James Marshall asks if it's time to change your warm ups?

One third of the way through your season and you are probably bored of your warm up. Don't worry: only another 6 months to go!

When working with athletes I stress the importance of the warm up as something to get better at, not something to get through. I use 4-5 different warm up themes, and add smaller variations as the season goes on.

Here are some ideas:

• Use gymnastics as part of the warm up: rolling, tumbling and balancing.
• Get on the ground and off the ground, don't keep in one plane of movement.
• Use partner drills: wrestling, lifting, pulling and leapfrog.
• Do everything in reverse order or backwards:  walking and skipping backwards paying attention to using the opposite hand and foot, as well as your other dynamic movements.

Warm ups can affect your performance: if you do them properly and add variation, intensity and challenge, your performance will improve accordingly.

The accompanying video shows how a common warm up exercise could be improved.