SAQ® Speed, Agility & Quickness

Start fast and fresh, improve your over-all performance, reduce injuries.

Warming up with Dynamic Flex gives you this and a lot more.

It is now widely accepted in the world of sport that a Dynamic Flex® warm-up prior to training or playing a game of rugby is the preferred method of preparing your players for the physical demands of the game.  The Dynamic Flex® warm-up does not promote any form of static stretching; it is a warm up that takes a player from a state of rest to one of readiness to perform by increasing:

• Body temperature, specifically core (deep) muscle temperature
• Heart rate and blood flow
• Breathing rate
• The elasticity of muscular system
• The activation of the neuro-muscular system
• Mental alertness

It is important to practice the movements that are going to be used in the game as part of the warm up, so that players adapt psychologically and physiologically to the demands of the game and their position.  Therefore the Dynamic Flex® warm-up is “warming up on the move”.

Recent research indicates that the use of static stretching is more likely to cause injury and has not real benefit to preparing players as part of a warm up.  In fact it also decreases the power of muscles for over an hour so if you use static stretching you are actually making players weaker.  Ask yourself this, do you pull a muscle standing still or moving?  The answer is of course, moving.  So how can you prepare a muscle by stretching it statically?  Dynamic stretching by contrast has shown to increase muscle warmth and therefore its elasticity.  ‘Neuro-muscularly’ it prepares the body for a whole range of movements required within a game, and “switches-on” the player mentally.  Furthermore it dramatically reduces soft tissue injuries, injuries that can have a major impact on the strength of your squad.

Pre-training and pre-game warm up

It is important to differentiate between warming up for training and warming up for a game.

Pre-training warm up can be longer, varied and combined with other physical conditioning skills such as mechanics and fast feet.  Keeping pre-training varied helps maintain players’ motivation and prevent sessions becoming a boring routine. 

Pre-game warm up should be shorter with a focus on preparing players to be multi-directionally explosive immediately from the kick off.  This is not the time to introduce a varied warm up; keep to a simple, familiar structure so that the players’ main focus is the game.

Dynamic Flex® is suitable for all levels and age groups of the game from young to old, from professional to amateur, from male to female. All will benefit.

Caution

I have recently observed a number of warm ups that comprise a mixture of Dynamic Flex® movements and static stretching.  The argument of the coaches/trainers was that this provided the best of both worlds.  However, any static stretching – irrespective of the use of dynamic movement patterns – is detrimental to performance prior to training and playing.  There should be no static stretching whatsoever at this stage. 

Dynamic Flex® programme:

An in-depth Dynamic Flex® warm-up including set-up (with diagrams), aims, drills, description, key teaching points, problem solving i.e. what you might see and its solution, sets and reps, variations and progressions, photographs of the drills.

This resource is simple and practical and guaranteed to improve your programme.

 Click here to obtain the programme