Extra Article

“At VVV-Venlo we have a physical red linerunning through the club, which starts with thefirst team and ends with the first year U15s. Thereason for this is that we want to switch from,for example, the U19s to young VVV or even thefirst team to be as easy as possible and no time

should be wasted to physically catch up to the team. The onlything that should be concerning them are the football aspects,which is difficult enough. This red line should be tuned in such away that the players are already physically at the level they areentering, but they should not get injured along the way.”

Contact injuries “Turns out that since we introduced the red line we reduced theamount of injuries, apart from the contact injuries of course. Wealso rarely have muscle injuries. Unless they are muscle injuriesrelated to growing problems, but that has nothing to do with theclub. And even then the amount of muscle injuries is minimal,because we work preventative and based on growing signals.Whenever a youth player grows more than 1 centimeter a monthwe simply reduce his training sessions in order to limit the load.Since then the growing problem related injuries have almostdisappeared.”

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WEB SPECIAL

Nol Hornix, rehabilitation and conditioning trainer VVV-Venlo:A warm-up is intertwined with training or a match. But whenNol Hornix was approached to write a book he had to thinkabout where to start. When he finally picked up his pen andstarted writing he created a fantastic piece of work.SoccerCoachingInternational visited and talked to him aboutthe ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’ of the warm-up.

By: Paul van Veen

“Warm-up important for performance and prevention”

Extra Article

Injury prevention“The warm-up plays an important role in the prevention of injuries.People have been talking about the preventive nature of the warm-up for a long time, but it was finally proven by research conductedin Norway. The study proved that the acute ankle and knee injurieswere cut in half by consistently executing a warm-up. This is thefirst study that proved the preventive nature of the warm-up. Up tothis point the only thing that had been proven was that the warm-up contributed to better performance in a match or training.”

Difference“There is a difference between a match warm-up and a trainingwarm-up. The match warm-up is part of the preparation for thematch. This preparation does not start with the warm-up but farbefore that. For a lot of clubs it starts during the last trainingsessions before the match. We are preparing for our nextopponent two days before the actual match. And when we have anaway match, we leave very early in the morning and everyone isworking towards the match in their own way.”

The match warm-up“You will see more and more match warm-up that are directed verystrictly. The cones on the field are rarely missing and after somedrills you will frequently see a possession game or something likethat. You will also notice the separation of the lines, attackers arefinishing on goal, while defenders are practicing heading. It is allvery much based on match moments.”

Freedom“At VVV-Venlo we don’t work with that system. Players are free todo their own warm-up. We give them the freedom, because wethink a full-grown group who always wants to win, should have theresponsibility to do a decent warm-up themselves. When they areapproaching a match in their own specific way, a way that suitsthem, it can only have advantages and we are seeing them at VVVenlo. Off course we are examining the warm-up they are using,but eventually they are the ones who have to play the match.”

Tasks“You should wonder whether giving players tasks is the rightapproach in our current (football) society. As staff you can chooseto do this, but it is better to set goals as a team and focus onthat. That way the players will take initiative more easily andexecute things we as staff want to do. When you give the playersthe responsibility for a small thing such as the warm-up, playersstart to think you are taking them serious.”

Method“Which method you use as head coach? Well there are many waysthat lead to Rome. I’ve worked with many head coaches at VVV-Venlo.Our current head coach, André Wetzel, gives the group the freedomto execute their own warm-up. Adrie Koster also used this method.Wim Dusseldorp, an exertion physiologist himself, took control overthe warm-up. That also worked well. As a matter of fact, these threetrainers had nearly the same method. They are constantly in control.And still they can give the players the feeling they have a sort offreedom, which has a positive effect on the players. But when theyturn left, nobody will turn right. They can achieve that everybody wantsto turn left. Whatever method you’re using as trainer, make sure thatyou’re always open and honest, just like the three trainers mentionedearlier. Otherwise sooner or later you will be facing problems.”

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Training“The warm-up before training is a different story. I think this warm-up has more possibilities than the average trainer realizes. Whenyou for example look at us, we have so many training sessions aweek so that we can train every quality which will improve thefootball. When you look at an amateur club, they only have twotraining sessions and one match a week. That’s by far not enoughto train each quality specifically. Strength is not part of training atan amateur club. If you give 10 minutes attention to strength duringwarm-up it will make a big difference. Focus on functional strength;execute strength drills while using your body weight. That way youcan give attention to other qualities like flexibility or coordination.”

Longer“We are executing warm-up for a longer period. The main part oftraining is the core; the football aim you set for training. The partbefore that can be seen as warm-up in which you can worktowards the core of your training. This can be a pass- and kickexercise when the aim of training consists of finishing exercises.Not everybody will see this as part of warm-up, it really dependson where you draw the line.”

