Skip and shadow warm-up
Ready when: Stance and footwork (b1) and Shadow punches at the air (b2) done.
What you are learning
Warming up before every session: easy skipping, joint circles, stepping in the guard and slow shadow punches. A child who can lead their own warm-up is ready for a club.
Words on this card Guard
- Guard
- The ready stance: feet apart, one foot a little ahead, knees soft, hands up by the chin.
Set up
A timer; a skipping rope, or skip without one.
Weather: any weather indoors
Show it first for the one teaching
- 1 minute of easy skipping on the toes, with or without a rope.
- Slow circles of the wrists, elbows and shoulders, and slow, small movements of the neck, 5 each way.
- 1 minute stepping in the guard, 1 minute of slow shadow punches, 1 minute of skipping.
Your part while they practise
Run the timer at first; later the child leads.
Step by step
- 1 minute of easy skipping on the toes.
- Wrist, elbow, shoulder and neck circles, 5 each way.
- 1 minute of stepping in the guard.
- 1 minute of slow shadow punches.
- 1 minute of skipping.
How much: the whole warm-up, all 5 parts 5 min a session before every session
Say one thing Pick one line from "What you will see" for today and say only that.
The game: Lead for 30 seconds
Each person in turn shows a warm-up move and the others copy.
Who plays: 1 to 4, taking turns to lead.
How to play, turn by turn
- Turns
- The leader shows a warm-up move for 30 seconds; everyone copies
- The next leader shows a different move
- Keep going until the moves have warmed the legs, trunk, arms, neck and wrists
- Fair play
- A younger child leads first.
- Points
- 1 point for each body part your move warms that nobody has warmed yet: legs, trunk, arms, neck, wrists.
- Fouls
- No point
- A fast, jerky move
- A move that hurts
- Copying a move already shown
- Winning
- The most points when all five body parts are warm.
- 3 body parts for 1 star
- 4 body parts for 2 stars
- 5 body parts for 3 stars
Easier or harder
Skipping without a rope.
The child makes a 5-minute routine that covers legs, trunk, arms, neck and wrists.
What you will see, and what to say
- wrists and neck are skipped
Wrists and neck too
Every joint that will work gets warm. - the moves are rushed
Slow and full, then faster
Big, slow circles first.
Self-check
The child leads all 5 parts of the warm-up in order without help, 3 sessions in a row.
Stop and get a coach when
Pain during the warm-up.
Fitness for this
Warm up first: how to warm up, at workonfitness.com. For strength and stretching, its exercise library shows each exercise step by step, with an easier version.
This card trains warming up alone and safely.
awiseathlete.com/sports/boxing/boxing-b8