A proper warm-up isn’t just something to tick off before the coin toss. Done right, it can cut serious knee injuries — including ACL tears — by nearly a third. Dr Brooke Patterson knows this better than almost anyone. She’s a physiotherapist, a former AFLW player, and the lead researcher behind Prep-to-Play, the AFL’s injury-prevention program for women and girls. She helped write this.
Why the Warm-Up Gets Skipped (And Why That’s a Problem)
We’ve all seen it. The kids jog two laps of the oval, do a couple of arm circles, and the coach blows the whistle. Training starts. Warm-up: done.
That’s not a warm-up. That’s just a formality.
From Dr Brooke Patterson: “What we know from decades of sports medicine research is that structured warm-up programs — ones that combine dynamic movement, balance work, and targeted strength exercises — meaningfully reduce the risk of serious injury, particularly knee injuries. The evidence is clear. But we also know that telling coaches and players to ‘just do the program’ doesn’t work. Implementation is everything.”
That insight is at the heart of Dr Patterson’s research. Her landmark trial, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine and one of the largest randomised trials ever conducted in sport injury prevention worldwide, followed nearly 2,500 players from 165 women’s and girls’ football teams. The finding that stood out: teams that received hands-on, in-person workshops with a physiotherapist were almost four times more likely to actually do the program consistently than teams who relied on online resources alone.
Information isn’t enough. Someone has to show you.
What Girls and Women Face That the Research Mostly Ignored
From Dr Brooke Patterson: “Girls and women often have less exposure to contact and physical skill development than boys and men from a young age. That gap in physical preparation — not just fitness, but learning how to fall, how to absorb contact, how to decelerate — can increase injury risk in fast-paced games. We designed Prep-to-Play to address this directly.”
Prep-to-Play includes eight warm-up activities, three contact skills, and three strength exercises. It was developed specifically for women and girls playing community and elite Australian Football, created collaboratively with the AFL, coaches, player leaders, and community clubs — not just handed down from a lab.
It’s free. Every coach running a women’s or girls’ footy team should be using it. You’ll find it at play.afl/coach/resources/prep-play.
The Three Things a Good Warm-Up Actually Does
A well-designed warm-up isn’t just raising the heart rate. It does three distinct things:
1. It prepares the body mechanically. Muscles and tendons need to be taken through their range of motion progressively. Dynamic movements — leg swings, hip rotations, lateral shuffles — prime the neuromuscular pathways your child will use during the game.
2. It builds injury-resistant movement patterns. Programs like Prep-to-Play and the SHRED Injuries program (used across multiple sports) incorporate single-leg balance, controlled landing mechanics, and deceleration training. These aren’t just warm-up drills — they’re teaching the body how to move safely under load. Repeated week after week across a season, they change movement habits.
3. It includes strength. This one catches parents off guard. Strength work — even bodyweight exercises like split squats, glute bridges, and Nordic curls — belongs in a warm-up. Not as a big gym session, but as targeted activation. Research consistently shows that hip and leg strength is one of the most modifiable factors in ACL and knee injury risk.
The Programs That Exist for Your Sport
From Dr Brooke Patterson: “I’m also involved in a global research project called the FAIR Consensus — Female, woman, and/or girl Athlete Injury pRevention. We’ve reviewed injury prevention evidence across all sports and are compiling a comprehensive resource list for athletes, parents, coaches, and health practitioners. If you’re looking for sport-specific programs, we’re building exactly that.”
