Four trips
Why it works
Four short trips put blood in the legs, take a knee and an ankle through their range, and finish with one rep at speed, which is the order a body actually wants before it is asked to sprint. It is also the only shape of warm-up a coach can run with no equipment and no explaining.
Run it
5 MINOne pass through the four trips is the whole drill, five minutes with the walk-backs. Add a second pass only if the team is cold or the session is long, and never a third.
Say this
“Knee to your hands, not your hands to your knee.”
High knees is a hip drill, and reaching down with the arms is how a player skips the hip and still looks busy.
“Build it, do not launch it.”
The last trip exists to take a cold leg up to full speed over ten yards instead of in one step.
“Chest up the whole way.”
Posture is the one thing every trip shares, and it is the thing that falls apart first.
Good looks like
- Knees come up to belt height on trip one without anybody bending over.
- Heels actually touch on trip two rather than flicking up behind.
- Hips are side on through the karaoke and shoulders stay square down the line.
- The last ten yards of the sprint is the fastest ten yards of the four trips.
The mistakes
Bending at the waist and padding along. Hold your hands flat at belt height and make the knee come to them.
Say: “Knee to your hands, not your hands to your knee.”
Treating it as a race off the line, which is the exact moment a cold hamstring goes.
Say: “Build it, do not launch it.”
Leaning forward and shortening every stride. Put the far cone at eye level and tell them to look at it.
Say: “Chest up the whole way.”
Two trips over five yards, high knees out and a jog back. Walk the karaoke rather than running it, and let it look wrong for a few weeks.
Add a fifth trip backpedalling, stretch the line to fifteen yards, and finish the sprint at about nine tenths rather than easing off.