A dynamic warm-up prepares players by moving: walking knee pulls, lunges with a twist, skips, high knees, carioca, backpedals, then faster runs. Each movement takes a joint through a bigger range than the last, and the whole routine builds from easy to game speed. The alternative is static stretching, where a player holds one position for a count.
Why coaches use it
Because long static stretches before play cost performance. A systematic review by Behm and colleagues found that holds of 60 seconds or more per muscle lowered immediate performance by about 4.6%, while shorter holds cost about 1.1%, and dynamic stretching done close to activity improved performance slightly. Static stretching showed no clear effect on injury either way.
The NSCA’s coaching guidance puts it the same way: warm up dynamically, avoid long, intense static stretching right before play, and do static work after the session.
A dynamic warm-up is not automatically an injury-prevention warm-up. The routines shown to cut injuries also include landing, balance and strength work; see neuromuscular training.
How it is done
- Start slow. Walking and jogging before anything fast.
- Single joints, then whole body. Knee pulls and quad pulls, then lunges and inchworms, then skips and carioca.
- Build to speed. Finish with build-up runs: jog, stride, sprint.
- Same routine every practice. Players learn to run it themselves.
Our dynamic warm-up lines drill runs the routine as rows from the baseline to half court and back. Our guide to basketball warm-up drills adds the landing and balance work.