Showing posts with label warm up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label warm up. Show all posts
Importance of Warm-Up for Fencers
cardiovascular exercises,
coach aspromonte,
explosive strength,
heart circulation,
muscles,
preventing injury,
strength drills,
stretches,
video,
warm up
Importance of Warm-Up for Fencers
As previously mentioned regarding our approach on warm-up, Coach Aspromonte emphasized that it is a must to get warmed up before any exercise, especially fencing.
What is a Warm-Up?
A warm-up is a session which takes place prior to doing physical activity; usually a warm-up will consist of light cardiovascular exercises combined with stretches.
What Happens in a Warm-Up?
Most warm-up sessions will include a combination of cardiovascular exercises, stretching and strength drills. The cardiovascular exercises are designed to increase circulation, increase body temperature and bring the heart rate up, while stretching warms the muscles and prepare them for the movements they will be required to carry out during the activity. Explosive strength exercises, which may include sprint drills or jumps, gently increase the level of intensity and prepare the body for sudden movements in the game which will follow; these exercises should only be done once the muscles are warm; this will prevent injuries.
Effects of the Warm-Up
The warm-up should gently prepare the body for exercises by gradually increasing the heart rate and circulation; this will loosen the joints and increase blood flow to the muscles. Stretching the muscles prepares them for physical activity and prevents injuries. The warm-up is also a good opportunity for an individual to prepare themselves mentally for the game ahead and for a team to work together prior to the start of the game. Warm-ups can also be used to practice skills and team drills.
How Long Should a Warm-Up Last?
Most warm up sessions last between 20 minutes and half an hour; this given the body plenty of time to gradually get ready for physical activity and gives the player time to prepare themselves mentally.
Preventing Injury
The most important reason for doing a warm up is to prevent injury during exercise; keeping the muscles warm will prevent acute injuries such as hamstring strains and will stave off overuse injuries by allowing the body to prepare steadily and safely. In more static sports, such as cricket, it is a good idea to stretch throughout the game as this will keep the muscles warm and allow them to function effectively; substitutes should also continue to run and stretch while they are waiting to join a game; this is commonly seen in football matches where the substitutes jog, jump and stretch along the sidelines.
Our Approach
Scherma Italiana offers free videos for our fencers to get warmed up with Coach Aspromonte virtually. And the 30-minute before the session is up to our fencers to work out on his own pace and they are always encouraged to come early and get ready for each sessions.
Another common issues observed is on lack of skill exchange. Please click here is the elaboration of this rationale.
The Scherma Italiana Way - Technology Applied
The Tailored Approach In-Action — The Scherma Italiana Way
As previously mentioned, per discussed with Coach Aspromonte, just like other cities we previously organized camps, there are of quite a room for improvement in terms of fencing culture, methodology, approach and mentality of fencers and parents.
Applied Technology to Training
In Scherma Italiana, technology is one of the major areas on overall adaptation. It is not about fancy machines and gimmick features in the club, nor expecting fencers to invest in unnecessary apps/equipments.
It is about applying sufficient, existing technology on attendance tracking, training hour tracking, scoring equipment, supports on regular activities within the club. By applying the technologies regularly to fencers, we are able to ensure our training are conducted in the result-oriented, cost-effective and time-efficient ways.
Virtual Warm-Up Coaching
For example, instead of leading fencers to warm-up by the coach in very limited timeframe, maybe less than 20 mins. It is surely not enough for serious athlete. Yet due to the fact that fencers are paying for more advanced training, not warm-up, there has been comments on whether warm-up should be reduced or excluded in the session.
We have discussed seriously about this issue since we heard this comment from the parents. We see there is a way to accommodate both sides.
Fencers should come to the club at least 30 minutes before the session starts. That is, if his session is 4pm, he should come before 3:30pm. We will allow the fencers to get warmed up virtually leading by our pre-recorded warm-up sessions by Coach Aspromonte.
We will upload the warm-up videos on youtube, our fencers will have accesses to those videos. We will announce which warm-up video is appropriate for today’s training and let the fencers to play those on our devices or theirs in the free wi-fi venue.
So before the training session, they will have a free, coached warm-up with Coach Aspromonte. It is suitable for fencers who have been fencing for more than 1 year.
Although it seems a common-sense on watching videos to do exercises these days, none of the fencing clubs in Hong Kong has applied this to the training. We were in Moscow last December and they have been doing this for years — although it is mainly for Cadet and Junior fencers (about 13-17 years old).
Of course, technology is more than just playing videos. With Scherma Italiana, more technologies will be applied to the training to ensure that our fencers can benefit from those convenient, low-cost and effective way of fencing to cope with more challenges on this sport.
How about the next point, limited venue? Please click here for next topic.