Three“When you look at the general part of the warm-up, it has toconsist of three elements. First of all running, followed by creatingspace and eventually putting tension on the muscles. Runningconsists of slow running, followed by switch steps. For example,you are walking in a calm pace two or three times the width of thefield. Followed by the different switch steps like side steps,crossing feet sideways, crossing feet forwards, skating, hoppingwith swinging your arms forward or backwards, etcetera.”

Warm“During this phase you’re body will warm-up. The main goal ofwarming up the body is making it ready for the upcomingperformance it has to deliver. Without a decent warm-up it’simpossible to perform well. By warming up the heart and lungswill be functioning better. More oxygen will be absorbed and moreblood will be pumped through the body. This way more oxygen willbe available for the muscles and waste material will be removed.You will also start to sweat, that way you’re able to get rid of theextra body heat. These adjustments are necessary to perform100% from the start.

Extra Article

Space in the joints“The next phase is creating space. Maybe my thoughts on thissubject are different in 10 years, but for this moment unbolting,bolt in and swinging the hips up (the samba moves from the South-American football culture) seems to be the best moves in myopinion. You’re basically creating space in the joints, which areimportant for football. When you look at a sprints over 5 or 6meters, which happens a lot in a match, you’re taking 3 or 4 bigsteps. You need to have space in the hips in order to do that.

Stretching“Stretching statically (during a number of seconds holding aposition with the aim to stretch different muscle groups), which isseen a lot on the fields, is in fact not suitable for a warm-up. Afterall, with stretching statically you releasing tension of your muscles.Everybody knows a footballer needs his explosiveness. Byreleasing muscle tension, you’re taking away part of theexplosiveness. With a higher muscle tension you’re preventinginjuries to the moving devices. You’re avoiding dangerous jointpositions. Dynamic stretching is causing a higher muscle tensionand is getting more attention lately, and I think that’s right. But don’t make this mistake; I’m not saying statically stretchingshouldn’t be done. I’m thinking about therapeutically settings with(paramedical) attendance. Certainly when there is a difference inbalance between left and right, which can cause physicalproblems. Regardless which sport you’re practicing, the body willalways have to adapt to the physical demands the sport has.Usually a footballer has shorter muscles with a higher basis tonus.The body has its reasons why it adapts in this way to the sport,so as a footballer you have to accept the fact that you haveshorter muscles. That’s why a footballer has to focus more oncreating space in the joints than trying to lengthen the muscles.”

Statically“I have to say that ‘stretching statically’ what many players dobefore a match, shouldn’t be called stretching statically at all.Because stretching statically with the aim to lengthen the musclestakes a lot more time. To get a good result you should stretcheach muscle group twice for 30 seconds. That isn’t possible in awarm-up. What they are doing now is more like: how are my

muscles feeling? Are they ready for a match? Stretching for 5 or6 seconds isn’t really stretching a muscle.”

Tension“The regular part of warm-up ends with putting tension on themuscles. That can be done by sitting deep and than accelerating.It is possible to sit deep forwards, backwards and to the side withusing an arm and than accelerate. Besides that it’s possible tomake foot stretch jumps or skipping. These are all ways toincrease tension on the muscles.”

Sport specific“Next is the sport specific part of warm-up. You often see pass-and kick exercises or small positional games. The specific part ofwarm-up usually ends with the so-called ‘steigerungen’(acceleration runs of about 75 meters – ed.) to further build up thetension on the muscles. We are also doing that. The ‘steigerung’is now also used in a zigzag variation. Apart from the physicalaspect the ‘steigerung’ also has a mental function. When youexecute it each time at the end of warm-up the players will know:it’s almost time.”

Effect“During a match you will go inside for a short time after warm-up. Ifyou want to maintain the effects of warm-up; the time between theend of it and the start of the match should be less than 10 minutes.Sometimes you see a warm-up which is so intensive that players areexhausted afterwards. Off course this isn’t the purpose of it.”

Young“I think it’s sensible to start using a warm-up with children fromthe youngest age groups. When you start at that age a warm-upwill be common and accepted as part of a match or training. Thesmallest youth at VVV-Venlo uses a warm-up for the basic skills.Sport lessons at school are often given by teachers that meanwell, but players often miss the basic skills of moving. So what doyou see in our warm-up: standing on hands, self-defense, throws,etc. But we also start with teaching them a cross step or a join upstep executed rhythmical. In a later stadium these children willuse these moves in a ‘real’ warm-up.

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