“It is a fact that the relationship between warming up and the principal part of a training session helps to increase the efficiency of a sportsperson. The player picks up the dynamics of the aforementioned training session, he gets greater benefit from the following exercises and all of this is to the benefit of the player’s performance[…]it is my hope that a greater number of better exercises will emerge which we can all use in an appropriate manner to improve the quality of our training methods and the quality of our players; and as a result, the quality of our football.[…]In short, it is a very necessary and transcendental choice.”
(R.Benitez, extract taken from the prologue)
“Warm up in football: for training sessions and matches,” aims to encourage and contribute ideas related to a fundamental part of sports performance which, unfortunately, is often neglected by many coaches. All too often we have seen this crucial aspect of training treated with disregard, with expressions such as “Do something with them, I’ll start training in 20 minutes” or “Get them to move around because we’re starting soon…”. The reality is that time is of the essence in football, just as in everyday life, and there are more than enough reasons to make the most of every second in training trying to monitor and improve player performance, whether fully fledged professionals or academy players. Proposed warm up exercises should complement the main content of the training session.
This book covers the theory and practical side of warm up, with more than fifty suggested exercises and activities to be carried out at the start of training sessions, as well as 20 warm ups used by elite football teams, along with analysis and statistics.