For older athletes, we all agree that the warm-up is a time to prepare the body for the more intense training session ahead for that day, and the next week, month, and even years. Many of the principles of training don’t really matter at young ages, as the child athlete wants to have fun and has far different needs than an aging veteran athlete or elite college student. What Is an Appropriate Mindset for Warming Up Athletes?Īthlete performance is the goal for most coaches, but if you don’t think about the mindset of young athletes, you will lose them. Coordination training needs challenging tasks and motivated athletes, so let’s get beyond activation exercises and self-care for children and treat them like youth athletes instead of old patients. The purpose of this blog piece is simple: Get coaches thinking about more than foam rolling and fascial stretching, and make age-appropriate changes to the warm-up so it’s fun and enriching. I believe the warm-up is the most important part of a training session in a youth athletic development program, says Click To Tweet Warming up for training with elite athletes and warming up for learning with youth athletes are two totally different balls of wax. In this article, I cover the realities of working with younger populations, as well as some ideas for high school and above. I believe the warm-up is the most important part of a training session in a youth athletic development training program. The warm-up period is the perfect opportunity to start to introduce and teach many athletic skills. For the most part, athletes at this age can generally stand in line, pay attention, and take directions. At this age, physical and cognitive maturity have increased to a level where the athlete can understand the aim of a sports performance training program. The period of late pre-adolescence to early adolescence is a great time to introduce more organized training to the developing athlete.