Хөлбөмбөгчдийн бэлтгэл хийх арга барил: Тоглолтын өмнөх 15 минутын дэглэм

It may not seem like it, but some of the most important work a World Cup player can do on matchday takes place before the game even begins.

Warming up the muscles, tendons and ligaments that are going to help propel you around the pitch is a familiar process to anyone who plays amateur football, but for those at the top of the sport, it is utterly essential — to guard against injuries and ensure they can perform at their best from the first whistle.

But just because they are elite athletes does not mean their routines are beyond us mere mortals.

To help you implement some of what you’re seeing at the World Cup into your own pre-match routine, The Athletic consulted James Redden, a coach at 292 Performance who has worked with clubs including Tottenham Hotspur and Luton Town.

He has devised a warm-up routine that should take around 15 minutes to complete and comprises five different sections.

“The work done at the start is more about injury prevention,” says Redden, “which then enables you to do the performance stuff later. The first two stages are probably 75 per cent injury prevention and priming for performance. And the last three stages are 75 per cent performance.

“But you’re only able to do the performance bit if you’ve done the bit before, so they work together. And they’re both as important as each other. If you’re injured, you can’t perform. Likewise, if you start a game and you’re not injured but you’re not ready to go, you might as well be injured.”

First section: Floor-based mobility and activation

Redden picks two exercises here, with the first one called a 90-90 hip switch to hip extension. The focus here is on unlocking the hips, which Redden says is something all footballers could benefit from.

“Footballers get tight hips from repeated ball striking,” he explains, “so I always go to hips first of all and then hamstrings, because they do lots of sprinting and hamstring injuries are the most common injury in football.

“But generally, tight hips lead to tight hamstrings. So if you can unlock your hips, you then unlock your hamstrings.”

The second exercise is a double-leg glute bridge and hold, which focuses on activating those hamstrings and glutes — both essential muscles in supporting acceleration and top speed.

Second section: Standing, movement-based mobility and activation

For this, Redden selects two single-leg exercises: a single-leg squat to knee hug and lunge (“this one takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s excellent once you’ve got the hang of it”) and a single-leg arabesque.

“Everything in football is done on a single leg, really,” he explains. “When accelerating, you’re really pushing off one. When you jump, most players lead with a run to jump off one leg. When you change direction, you load on one to push away.

“With these exercises, you’re also working on single-leg stability and core stability, which is kind of a double-whammy.”

The single-leg squat to knee hug and lunge targets single-leg stability, single-leg glute and hamstring activation and stability in a split-squat lunge. The arabesque, meanwhile, works on stretching your hamstrings and single-leg stability.

“After mobilising your hips and activating your glutes and hamstrings, it’s good to get into positions that you’re going to use on the football pitch,” says Redden.

Third section: Global lower-body activation

Section three shifts the focus from injury prevention to performance with global lower-body activation — priming for movement on the pitch.

“When we talk about ‘global’, we mean the whole chain,” explains Redden. “It’s calves, quads (thighs), hamstrings, glutes and groins.”

The first exercise is an acceleration wall drive, which helps develop speed. It isolates the acceleration phase by forcing players to lean into a wall, helping them master forward lean, shin angle, and explosive knee drive without the risk of falling.

“This exercise puts the body in a position ready to attack the floor to accelerate,” says Redden, who emphasises the need to maintain a strong body position throughout, keeping the arms straight, extending fully and executing a strong drive into hip flexion.

The next exercise, the acceleration wall switch, is a progression from its predecessor, teaching the legs to switch over at speed, something that Redden says is “important to make us run at top speed most effectively”.

Here, it’s important to pick up the pace, focus on fast reactions off the ground and keep the shape in your chest (not letting it sink downwards).

Fourth section: Pitch-based exercises

After the wall-based drills, it’s time to move to the grass.

“Now, we start to move in the way we would want to on the pitch,” says Redden, “but not yet at full speed.”

Both exercises in this section involve a lateral shuffle for around five metres (just over five yards), before an acceleration away at what Redden says should be around 70 per cent intensity. The first one is a lateral shuffle to a cut step, which means loading up the outside leg before driving away at a 45-degree angle.

“When you drive away, push away into full extension when you plant your foot,” says Redden, “and focus on staying low, so that your projection is forward, not vertical — like a sprinter.”

The second exercise involves a lateral shuffle into a crossover step, which Redden explains is important because of the need to accelerate and change direction at 90 degrees:

“The big difference between the two is that the cut step is just a load up and push away. With the crossover step, you need to drive the outside hip across to rotate your torso and lower body. The quicker you can do that, the quicker you can change direction, and that links back to hip mobility. If your hips aren’t mobile, you can’t get that crossover as quickly or as aggressively.”

Fifth section: High-intensity movements

The final section focuses on high-intensity pitch-based movements, namely accelerating and decelerating over 10 metres (almost 11 yards) at 95 to 100 per cent intensity.

“Most physical football actions are completed over five to 15 metres, so doing this exercise over 10 metres is a good way to prepare for that,” says Redden.

There are two reasons Redden includes these as the final movements before kick-off. First, because maximum acceleration is going to be used as soon as the whistle goes to start the game, so you want to be ready for it. And second, maximum deceleration is one of the most aggressive movements you can do, so it’s best left until you are fully warmed up to lessen any injury risk.

“The acceleration is a performance primer, and the deceleration is injury prevention,” says Redden.

Decelerating is one of the hardest movements on the body because it involves many muscles and joints, he explains: “You go into flexion in your ankle, hip and knee quite quickly and aggressively. That’s why knee injuries are done a lot in decelerating movements, whether that’s landing from a jump or decelerating on a press.”

Practising decelerations involves a lot of movement skill learning, which is important “because decelerating well helps off-load joints and decelerating badly gets you in trouble”.

It’s also crucial to performance.

“If you can’t decelerate quickly, you either get there late and tackle someone when the ball’s gone, or you get there late and someone’s run past you,” Redden adds. “You’ve got to get there first, so acceleration is important too — together, they feed a lot into critical moments.”

Having completed all five sections, you should be feeling warm, mobile and ready to play.