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Thursday, March 22, 2012

Competition Tip #4: Warm-up

On competition day, as you take the ice for your warm-up, it is cold and you are nervous...
You need to warm-up! Not just that, you need to calm your nerves.

Tip #4: Warm-up Routine

Proper warm-up helps to stretch and loosen muscles and tendons, improving your ability to perform. It also helps to mentally prepare you for competition. Before competition day, plan to

have in place a warm-up routine

In fact, as a skater, you should have two - one for off-ice and one for on-ice. As you are waiting for your event, you will be doing some light warm-up off-ice. When it is time for your event, you will have 6 minutes of warm-up on ice.


[Picture adapted from photo by Onちゃん (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons]

Your off-ice warmup should be just sufficient to get your muscles and tendons loose and stretched. When getting on the ice, skaters frequently start with some stroking, step sequence and then move on to other elements in their program. Prepare the sequence in which you want to warm up your elements. Remember that your coach will usually be by the boards to help you too, so you should discuss your plan with your coach.

Once you have your warm-up routines on and off ice, use them when you go to the rink for training!

Here are some links you can use for reference:

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