quick sharp steps. Secondly by getting in what’s known as the defence stance; bent legs, centre of gravity kept as low as possible, feet widen and back straight, head up, the coach will call “hustle” and the player will effectively sprint on the spot in that position for a period of time, trying to get as many footsteps in per second as possible.
Set shot
This involves practises that do not actually involve the ball being shoot into the basket, instead it focuses on the individual sub routines that make up the complete shot. The practices involve this set up around the basket.
The ball is played down to the post from the right hand lane and returned by the post player, player A should now be in a position to shoot.
The subroutines
- Preparation (“spotting up” the player finds an area that he is comfortable from shooting from and sets himself in the position, with the correct stance and posture, and imagines shooting.)
- Execution (involves preparation, plus the player jumps and releases the ball but only a short distance accentuating the backspin on the ball by flicking the wrist)
- Recovery (involves Prep. And Execution, plus the process of “boxing out” where the player who shot imagines a defender trying to get his rebound thus he must try and literally block the players path to the rebound.)
Players run the exercise through each time going one stage further into the complete motor programme. Finally at the end of running through the stages the players are allowed to shot for the basket, after several run through like this players may have cope with the threat of a defender blocking the shot. This requires the player to judge the situation correctly and aim for a possible dummy, drive or jump shot.
Effects of a warm up on the speed and force of muscle contraction
- Increased speed of nerve impulse conduction
- Increased temperature helps prevent muscle tears due to one pair of antagonistic muscles no relaxing quick enough.
- Increased motor co-ordination/efficiency between antagonistic pairs allowing muscle to contract and relax faster.
- Increased elasticity/extensibility of connective tissue and muscle fibres leading to a greater speed and force of muscle contraction.
- Reduction of muscles/connective tissue resistance improving mechanical efficiency of contraction.
- Activates enzymes and energy systems which supply energy for muscles to produce speed and force.
Vascular Effects of a Warm up
- Increased temperature, increases dissociation of oxygen from Hb.
- Gradual increase in blood flow due to vascular shunt
Vasodilatation of arterioles precapillary sphincters to the muscle.
Vasoconstriction of arterioles precapillary sphincters to the organs.
- Increased vascular/body temperature reduces blood viscosity that improves blood flow.
- Increased speed of nerve impulse transmission which leads to increased alertness, speed and force.
- Decreases the onset of blood lactic acid due to onset of anaerobic work without warm up.
