Hey Justin!

The 102 course is going to give you some great strategies to help screen your athletes and give you tools to address any issues they may have in movement quality. As a coach I believe one of the best things you can do is really focus on their warmup and getting those tissues hot and ready for the task they are about to undergo. A lot these injuries can occur because the tissue wasn’t ready for the demands we are throwing at it. In terms of warmup we want to get as much blood flow to the area as we can before they start their sport. They should be jump roping like it’s their job and doing dynamic drills such as high knees, toe/heel walking, or banded running drills till you know they are good and ready. So I’d spend far more than 5 min warming them up, especially if they are a sedentary population and given the cold weather. You could easily be spending 10-20min getting warmed up. In training some direct calf work with things like heavy eccentrics can be beneficial as well to build capacity in those tissues. Then restoring any mobility restrictions from the resources available on the TRS site and sharing these strategies with your athletes so that they can address these limitations themselves will be key as well.

Cheers,
Mike
TRS Staff