Tag Archive for 'warm-up'

The athletes’ mind warm-up

In preparation for the competition, the warm-up phase represents an opportunity to mentally prepare yourself at the start of the race, giving you the time to focus on the tasks to perform at the best. It is recognized that many top athletes complete some form of mental preparation before the competition. Typical strategies include:

  • visualization of performance
  • repetition of keywords
  • search for optimal activation through physical and technical exercises
  • speed and accuracy

HOW DO YOU PREPARE YOURSELF FOR THE RACE? AT THE START ARE YOU ALWAYS READY?
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF DOING A MENTAL ROUTINE AND NOT ONLY A PHYSICAL ONE?

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE AND TRAIN YOURSELF TO START THE COMPETITION WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDE? 

WRITE ME AND WE WILL DO IT TOGETHER

The warm-up is for the body and mind

In relation to warming up, I would like to take up what Jurgen Weineck said in his book “The optimal training” because it is a text known to all coaches (psychologists should study it). In fact, it clearly illustrates the physical and also mental role of this phase of training. It thus highlights how important it is to teach young athletes to use this phase of training in the right way and not simply as boring exercises to be carried out to avoid injury.

“Warm-up means all the measures that, before a sporting load – whether for training or competition – useful both to create a state of optimal coordination of psychophysical and kinesthetic preparation and to prevent accidents.

“In active warming up, the athlete practically performs the exercises or movements, while in mental warming he only represents them… If it is used alone … mental training is of little use, because it only partially sets in motion, and often with little intensity, the adaptation processes characteristic of warm-up. However, in some sports (e.g. artistic gymnastics and athletic) it is very effective when combined with other warm-upmethods” (p. 547).

“As can be seen from various works there are interrelationships between warming up, motivation and the psychic attitude towards the activity itself. Thus, on the one hand, a high degree of motivation and a strongly performance-oriented attitude can strengthen the effectiveness of warming – among other things, thanks to the psychic parameters of the pre-event state that prepares the body for a high performance – while, on the other hand, a negative attitude towards it reduces or totally eliminates the benefits … warming up, starting from an initial “neutral” situation, serves to form a psychic state of readiness to perform, evokes an optimal state of excitement of the nervous system, thus improving the attitude towards sports performance and concentration on it” (p.551).

The warm-up role

The blog about the warm-up has raised many confirmations by coaches, who recognize the difficulty in making live this experience as the essential condition for putting ourselves in the best mental and physical condition to start a competition, that is individual or team sport.

Which is the warm-up function. “Warm-up regards all measures that, before a workout or race, are useful both to create a state of mental and physical preparation and kinesthetic-optimal coordination, both injury prevention” (Weineck, 2001).

It must be understood that the warm-up consists of an integrated set of thoughts, actions and images activated in a consistent manner before the performance. These routines are useful because they allow to:

  • shift the focus from irrelevant stimuli
  • help not to think to the performance to execute
  • be in an appropriate level of physical and mental activation

The warm up must prepare to do the best

The warm-up is

the last sequence of motor and mental actions

to prepare yourself

to do what you are able to do

and nothing more

Kate Hansen warm-up dancing

The warm-up is often a boring and repetitive job. At Sochi Olympic Games Kate Hansen, US luge athlete, has decided to change it in a more funny way.

The mental warm-up

Many athletes have no idea about the mental warm-up and think that it’s enough to heat only the body to be ready for training and the competitions. The mental warm-up guide the mind towards the main activities that the athlete will perform during the training session. It’s useful to activate the relationship between body, mind (cognitive and emotional processes) and motivation. When the athletes activate only the body, the risk is that they do not feel motivated to perform that workout or to begin without having reached the level of concentration needed to work effectively. It also allows to train the sense of responsibility of the athletes to get in each training session in the best physical and mental condition and it’s a way to prove to yourself that you want to be totally involved in what you will do in that day. A question that it should be asked is: ” How do I know that I am ready? And if not,  what I have to do to immediately change this attitude that prevents me”.