Warming up
Please keep in mind that for 6 10 year olds the warm up is more teaching a good habit for future years, than being absolutely necessary. However, especially on cold mornings it should be done.
The aim of the warm up is to prepare the mind, heart, muscles and joints for physical activity. Warming up helps to mobilize the joints and reduces the chance of injury to athletes. With older athletes, prior to competition, how well the warm up is organized can have a significant impact(physically and psychologically) on the team's performance.
There are three stages to a complete warm up: (you do not always have the opportunity to complete all three)
- Aerobic exercise 3 5 minutes of non specific exercise, for example light jogging to bring the body up to its optimum working temperature. Light sweating is usually a good indication of a sufficient aerobic component.
Never, never, never start any warm up with aggressive exercise, eg shuttles or sprints!!
- Mobility exercises stretching, taking the body through a series of general stretches and ending with more specific stretches for hockey, eg back, arm and groin stretches. This can be finished with some sets of 5 metre shuttles, just before the game starts, and they have their huddle.
Specific exercises practicing the basic movement and skills of hockey, eg trapping and passing.
- The length of warm up prior to stretching will depend on the temperature. Generally 3 5 minutes of aerobic exercise is sufficient for children, however cold days may require longer.
While warming up is essentially a team activity the coach may also have to allow time for individual stretches and warm up activities. For example, a player may be recovering from injury, while others may have specific needs to attend to such as tight hamstrings. Work out a warm up routine that meets everyone's needs, varying the stretches and warm up drills to prevent boredom.
Cooling Down
Cooling down is an important but often neglected part of training and competition. The aim of the cool down is to aid recovery by gradually returning the body to its resting state. Once again, this is not usually really necessary for children, but again it teaches good habits, and they often see senior players doing this, and hopefully they wish to emulate some of the better ones.
The length of the cool down depends on the intensity of the work out. Generally 3 5 minutes of low intensity exercise(eg. light jog and walk) is sufficient. An active cool down will also help flush waste products such as lactic acid out of the muscles, reducing stiffness.
Stretching of muscles during the cool down is also important, as cooling down is the optimal time for players to work on improving their flexibility.
Some of you will have heard of the acronym DOMS, this is delayed onset muscle stiffness; usually the result of intense activity without a cool down program
