Marty Loughrane a physio, who is very highly regarded having worked with several big teams including the Irish boxing team.
GAA Warm ups
Movement preparation for the player or a coach’s shop window?
Last season I got to a GAA senior club championship match quite early and had the opportunity to watch the warm up of one of the teams. I work with a team who regularly carry out an injury prevention warm up so I was keen to see if injury prevention warm ups were filtering through to club level. The warm up was everything I have come to hate about modern GAA warm ups.
So what was so wrong with the warm up that made me hate it so much? Everything. The warm up was completely sports specific. The players went straight into a complex drill with the ball that the trainer demanded be done at ‘championship pace’. This was the very first drill!! How can you perform the first drill at championship pace?
There was absolutely no movement preparation- other than the players walking from the changing rooms to the training pitch. The players were cold. Nothing had been done to raise their heart rate. There was no dynamic or static stretching. It was one complex hand-passing drill after another and then into the now routine tackling drills and small sided games. After some more shouting and puffing, it was decided the players were warm and they returned to the changing room, with the coaches happy the players were warmed up and ready for the match.
So what should a modern GAA warm up consist of? Well the same things that most field based sporting warm ups should consist of.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sTl0MJNvO0&list=PL0D7E68CD640DC190
Only when the player has completed his movement preparation work should the warm up progress into ball work drills including handpassing, kickpassing drills, tackling, shooting drills and then ultimately into small sided games.
The aim of the warm up is to prepare the player for competition but it must first prepare the player to move. It should never be used a shop window for aspiring coaches to show the public how great they are at creating complex drills that ultimately achieve very little other than confusion among the players.
GAA players inherently move badly, hence our high injury rate. If we ask them to perform ball skills at high intensities and then in contact situations without getting them to move properly first then we are asking for trouble. Movement patterns are created in the brain. Let the brain practice good running, jumping, landing and cutting technique first, without it having to worry about the ball or an opponent.
Sports like tennis, European handball, volleyball and football have all successfully incorporated injury prevention work within their warm ups. The most successful one being the FIFA 11+. Which has been proven in a large randomised controlled trial to reduce serious injuries by 50% over the course of a season. Follow the link below to the FIFA 11+ warm up site. The website has free videos, posters and emanuals to download to help you implement the warm up.
http://f-marc.com/11plus/home/
Last year I was lucky enough to work with a county team who had the foresight to implement an injury prevention warm up. We implemented the FIFA 11+ warm up before every game and training session. We finished the season without a serious knee or ankle injury and no hamstring injuries. We had 98% player availability for all our major games and had a 43% reduction in total number of injuries from the previous season even though we played twice as many championship games.
The FIFA 11+ warm up contains exercises and drills that the vast majority of GAA players and coaches will be familiar with. The difference is the emphasis on the quality of movement. Feedback from players and coaching staff on the quality of movement is essential to ensure the players move well and the warm up is successful.
If you feel that designing a movement preparation warm up which includes injury prevention work is beyond you at present then adopt the FIFA 11+ warm up. It is a football warm up and it is not GAA specific but there are enough similar movement patterns between the two sports for the GAA players to benefit from it. Your players will spend more time on the pitch and less time with the physio!
Movement preparation for the player or a coach’s shop window?
Last season I got to a GAA senior club championship match quite early and had the opportunity to watch the warm up of one of the teams. I work with a team who regularly carry out an injury prevention warm up so I was keen to see if injury prevention warm ups were filtering through to club level. The warm up was everything I have come to hate about modern GAA warm ups.
So what was so wrong with the warm up that made me hate it so much? Everything. The warm up was completely sports specific. The players went straight into a complex drill with the ball that the trainer demanded be done at ‘championship pace’. This was the very first drill!! How can you perform the first drill at championship pace?
There was absolutely no movement preparation- other than the players walking from the changing rooms to the training pitch. The players were cold. Nothing had been done to raise their heart rate. There was no dynamic or static stretching. It was one complex hand-passing drill after another and then into the now routine tackling drills and small sided games. After some more shouting and puffing, it was decided the players were warm and they returned to the changing room, with the coaches happy the players were warmed up and ready for the match.
So what should a modern GAA warm up consist of? Well the same things that most field based sporting warm ups should consist of.
- Running, with focus on good form and technique.
- Movement preparation drills including A,B skips, straight leg kicks
- Static stretching if deemed necessary followed by dynamic stretching consisting of functional movements- walking lunges, squats, heel raises, high knees
- Plyometric drills including skipping, bounding etc.
- Jumping/landing and cutting practice
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sTl0MJNvO0&list=PL0D7E68CD640DC190
Only when the player has completed his movement preparation work should the warm up progress into ball work drills including handpassing, kickpassing drills, tackling, shooting drills and then ultimately into small sided games.
The aim of the warm up is to prepare the player for competition but it must first prepare the player to move. It should never be used a shop window for aspiring coaches to show the public how great they are at creating complex drills that ultimately achieve very little other than confusion among the players.
GAA players inherently move badly, hence our high injury rate. If we ask them to perform ball skills at high intensities and then in contact situations without getting them to move properly first then we are asking for trouble. Movement patterns are created in the brain. Let the brain practice good running, jumping, landing and cutting technique first, without it having to worry about the ball or an opponent.
Sports like tennis, European handball, volleyball and football have all successfully incorporated injury prevention work within their warm ups. The most successful one being the FIFA 11+. Which has been proven in a large randomised controlled trial to reduce serious injuries by 50% over the course of a season. Follow the link below to the FIFA 11+ warm up site. The website has free videos, posters and emanuals to download to help you implement the warm up.
http://f-marc.com/11plus/home/
Last year I was lucky enough to work with a county team who had the foresight to implement an injury prevention warm up. We implemented the FIFA 11+ warm up before every game and training session. We finished the season without a serious knee or ankle injury and no hamstring injuries. We had 98% player availability for all our major games and had a 43% reduction in total number of injuries from the previous season even though we played twice as many championship games.
The FIFA 11+ warm up contains exercises and drills that the vast majority of GAA players and coaches will be familiar with. The difference is the emphasis on the quality of movement. Feedback from players and coaching staff on the quality of movement is essential to ensure the players move well and the warm up is successful.
If you feel that designing a movement preparation warm up which includes injury prevention work is beyond you at present then adopt the FIFA 11+ warm up. It is a football warm up and it is not GAA specific but there are enough similar movement patterns between the two sports for the GAA players to benefit from it. Your players will spend more time on the pitch and less time with the physio!