Before hitting the slopes: athlete and staff perspectives on warm-up and activation in high-performance snowsports

Abstract

To explore warm-up and activation (W&A) practices in high-performance snowsports to describe their importance, application and potential improvements based on the perspectives of elite-level athletes and staff members. Qualitative study consisting of semistructured interviews with 13 international elite-level athletes, on-snow coaches, strength and conditioning coaches, sports physiotherapists and sports psychologists from different snowsports and subdisciplines: alpine skiing, freestyle skiing (park and pipe, aerials, moguls) and snowboarding (park and pipe, snowboard cross). The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed based on the principles of grounded theory. The main themes raised by the participants were (1) the importance of readiness for sports participation as the motive for W&A, (2) how readiness is reached with a structured W&A routine and (3) the different athlete-specific, task-specific and environmental-specific factors for optimal W&A. Athletes and staff members considered W&A an essential measure to get physically and mentally ready for sports participation. Being ready was described as a key factor for performance and injury prevention. For these athletes, adherence to W&A was the result of a process of experiencing the beneficial effects of W&A and learning from sustaining one or more injuries. Broad implementation of basic physical and mental W&A at the youth level was considered an important measure to increase the overall adoption of W&A as an inherent part of training and competition. At the elite level, W&A is performed to reach athletes' mental and physical readiness for performance enhancement and injury prevention. W&A is acknowledged as a complex and dynamic programme and is typically adapted to sport-specific demands, injury risks, environmental circumstances and individual needs and preferences. Overall, this study provides valuable contextual insights into the complexity of W&A and the factors that need to be considered to make sport-specific recommendations.

Keywords: Athlete; Injury; Prevention; Skiing; Snowboarding.

Figure 1

Data analysis flowchart. After three and six interviews, codes and memos were reviewed and discussed with a second researcher (CB). After 10 interviews, LB and CB met to review data collection and analysis, to identify different emerging categories and to discuss further analysis procedures. Subsequently, preliminary results were developed by LB. Related codes were merged into categories, and connections between the categories were defined to identify emerging concepts. Preliminary findings were discussed with another researcher (JS), who was unfamiliar with the collected data. LB analysed the relationship between identified concepts with different flowcharts and mind maps and extracted coded segments to break them down into essential meaning. In a subsequent meeting, CB and LB met to discuss the relationships between concepts and their essential meaning. Another three interviews were conducted and analysed by LB. Preliminary results were reviewed and refined by LB and presented to and discussed with the whole research group (CB, EV and JS). When consensus about the results and the best way of their presentation was found, LB implemented the feedback of the group and discussed the final results with CB.

Figure 2

The concept of readiness. Following our data analysis, readiness is a concept that entails physical and mental readiness, which are based on different factors. Cognitive function was described as a connection between the physical and the mental, and physical readiness was said to be an important cornerstone of mental readiness.

Figure 3

Adaptation of warm-up and activation (W&A) depends on resources. The different adaptations of W&A and their correlation to available resources. While elite athletes benefit from the whole spectrum of adaptations, youth athletes with limited resources may be supported with a basic sport-specific W&A that helps them get into the routine of W&A and sets the baseline for further adaptations.