Warm Up the Right Way: Springwood Cricket Club's Pre-Training Performance Program
At Foundation Allied Health, injury prevention is just as important to us as performance. That's why we've been proud to work with Springwood Cricket Club on a structured pre-training and game warm-up program, developed by our Exercise Scientist Jarrod Darcy specifically for the club's players and officials.
Cricket places unique demands on the body. Bowling, batting, and fielding all call on
different combinations of mobility, power, and reactive speed often with little notice. A generic jog-and-stretch routine doesn't prepare the body for that variety. A well-structured warm-up does three things: it raises core temperature and prepares the muscles and joints for load, it activates the movement patterns the sport actually requires, and it primes the nervous system for the speed and change of direction cricket demands.
The Springwood CC warm-up is built as a progression starting with general mobility, moving through dynamic patterning, and finishing with sport-specific speed and deceleration work. It's designed to be run any time before training or a game, with no equipment required beyond a marker for the final drill.
1. General mobility The session opens with arm circles and leg swings forward and backward, taking the shoulders and hips through their full range while gently raising heart rate. These are low-intensity by design the goal is to prepare the joints, not fatigue the player.
2. Dynamic patterning Walking lunges with torso twist follow, combining a lower-body strength pattern with rotational mobility through the trunk directly relevant to the twisting demands of bowling and batting. This is paired with jogging to continue building heart rate and movement rhythm.
3. Plyometric and reactive prep Pogos and vertical butt kicks introduce elastic, reactive elements, short, quick ground contacts that prime the lower limbs for the explosive first steps required when fielding or running between wickets.
4. Sport-specific speed and deceleration The program finishes with two higher-intensity drills: sprint to stick lunge, which trains explosive acceleration into a controlled, stable landing position, and planned sprint to backpedal, which mirrors the sprint-stop-change-direction pattern so common on the field. Jarrod's prescription is specific here, sprinting at 80–90% max effort over a 10m distance, with quick chopping steps to decelerate before backpedaling, so players build the deceleration control that protects the knees and hips just as much as the sprint itself builds speed.
A structured warm-up like this isn't just about avoiding injury though that matters a great deal for a club with players across a range of ages and training histories. It's also about performance readiness. Players who move through a consistent, progressive warm-up arrive at training or match day with their body genuinely prepared for the specific demands ahead, rather than relying on a few laps and some static stretching.
We're grateful to Springwood Cricket Club for the opportunity to support the squad this way, and to Jarrod for putting together a program that's practical enough to run before every session, whenever and wherever the team is training or playing.
This warm-up program was developed by Exercise Scientist Jarrod Darcy at Foundation Allied Health for Springwood Cricket Club. If your club or team is interested in a tailored warm-up or injury prevention program, get in touch with our team.
Comments