Give a detailed description of a personal warm up and cool for your chosen activity.

GCSE Physical Education (Sport & Coaching)

Darren Cooper

Warm Up

Introduction

There is no doubt that time spent on warming up and cooling down will improve an athlete's level of performance and accelerate the recovery process needed before training or competing again. As a result the coach must encourage the athlete to regard the warm up and cool down as an essential part of both the training session and competition itself.

Links to various pages are provided to help you compile your own warm up and cool down routines.

Warm Up

, is thought to be directly related to muscle injury and therefore the warm up should be aimed at reducing muscle stiffness.

Warming up should at least consist of the following:

5 to 10 minutes jogging - to increase body temperature
10 to 15 minutes - reduce muscle stiffness
10 to 15 minutes general and event specific drills - preparation for the session or competition. e.g. for a runner
4 to 8 easy run outs over 30 to 60 metres - focus on correct running technique ()

are more appropriate to the warm up as they help reduce muscle stiffness. Static exercises do not reduce muscle stiffness.

What are the benefits of a warm up?

Performance may be improved as an appropriate warm up will result in an:

Increased speed of contraction and relaxation of warmed muscles
Dynamic exercises reduce muscle stiffness
Greater economy of movement because of lowered viscous resistance within warmed muscles
Facilitated oxygen utilisation by warmed muscles because haemoglobin releases oxygen more readily at higher muscle temperatures
Facilitated nerve transmission and muscle metabolism at higher temperatures; a specific warm up can facilitate motor unit recruitment required in subsequent all out activity

Increased blood flow through active tissues as local vascular beds dilate, increasing metabolism and muscle temperatures

Playing the game

The focus is on the students, who are not playing the game, encouraging them to develop their observational skills. At first give them one or two simple things to look for regarding the 4-v-4 game. The students playing will become nervous if they feel that their skill is being analysed by a large group of people. Concentrate observation on the game initially rather than individual’s skill (e.g. Look at the phases of the game). The students observing ...

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Increased blood flow through active tissues as local vascular beds dilate, increasing metabolism and muscle temperatures

Playing the game

After the game ask the students observing what they felt were the key elements of the game and if they had to select one aspect of the game to work on, what would it be?

Ensure that all students have an opportunity to play and observe at some point in the session

Skill learning within a context/games-like situation

Linking skills such as dribbling, turning, passing and shooting is a lot to ask children, but applying skills is one of the attainment targets identified in the 5 - 14 Expressive Arts Guidelines. The ability to link skills successfully is needed during the game of football. Moving children from isolated skill practices to a game is a big jump. Therefore, providing experiences for skill learning within a games-like context is an important step in bridging the gap. 1 v 1 and 2 v 1 practices provide ideal opportunities for children to link skills together and give them experience of situations they will meet in the game. It is necessary to ensure that the students are aware that linking skills demands a lot from the children. It will become increasingly important as tasks become more complex to allow for differentiation in order that all children enjoy success. Some children may be ready for 2 v 1 situations, others may need further practice without opposition. Reinforce the need for teachers to differentiate the activities.

Working in threes

When working in threes encourage the students to communicate with one another, not only saying where they want the ball to be played, but providing praise and coaching points where appropriate.

Just as moving from individual work with the ball to pairs increased the difficulty of the task, moving to working in threes increases the difficulty again. Highlight the point that children need experience working in twos before moving on to working in threes. Only as children’s skill improves and a further challenge is required should they be asked to work in threes. Readiness to move needs to be emphasised. Players should not be rooted to the spot in a straight line. They should have ‘busy feet’, ready to move to meet the ball.

The quality of the feed is once again important. Remind the students of the need to encourage feeders to concentrate and be as accurate as possible. Where two feeders are playing the ball to a middle player, the middle player is under pressure. This simulates pressure situations in the game, but should only be sustained for short periods. After a time the quality of the work of the middle player will deteriorate as he/she tires. Change the students around so that each one experiences each position.

Point out to the students that the organisation of practices in threes may be used to work on different skills (heading, volleying, controlling with the chest etc.). Allow students to include their own variations according to their level of skill. Discuss the need to challenge children who are skilful and how to use the same organisation (i.e. working in threes) to enable different children to work on different skills.

Small sided games

As in the previous session give the students the opportunity to set up and play lots of small-sided games. Introduce the concept of Match Supervisors and encourage different students to take up the role. If it is at all possible try to take students outside to enable them to set up several small-sided games outside.

It is important to discourage the use of whistles to referee games. The idea is to pass as much of the decision-making as possible and the responsibility of managing the game to the children. A teacher with a whistle gives the impression that they are in charge of the game. If a teacher lacks confidence in making themselves heard in a gym full of children or outside where the wind often whips away what is said, a whistle may be used to start and stop games, but not to referee.

Fair-play should be encouraged at all times and the children should get into the habit of shaking hands before and after the game. Teams should be picked fairly to ensure that no team is beaten by a large margin. As soon as the score reaches a goal difference of five, the Match Supervisor should step in to change the teams. The children themselves may also be encouraged to change the teams if the score line reaches 5 - 0 for example.

Point out to the students that praise should be given for effort and playing well with team-mates, not just winning.

Cool Down

Warming down should consist of the following:

5 to 10 minutes jogging/walking - decrease body temperature and remove waste products from the working muscles
5 to 10 minutes - decrease body temperature, remove waste products from the working muscles and to increase range of movement.

are more appropriate to the cool down as they help muscles to relax and increase their range of movement.

What are the benefits of a cool down?

An appropriate cool down will:

Aid to the breakdown of waste products - including
Reduce the potential for . Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS), Muscle soreness that occurs between 24 and 48 hours after intense exercise usually involves eccentric contractions. This causes increases in intracellular pressure that irritates the nerve endings, producing swelling and local pain. The soreness can be an indication of potential muscle adaptation to follow, but if it persists or is debilitating then it could indicate and large muscular tissue damage.