Building better warm ups: Prepare athletes and develop long term abilities

In football, it is very common for a physical preparation coach to be granted time at the beginning of field sessions for a "warm up," and that is their main point of on field contact with players. But for many practitioners, time is often at a premium and the warm up is the easiest part of the session to put on autopilot, cruising through a convenient, familiar set of exercises that do little more than tick a box in terms of preparation.

A warm up should never just be a warm up. It's a disservice to athletes to repeat the same routine daily. Coaches should be creative, targeting physical ca...