Rob Gray did an episode of his podcast where he talks about calibration. In it he discusses how quickly athletes lose calibration, but also how quickly it comes back. This is all based on research. Near the end he suggests some implications for warming up.

While I didn’t have this kind of research as the basis for it, I’ve long had a practice planning philosophy of giving players the opportunity to prepare their skills, so to speak, before they’re really needed. By that I mean spending a little time in a low-consequence exercise that allows them to perform the skill(s) they need in a more focal exercise.

For example, you might give a Setter a few simple reps without hitters to re-calibrate before having them set live attackers. These aren’t reps for skill development – just a warm-up. So minimal coaching, and not a lot of time spent on them.

There are, of course, also implications for match warm-ups. Upper level teams do match-day serve & pass sessions for a reason.

This is actually the second part of a 2-episode sequence (the first part is here).

For readers who aren’t aware, Rob is a researcher in the area of skill acquisition. He also works with baseball teams in this area. I’ve reviewed two of his books (here and here), and this post features a couple of videos of him talking about skill acquisition with a group of volleyball coaches.