Developing a Lesson Plan: The Warm-Up

This time, we’ll talk about Warm-ups, especially as they relate to the Weekly Goals. Again, as I mentioned last time, I’m going to use my templates (PDF or XLSX). If you have Excel, I suggest downloading the XLSX file (if you don’t have Office 2010, you can still use it, you just have to get the patch from Microsoft to open the file), otherwise use the PDF and hand write out the guide. One more suggestion before we get on to the meat of the project: keep records of your guide it can help for future classes covering the same or similar topics or as necessary in other situations.

Here’s the most important question you can ask yourself before you decide on the warm-up for the class: What are we teaching this class? Once you can answer that question, you can develop your warm-up plan. My theory on warm-ups, mostly developed from people like AnnMaria, Gerald Lafon, and a variety of clinics and clinicians, is that the warm-up should prepare the student/athlete for the activities of the class and not be there for the sole purpose of developing an athlete’s strength or endurance at the expense of the lesson.

So, let’s say our lesson for the day covers Seoi Nage, Transition to Hold-down, and an Escape from that hold-down. What sort of warm-ups should you do? How long should you do the warm-ups? These are important. They are also questions I can’t answer for you.

Here’s what I can do: I can provide you with a number of references and books. My top leading references include Drills for Grapplers by Steve Scott (ISBN 978-1-934903-04-9), Martin Rooney’s Training for Warriors (ISBN 978-0-06-137433-3), and Martin Rooney’s Ultimate Warrior Workouts (ISBN 978-0-06-173522-6). These are great references that are currently in print. There are a number of out of print references as well.

Now, here’s how I would cover the example lesson I referenced earlier. I like somersaults and backward somersaults because of the disorienting effect of those and how they force the body to keep working even when confused. Further, I like to put in turning side jumps to help the student get their turns for the seoi nage as quickly as possible, it also increases the heart rate, which I’m told is good. I like to do “judo push-ups” and “Kimura sit-ups” as well, to help develop core strength and use their entire body in exercise. Finally, I add a “Bridge and Reach” exercise to help the student develop their skill and explosivity in bridging while trying to push a body off of them. For more advanced students, modifications, like medicine ball tosses or multi-person variations, can be added to the exercises.

Thinking about warm-ups, one of the most important aspects of warm-ups is that they aren’t there to wear out the athlete. Warm-ups are there to get the body warmed up for exercise. Do not overuse warm-ups in the false notion that your athletes will train better if they are tired. Your athletes need to be warm, not dead tired. Use your technical instruction time to wear them out, not your warm-ups.

Next time: Ukemi!

What do you think of it so far?