In the meantime, there are already well-researched programs available for most sports your child might play. These are the ones the evidence supports:
Australian Football
- Prep-to-Play (women and girls) — AFL / La Trobe University
- Footy First (men) — research-backed manual for community footy
Soccer
- 11+ and 11+ Kids — the FIFA-backed program with strong ACL prevention evidence, hosted by Football Australia
- SHRED Injuries — applicable across multiple sports including soccer
Netball
- The KNEE Program — developed specifically for netball’s jumping and landing demands
- Netball Smart — evidence-based program preparing the mind and body before players reach the court
Basketball
- SHRED Injuries — evidence-based and applicable to basketball’s cutting movements
Volleyball
- VolleyVeilig — Dutch-developed, strong evidence base
- SHRED Injuries
Touch Football
- TouchFit — Touch New Zealand’s injury prevention and preparation program
Rugby
- Activate — World Rugby’s warm-up program
- SHRED Injuries
Field Hockey
- Warm-up Hockey (WUP) — structured exercise program shown to reduce injuries in youth field hockey players (Journal of Athletic Training, 2019)
SHRED Injuries (ucalgary.ca/shred-injuries/all-sports) covers almost every sport on this list and is one of the most comprehensive free resources available for coaches anywhere.
What You Can Do This Week
You don’t need to be a physiotherapist to make a difference here. If your child plays in one of the sports above, the program exists. It’s free. It’s been tested. Here’s how to actually use it:
- Find the program for your child’s sport from the list above.
- Download or bookmark it now — before next training.
- Show it to the coach. Not as a critique, as a resource. Most volunteer coaches want to do the right thing; they just haven’t had someone hand them the tool.
- Encourage your child to understand why the exercises matter — kids who understand the reason are more likely to do them properly.
- Track how they’re moving across the season. Are they landing more softly? Are they more balanced on one leg? These small changes are the injury prevention working.
From Dr Brooke Patterson: “The science is there. The programs are free. What we need now is coaches and parents who know these programs exist and have the confidence to use them. That’s what changes outcomes.”
ScorX tracks the development stats that tell you your child is improving across the season — tackles, marks, distance, speed. But the most important stat is the one that doesn’t show up in any app: the game they didn’t miss because they stayed healthy. Start with the warm-up.
Dr Brooke Patterson (she/her) is an Australian Research Council Early Career Industry Research Fellow at the La Trobe University Sport and Exercise Medicine Research Centre, School of Allied Health, Human Services, and Sport. She is lead author of the Prep-to-Play program and a contributor to the global FAIR Consensus on injury prevention in female, women’s, and girls’ sport.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should a proper warm-up take for junior sport?
Most evidence-based programs run 15–20 minutes. That includes dynamic movement, balance and landing drills, and short targeted strength work. If your child’s team is warming up for less than 10 minutes, they’re probably not doing enough.
Do these injury prevention programs work for kids, not just adults?
Yes. Programs like 11+ Kids and Prep-to-Play have been designed and trialled specifically in junior and youth populations. The neuromuscular benefits — better landing mechanics, improved balance, stronger hip stabilisers — are particularly significant in young athletes who are still developing movement habits.
Can a parent suggest injury prevention programs to a volunteer coach?
Absolutely. Frame it as a resource, not a critique. Most volunteer coaches are time-poor and genuinely receptive to practical tools. You might say: “I came across this AFL program — Prep-to-Play — that looks like a great warm-up. Happy to share the link.” That’s usually all it takes.
What’s the FAIR Consensus and how is it relevant to our kids’ sport?
FAIR stands for Female, woman, and/or girl Athlete Injury pRevention. It’s a global research project that has reviewed injury prevention evidence across all sports and is developing practical recommendations for coaches, parents, and athletes. Visit fairconsensus.com to follow their work — they’ll be publishing a comprehensive program directory across all sports.
What’s the most common preventable injury in junior sport?
ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) tears are among the most serious and most preventable. They disproportionately affect girls and young women, particularly in pivoting sports like football, netball, soccer, and basketball. The good news: structured warm-up and landing programs have been shown in multiple trials to reduce ACL injury rates significantly.
ScorX is free to download. Track your first game this weekend.
Related Sideline Blogs
- Why Speed Changes Everything for Young Athletes — Understanding what physical development actually looks like across a junior season.
- What Your Kid Eats and How They Sleep Matters More Than the Warm-Up — The recovery side of the equation — what happens after training matters as much as the session.
- 5 Development Goals to Set at the Start of the AFL Season — Practical goal-setting that keeps junior players growing through the whole year.