THE POWER OF ROUTINES

Anyone who has participated in sport, at any level, has been introduced to the practice of warming up. And the strategy makes far too much sense as this allows the body to loosen up and be prepared for the stresses of competition. However, all too often athletes will warm up and then have a poor outing. And in many of these situations you will hear a coach (or parent) reprimand the athlete(s) with the statement, “You didn’t warm up the right way.” And I must say, frequently I agree.

One of the things I enjoy when I attend competitions is watching the warm up. Unlike the casual fan, I’m not there to see monster homerun shots or acrobatic executions as athletes try to alleviate the boredom of going through the motions. For me, observing the warm up is a treasure trove of information about what to expect in the upcoming performance. When you ask most coaches about why they want their athletes to warm up, most include the ideas of getting the body and mind ready. Much of the focus is on running through plays that have been practiced or they anticipate running in the game. But there needs to be a sharper focus, or what I call purposeful practice and routine. This requires the mindset that warm up is about priming the system. This means working through a detailed sequence that gets the athlete dialed in to executing specific movement patterns in coordination with important signals for action. Because its spring, lets focus on how this works for baseball/softball.

The first area to focus on is important movement patterns. Begin with core and fundamental movements that are part of the sport. This is more than running pole to pole. This is an unrealistic warm up. I mean, who the heck jogs on the field, or sprints over 600 feet at a time in a game? The initial warm up should include movement of body parts that simulate how you play. Stepping, quick starting, trunk pivoting, etc. These exercises initiate important nerve pathways that control muscle movement and coordinated patterns. These can then be paired with relevant signals. For example, a coach mimicking a pitcher’s wind-up as a signal to turn and sprint. You can also pair together “linked” patterns of movement that might be position specific. Fielding and throwing for infielders is not uniform. Each position can have unique body positions for receiving ground balls or throws, as well as how to set the feet and execute throws toward a base. Implementing position specific movement sequences gets the body ready to go in live fire situations. This also allows the athlete to move through the mental steps of explicit memory execution to implicit movement so that they can focus on situational cues.

The mental aspect of warming up also needs to be purposeful. Having a specific routine allows the mind to minimize distractions. For some athletes there is too much going on. From being aware of scouts in the stands, to commands from parents on the sideline, or even personal life “stuff” happening off the field, many athletes benefit from purposeful routines that allow them to “let go” of the distractions and hone in on what they are doing. Alternatively, there are athletes who get too “geared up”. This can happen because of personality, information overload (i.e. being over-coached during warm up), or simply because this game has more meaning to the athlete. Here the routine allows the athlete to “get comfortable” by executing something familiar and developing confidence in his ability to execute. And in both situations, the athlete is now giving his attentional focus to relevant and specific pieces of information which are important to respond to within the game. The bottom line is the routine allows the athlete to get ready to execute by focusing on the key signals and/or patterns of information he will encounter during play.

Clearly, having a purposeful warm up routine is an important factor in prepping the body and mind for competition. The question now is in how to set this up. An essential consideration is the age and maturation of the athlete. The older and more experienced he is, the more detail and longer the warm up will take. While the opposite is true for younger and less experienced athletes. In short, the warm up needs to be tailored to the amount of expertise you can expect the athlete to perform. So your first step is to determine what body movements and situations will be part of the game. Give each a specific amount of time and attention, and realize this may change for different athletes at different positions.

Your second consideration is to analyze the movement patterns and break them down into segments. Batting for example is not simply swinging at a ball. There are important steps from recognizing the ball, to setting your feet and hands, to making contact, and finally following through appropriately. A purposeful warm up will break down the sequence into small reps of execution, and then “zip” them back together for a coordinated movement before actually trying to hit a ball. As noted above, this helps the body hone in the correct execution pattern, while also prepping the mind to focus on the important cue of ball movement and recognizing when to “pull the trigger”.

At this point you can add in the “signals” for response. Once the movement pattern has been worked through, the athlete is now ready to shift his focus to the relevant cue that sets movement into motion. This can also be sequenced in stages. Again, using hitting as the model, the athlete can start with tee work for a few swings, then shift to soft toss, and then hit live pitching. Using this escalated sequence can shorten the number of swings needed, while quickly increasing the quality of execution as the signals become more game like. All the while, attention is zeroed in to a focus on execution, and minimizing distractions noted above.

Another important consideration here is to “practice the practice”. Implement the warm up sequence into practices. This can be very effective if you are breaking the focus of practices into different days, especially at the beginning of the season. Working through the warm up routine becomes part of executing while learning in practice, and becomes the preparation for proper execution in the game. Over time, this also allows athletes to become more efficient in practice opening up the possibility to have brief focus segments for all parts of the game as you move into the later part of the season. The pattern of warm up routine will only require a few reps at each stage, and quickly allow the athlete to be “locked in”. This also becomes valuable for substitutions during games, as now the incoming athlete will only need a brief amount of time to be ready to go.

Most people view sport psychology as strictly focusing on mental skills and strategies. However, performing with consistency and at high levels, means coordinating the physical and mental aspects together. By having purposeful practice routines, you not only key in important physical execution, you also hone the mind to be attentive and focused on competing in the here and now. In my work with athletes and coaches, helping them develop these routines is an important part of coaching them for higher levels of performance. Should you find yourself needing more help in this area, why wait? Make the call, bring in an expert.