Dynamic Warm-ups - Why Change?
This weekend, I spent part of it at the ballpark watching games since it was the playoffs of the local elite girls fastpitch league.
There's a coach that I've known quite a few years who reads my emails that came up to me to tell me that all the hype around all that "dynamic stuff" is just B.S. and he doesn't believe in that $&*@.
Now, I know this coach, it's not surprising coming from him. He's very opinionated, close-minded, believes he's always right and when he's not happy with how things are going, he yells and gets mad.
Just as a curiosity, I asked him: "Why do you believe that dynamic warm-ups is just a bunch of B.S.?"
He answered that he's been using static stretching for 25 years for himself and with all the teams he's coached and he never had any problems.
I replied: "So, if my 83-year old grandma has been a smoker all her life and is still healthy today, I must assume that smoking is good for me right?"
You should have seen the look on his face. I think he got my point and didn't really know what to reply to this twisted logic. He mumbled something and left.
My point is this: we are creature of habits and habits are hard to change.
We are comfortable with routines and we hate change.
Trying to come up with a new way to warm-up is not always easy.
Athletes will say: "I don't feel like I've stretched".
The purpose of a warm-up is not to feel like you've stretched (which you get with static stretching), it's to make the muscle ready to perform and prevent injuries.
They muscles must be warmed, have adequate range of motion, and be ready to fire. Dynamic warm-ups accomplish that.
Some coaches will say: "I've used your stuff and I have an athlete that blew her knee out. Your stuff doesn't work."
First, it's not my stuff. It's just what almost every elite strength and conditioning coach and athletes now used to prepare themselves and while it helps decrease injuries, there will always be injuries in sports!
Bottom line, just because you've been doing something fora long time without problem doesn't mean there isn't a better way of doing it.
Watch out for Thursday, I'll release my brand new Dynamic Warm-Up for Softball System.
You don't want to miss that.
Who loves ya? 
Marc
"your Softball Peak Performance Coach"
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Comments on Dynamic Warm-ups - Why Change? »
Marc, you made me a believer a couple of years ago. I feel like our girls are quicker and better-prepared than they were when we did static warm-ups. No pulled muscles or other such injuries in two years either (knock on wood).
The only tough part was convincing them to change. They felt stupid at first; everyone else was doing static stretching and here they were doing dynamic, which was different. Still not sure they all quite get it, but if nothing else they've learned to go with it.