Extended Dodgeball Warm-Up
Hopefully you caught the first instalment of our return-to-dodgeball safely special with Alex Harrison. To recap, we provided you with a throwing plan over the next three months alongside some key exercises to rebuild the strength in your body.
In this second instalment we'll be taking you through plenty more dodgeball essentials, all focused around the warm-up!
Never underestimate a warm-up
The first thing on your mind whenever you go to play dodgeball should be getting your body fully warmed-up. And after a year out, this should be extremely thorough. Picking up injuries before you've started playing competitively could change your whole season. So, to help ensure you're doing the right type of exercises, we've put together this guide demonstrating some of the essentials that target the whole body.
For your first few throwing sessions back, you should build-in a good amount of time to warm-up properly. The exercises should take around half an hour, and doesn't even involve picking up a dodgeball until the last 10 minutes.
We have broke the warm-up into 3 sections, between the sections give yourself 1-2 mins rest, use the break to take on some fluids.
Section 1:
Dynamic stretches; these are stretches that involve movement and are best suited before playing dodgeball. The aim here is to slowly increase the distance you are stretching your muscles. However, don’t try and push your limits here, that is better suited to a day with no training on. For dodgeball, the essential ones you should be doing before any session are:
- Bodyweight squat
- Reverse lunge
- Lateral lunge
- Squat to sky
- Hip airplane
- World's greatest stretch
- Bird dogs
- T-Press ups
- Shoulder circles
- Thoracic reach
- Banded shoulder mobilisations
Section 2:
Next, you want to start increasing your heart rate. So you should be doing exercises that are easy to do but get the whole body moving. And in this section you will be increasing the intensity to 80%.
- Jump squats
- Log jumps
- Tuck jumps
- Shuttle runs
Section 3:
The moment you’ve all been waiting for, time to get your ball bags out. Now your body is engaged, it's time to warm-up your throw. All of these exercises you should start at 50% and work your way up to 80%. Start with an overhead double hand throw (football throw-in), then move to a wrist flick throw and finally move into a standing normal throw.
Warm-Up Complete!
Now you've finished a thorough warm-up, you can start playing! It's probably worth doing some slightly more intensive drills before going straight into a game. But ultimately, listen to your body. If you need to take an extra five minutes, do it!
We would love to hear about any exercises you do before your sessions. So drop us a message on our Insta or leave a comment below. See you on part three next week!