Not Your Average Coach’s Warm Up – Part 3

Hey Coach, welcome back, glad you’ve made it to part three! 

If you haven’t, make sure to go back and check out part one and part two…they are super important for laying down some context on what you are about to read…

Now, here is the secret sauce to the ADW. So listen closely.

 A good ADW, like a really good ADW, will allow the athletes to train specific qualities (related to their training), consistently, regardless of the movement regression/progression.

This is something we talk about in length during the Parisi Sports Performance Mentorship.

The point is not to get good at the exercise. The point is to elicit the athletic quality as a response to the exercise selection made by you, Coach.

Let me give an example.

If I am coaching a linear speed session that is focusing on acceleration, and the focus of this session is to achieve a piston-like action with my lower body. Some might say we are trying to target a ‘low heel recovery’, I am going to program my athlete’s to perform movements that have hard 90 degree angles in hip and knee flexion.

Younger athletes will perform A-march holds for time and progress to marching forwards and backwards for a prescribed distance.

Older athletes will perform that same A-march progression as above (holds in to marching forward and backwards), could add a load, and progress the movement by adding speed, aiming to ‘cycle’ the foot up and off the floor.

In context, my desired outcome was purely mechanical. I want the lower body to achieve that piston-like action and navigate in and out of good angles at the hip/knee/ankle. For my younger athletes who have a strength deficiency (assuming so for the purpose of this article), we never challenge them with speed. For our older athletes who have dedicated strength training sessions in our Parisi program, we have the option to progress with speed.

You see, Coach, the purpose(s) behind the ADW run deep and there is a ton of context needed to be known. For the sake of systems, the ADW should check off these boxes…

• Meet and advance an athlete’s neurological state
• Meet and advance an athlete’s physical abilities
• Prime movements for the training session (the coaching starts at the ADW)
• Expose the athlete in to developmentally appropriate environment
• Allow for movement success.

So the key takeaway I hope you get from this blog series is that your training sessions need to have a choice of genre (linear, multidirectional, or strength?) and a theme (what athletic element are we training?) in order to give the required context to the rest of the choices.

And that, Coach, is why the thoughts behind the active dynamic warm up aren’t those of an average Performance Coach. 

What’s next?

Looking for a Parisi Speed School near you? Check out our Location Map.

Are you a Coach interested in joining the Parisi Speed School Network? Download our Free Guide.