| Fact File |
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| Currently: |
Worcester Warriors |
| Playing Position: |
Back row |
| International Caps: |
15 caps for England |
| Warriors Career: |
Played 48 (1), 30 points |
Warm up Masterclass Technique
In order play to your full potential from kick off, it’s important that you prepare yourself physically, technically, tactically and mentally.
Although no club’s warm-up is the same in the Premiership, all warm-ups are designed to archive the same basic principles:
Physically Increase heart rate, increase blood flow, move all joints about a full range, ready you to move quickly, and prepare you for contact.
Technically Basic handling skills across different distances, decision-making in various spaces, individual contact area skills in attack and defense.
Tactically As units lineouts, scrums and starter plays. As a team, what from where? Run through some basic collective phase play in attack and defence
Mentally The warm-up should allow you, as a player, to clarify in your mind about basic skills such as how to win a 2v1 or make an effective tackle. But you should also ensure you’re clear on your role within the team and what’s expected of you in various scenarios that are likely to occur.
Often these areas overlap so, to help you think of some ideas that may help you and your team, here’s one of the warm-up formats we use at Worcester Warriors
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1. Get Moving
Starting: A high tempo jog to run (half a lap)
One set of Form Drills (for example, high knees to 10m acceleration sprints)
Basic passive handling drill over different distances (see drill 1), looking for quality of pass, with changes in depth and type of pass.
Dynamic flexibility: Rather than static stretching a small muscle group, we move our joints throughout their ranges of movement at different speeds, which ensures that all muscles and tendons are ready to move while keeping blood flow high to all areas.
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2. Decision making
A basic 3v2 in a 20m by 20m area (see drill 2), looking for quality of pass but under pressure in a large space.
We then move to a small grid (10mx10m) which increase the pressure by reducing time and space, which puts more pressure on our skills and is more realistic to the intensities we can expect on the field.
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3. Technical run-through
Unit based to begin with. This allows forwards to hit some lineouts and the backs to run some plays without the forwards getting in the way!
Then team based, move through team plays from a couple of set situations. Although this is fairly passive, it allows players to be run patterns they’ll be running during the game.
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4. Defensive Hitting
Most sides finish with some defensive hitting. This is a great way to elevate your heart rate one last time. Finish by preparing the body for contact and be clear about defensive roles.
This hitting can be done as a collective and include some tactical work, or as individual with more of an emphasis technique (for example, hit with same leg same shoulder, lower shoulder line than opposition, chase feet through contact).
Although all sides’ defensive systems are different, a basic hitting drill, like the one below, will allow both technical and tactical work to take place.
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Warm up
Warm up Drills
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Drill 1: “Warriors”
Objective: Prepare for high intensity handling or attack sessions
-Players line up in groups of 4 facing each other within the green cones
-3 accurate passes must be complete before the end of the grid where last receiver gives the ball to next group of attackers working back down the grid. repeat process for 20-30 sec
-Coach then calls either “RED” or “WHITE”, players must react my moving in or out to the appropriate grid, altering weight and distance of passes accordingly. This process is repeated on each grid for 20-30secs and finishes back on green cones for a final 30sec block
-Where appropriate the ball should alter its starting position to ensure pass occur from the left and right
Drill 2: Decision Making (Continuous 3v2)
Objective: Prepare for high intensity handling or attack sessions
-Players split themselves into groups of 3 at each end of the grid.
-The ball starts at one end of the grid and as the first 3 players attack the top goal line the nearest 2 players at the top of the grid push up and become defenders.
-Once the 3 v 2 has been completed the ball is offloaded to the next group of three at the top of the grid (where the last defenders came from), and the drill is repeated, only this time the 2 defenders move up from the bottom of the grid.
Drill 3: Hitting and Line Speed
Objective: Prepare for contact and defensive organisation
-6 player start 7m from bags then fold in (1st player taking 1st bag then all other players push out to fill the space on the outside)
-Players work from the scrum half (SH) to the left, when he touches the ball players call “IN” and press up making a hit on bags with the nominated shoulder.
-Players make 2 hits one each shoulder always retreating to base cone which mark the back foot
-Once 2 hits have been performed, players repeat the process of folding to the left and work of the second scrum half.
-When he touches the ball “IN” is called and players sprint 5m with a focus on line speed
Once all players move through, the process is repeated, until all players return to the start position
Summary
In summary, a good match-day warm-up gets going quickly and involves the ball from the start. Dynamic stretching and passive skills happen first then, as the warm-up progresses, the intensity is increased and time is spent in more match specific situations. Finally, the body is prepared for contact and defensive skills are practiced which increase the heart rate to match intensity, all in all taking no longer than 20 minutes.
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