Is it a warm up problem?

[mol2]

Chatting at the recent match against Newcastle with 2 friends (both are physiotherapists) who come down occasionally to the Tigers. Both were surprised how long Tigers spend warming up before the match. Something I have often thought is that we spend far longer in the warm up phase than any of the other sides we see at Welford Road. The three of us have all played sports at a high level, but not professional rugby.

Could this be contributing to why we make sluggish starts? Too much mundane warm up work, the adrenaline abates and we are half asleep come kick off. Then as we get to the end of the game our players get cramp and seemingly get injured more often than the opposition?

Are Tigers spending too much energy before the game. The research doesn't support the idea that prolonged warming up reduces hamstring strains and the like. It does support the increased risk of injuries as players tire.
So what is the warm up achieving? Sure a few minutes to get ready, adjust to the conditions and get a feel for the ball.
Tennis players don't knock up for an hour. But ages running at tackle pads? It's not the same as tacking a moving player.


So are we losing concentration and contributing to injuries before the game even starts?

[JP14]

Interesting question, and something I’m not obviously an expert on but I believe it is something that perhaps needs a bit of looking into.

[ourla]

Did we not warm up for the Falcons game?

[BFG]

Sack the warm up coach!

[Hot_Charlie]

Don’t think so. Wuss we’re out before us on Sunday, and the players all come out at different times anyway, and always have.

[TigerCam]

The warm-up isn't the problem? It is the 80mins on the pitch that isn't working!!

[jgriffin]

Wuss had a longer and more energetic warm up than us. What was noticeable to me was Tiger's lack of focus, much of their warm up was desultory, and I felt at the time that Wuss looked far more focused.

[TTRITH]

Wuss had a longer and more energetic warm up than us. What was noticeable to me was Tiger's lack of focus, much of their warm up was desultory, and I felt at the time that Wuss looked far more focused.

Completely agree. It was almost as if they'd hit the carvery before the game.

[BFG]

They look like a bunch of hillbillies in the current attire, in my opinion.
I suppose not everyone is the same but I always remember the shirt and the tie etc felt like a part of that process of getting into the right frame of mind.

[1988]

Hi

I have an opinion on this as a Physio (only an opinion)

I think the warm time needs to be looked at and in sport it is a tricky balance as sports science, medics, physio and coached all have different agenda.

coaches want to go through everything before a game, but actually for me it is far too late to be practising line out lifts etc in the warm up IF it is practising. If it is 'warming up' the muscles to do that then yes but you would never warm up at full intensity (e.g lifting a player).

the warm up should be short and sharp and more focus on being mentally ready to play.

workload - this needs to be looked at across the whole week and season also. how much are we asking players to do in the week? I think pre season is for fitness and after that it is recovery and maintaining sharpness and tactics. otherwise we are overloading them and that is when niggles happen. A coach getting the forwards to work on scrummaging between games is almost asking them to play an extra game between games!

[BFG]

For me every post on this topic is relative.
Could it be a number of small things adding up to a big thing, a fine balance between doing too little and doing too much both physically and mentally, that pressure can also bring!

[johnthegriff]

Against Exeter it was noticeable how hard we worked in the pre-match warm up and my friend commented at the time it seemed too much. I don't think we over train during the week it appears to be well balanced with three clear days, one of which is a day off between the most strenuous day and match day.

[ourla]

I think there is a danger when results are going against you to overthink things.

We have only one major issue right now and that is the defence, both in terms of one on one tackles, and our line and spacing.

There are always smaller things to be worked on, made better. But if our D was better we'd be 2 and 2 or maybe 3 and 1. And we may not have been embarrassed by Exeter.

[BFG]

I kind of agree with ourla that it can be over thought.
There are many things you could pick on but to my mind finding the correct balance of training is also made even harder by a player merry-go-round.
That's why I dislike Leicester's recent recruitment so much.
The matches come thick and fast in season and fitness will be the issue, having to spend more time on basic skills and drills etc if they aren't going well takes away precious fitness time and energy in my opinion.
Add in players like Manu who lets be honest being in and out so often doesn't help structurally, this is the only genuine reason I see for coaches sticking with players slightly off form although I do think it's taken too far here.
What you could potentially finish up with on a match day is a team that isn't fit enough, isn't organised enough as it doesn't know its own parts well enough and some of the continuity that you do possess is off form.

[TigerCam]

I think there is a danger when results are going against you to overthink things.

We have only one major issue right now and that is the defence, both in terms of one on one tackles, and our line and spacing.

There are always smaller things to be worked on, made better. But if our D was better we'd be 2 and 2 or maybe 3 and 1. And we may not have been embarrassed by Exeter.

The danger is that some go looking for excuses when they are not really there. As you say "We have only one major issue right now and that is the defence, both in terms of one on one tackles, and our line and spacing".

Nothing to do with the warm-up. sad to say the writing has been on the wall for many a season past and those in charge are too blind to see it never-mind admit that it exists. We supporters deserve better.