So, I've recently agreed to become the coach of a HS ultimate team, my qualification for which is "I've played a bunch and have some schedule flexibility". Needless to say, it's intimidating jumping into ordering people around a field, although the kids are generally pretty chill. For those not familiar, ultimate is a field sport that visually resembles soccer (have to cut to get open to receive a pass), with the objective resembling football (catch the disc in the opposing end zone for a score). Athletically, the main actions are a lot of cutting hard on a route like a WR, covering someone in man defense (like a CB), various arm and wrist actions for throwing, and some vertical leaping to catch a floating, contested pass.
I could use some advice about a warmup and cooldown routine before both practices and games that makes sense and isn't over-involved. Maybe 10-15 mins prior and 5-10 mins after. The sport tends to generate a disproportionate number of sprains and similar injuries relative to other non-contact sports, due to the hard cutting, and lack of general attention to stretching or conditioning. Elite adult club teams have athletic trainers and take lots of time on such things, but the kids (and rec-level adults) often roll ankles, pull hamstrings, and occasionally pop ACLs. I'd like to minimize that risk.
I figure a good routine won't be that different from soccer, football or basketball, I just don't know what that would be. Right now we:
Warmup:
- Take a few laps, including follow-the-leader laps to do different steps or cuts along the way
- Basic stretches in a circle, including groin, calf and quad
- 20-yard back-and-forth runs (resembling suicides) at steadily increasing intensity starting from ~50%
- Doing the same back-and-forth with (A) shuffle steps, (B) carioca or crossover steps, (C) directional lunges, (D) high-knees
- Tossing to warm up throws
Cooldown is mostly just those same stretches in a circle again while we talk about the game or practice.
I couldn't tell you the specific physical intent behind some of these, except that a guest coach I once had did it and I've imitated that since. There are some books on coaching ultimate that I've perused, but they either spend little time on stretching and warmup/cooldown routine, or assume that you've got like 30 minutes to do a huge set of actions.
All advice welcome. My knowledge of stretching is pretty thin, I just know there's been an evolution of thought in recent years from more static stretches to more active ones.
I could use some advice about a warmup and cooldown routine before both practices and games that makes sense and isn't over-involved. Maybe 10-15 mins prior and 5-10 mins after. The sport tends to generate a disproportionate number of sprains and similar injuries relative to other non-contact sports, due to the hard cutting, and lack of general attention to stretching or conditioning. Elite adult club teams have athletic trainers and take lots of time on such things, but the kids (and rec-level adults) often roll ankles, pull hamstrings, and occasionally pop ACLs. I'd like to minimize that risk.
I figure a good routine won't be that different from soccer, football or basketball, I just don't know what that would be. Right now we:
Warmup:
- Take a few laps, including follow-the-leader laps to do different steps or cuts along the way
- Basic stretches in a circle, including groin, calf and quad
- 20-yard back-and-forth runs (resembling suicides) at steadily increasing intensity starting from ~50%
- Doing the same back-and-forth with (A) shuffle steps, (B) carioca or crossover steps, (C) directional lunges, (D) high-knees
- Tossing to warm up throws
Cooldown is mostly just those same stretches in a circle again while we talk about the game or practice.
I couldn't tell you the specific physical intent behind some of these, except that a guest coach I once had did it and I've imitated that since. There are some books on coaching ultimate that I've perused, but they either spend little time on stretching and warmup/cooldown routine, or assume that you've got like 30 minutes to do a huge set of actions.
All advice welcome. My knowledge of stretching is pretty thin, I just know there's been an evolution of thought in recent years from more static stretches to more active ones.