With any luck you have been following the previous two parts to this series. (Read Part 1 & Part 2). We have covered the benefits of the warm up and outlined how to build your own  effective warm up. 

"But you said that younger players don't need to warm up before activity?"

No, we said they didn't need to perform specific stretching/activation exercises. In the third, and final part of this warm up series we are going to give you some examples of warm up games that you can implement with younger age groups. On the up side, these games also work with older age groups! The great thing about these games is that they are fun. They are not coached which provides the players much needed free play before training. But, there are several benefits hidden within them that make these games invaluable to any coaches tool box.

Hopefully the days of static stretching being utilised in a warm up are numbered. The proposed benefit of stretching reducing the risk of injury are unsubstantiated and unproven. Research has proven that the use of static stretching during a warm up has the potential to reduce power output and has no effect on reducing injury risk (Pope et al. 2000, Herbert and Gabriel 2002, Behm and Chaouachi 2011). On the other hand, dynamic stretching is crucial as the muscle is activated throughout its active range of motion. Thankfully, a helping hand is here. The UKSCA (United Kingdom Strength and Conditioning Association) introduced the ‘RAMP’ method of conducting a warm up (Jeffreys 2007), allowing coaches at all levels to build their own effective warm ups and removing the superfluous material.

RAMP is an acronym for:

• Raise
• Activate and Mobilise
• Potentiate

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With each phase having a clear objective. 

This week’s instalment is aimed at providing you with a better understanding of HOW to integrate resistance training into a youth athletes training programme. It is not only enough to know the benefits but also how to safely implement it, considering all the variables that go along with programme prescription.
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The prescription of a strength and conditioning programme integrating some form of resistance training depends on a variety of different factors. As spoken about in the previous article, youth athletes should only begin resistance training when they are adequately able to follow instructions and are correctly supervised by an educated and experienced practitioner. The notion that children are too young is farfetched and unfortunately is negatively affecting the development of the majority of them.