Two athletes run a 20 m test. One did ten minutes of drills and three build-up runs. The other jogged one lap and chatted. The second athlete is slower by a tenth. Did they get slower, or did they just warm up less?
You cannot tell. That is the problem with a warm-up that changes every test day.
Most coaches keep the distance, the lines and the start the same. Fewer keep the warm-up the same, and it moves a sprint or jump result as much as anything else in the session. Too little and the first reps are flat. Too much, or too long before the test, and the athlete is tired or cold again by the time it is their turn.
So I use one warm-up for every test day and write it down.
The warm-up, about 15 minutes
Raise the temperature, 3 to 4 minutes. Easy jog, skips, side shuffles. Nothing hard.
Move the joints, 3 to 4 minutes. Leg swings front to back and side to side, walking lunges, hip openers, ankle bounces.
Sprint drills, 3 minutes. A-march, A-skip, fast feet, straight-leg bounds. Short, quick, two or three lengths each.
Build-up runs, 3 to 4 minutes. Three runs of about 30 m at roughly 60, 75 and 90 percent effort, walking back between them.
One practice start, under the real cue. The athlete sets up exactly as they will for the test and goes on the same start signal. This is the rep that tells you everything is ready.
Two to three minutes of walking rest. Then the first test rep.
That is it. Same order, same number of drills, same build-ups, every time.
Why each part is there
The jog and mobility work get the athlete warm and loose without tiring them.
The drills and build-ups are what actually prepare the legs for a fast effort. Skip them and the first test rep often becomes a second warm-up, which wastes one of your best attempts.
The practice start matters more than it looks. It rehearses the stance and the cue, so the first real rep is not the first time the athlete hears the signal today.
The rest at the end lets them recover from the build-ups before the test.
Before a jump test
Keep the same first part, then swap the sprint work for a few jumps: three easy countermovement jumps, two at about 80 percent, and one near-maximal. Rest two minutes, then test. If you are testing drop jumps, do one or two easy drops from the box you will test from.
If the test day has several tests
Do the full warm-up once at the start. Then give each station a short top-up: one or two build-ups before sprints, a couple of jumps before jumps. Run the tests in the same order every time, least tiring first, so the warm-up and the fatigue are the same for each test from one block to the next.
How I fit the phones in
I set up the timing gates before the athletes arrive, so the warm-up is not spent fiddling with phones. The start phone sits right next to the start line and plays the start cue from its own speaker. The finish phone is on the finish line, still, not hand-held.
The practice start in step 5 goes through the gates. If both phones catch it, the setup is ready and the first test rep counts. If something is off, you fix it now, not after an athlete has already spent their best rep.
Timing Gates time one athlete at a time from start to finish. The second phone can be another Android phone, or an iPhone or laptop on the web app. It is practice-grade start and finish timing, made for tracking your own athletes over time.
If you coach a squad, turn on Coach Mode and pick the athlete before each rep, so every time lands on the right athlete's page. Coach Mode works in the Android app and on the web app.
Write it down
Put the warm-up on one card or in your notes: the five steps, how long each takes, and how long the rest is before the first rep. Use that card every test day. When a time goes up or down, you want to know it was the athlete, not the warm-up.
The Android app is on Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.speedtrackr.reactionpro
On an iPhone or a laptop, use the web app: https://www.speedtrackr.com/auth/login
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