Starting Sessions

Starting a Session – Tips

Use this checklist to ensure you’ve conveyed a warm welcome along with the relevant session information:

Warm-up Purpose and Delivery

The objectives of a warm up are to:

• Raise core temperature;
• Prepare sport-specific movement patterns;
• Activate decision-making and ball skills; and
• Reduce injury risk by preparing muscles, ligaments and tendons for potentially explosive movements.

If possible, you could link your warm-up tasks to your session aims, e.g., if working on catching under pressure, you might include reactive catching drills in warm-up.

A good warm-up routine consists of:

• Pulse raiser: Any activity or game which increases heart rate.
• Dynamic stretches: Used to improve flexibility and elasticity of a muscle or muscle group, e.g.

• Joint mobilisation exercises: Used to stimulate joints and muscles, e.g. jump squats, heel flicks, high knee drives.
• Sport-specific movements: In dodgeball, this would look like throwing, dodging and catching.
• Game Situations: Situations which simulate game-time decisions to engage the brain for quick processing of information and decision making.

Introductory Input

When you are beginning your session, you should:

• Link the session activities to the aim of the session
• Demonstrate the focus skills and provide coaching points for those skills
• Demonstrate the first activity
• Question for understanding, e.g.
  • How might I catch the ball differently?
  • What should I do if my opponent throws at my teammate instead of me?

Concluding the Session

Cool-down Purpose and Delivery

Dodgeball combines explosive throws, rapid changes of direction, dives and repeated impacts. Muscles, tendons and joints are loaded in short bursts and can remain tense after the whistle.

The Objectives of a Cool-down are to:

• Lower heart rate gradually to aid cardiovascular recovery.
• Restore muscle length and joint mobility after high-intensity, directional movements.
• Reduce soreness and speed recovery by promoting circulation and metabolic waste removal.

Always match cool-down content to what you practiced. If the session focused on low dives and rapid recoveries to standing, prioritise hip mobility and stretching of the hamstrings and quads. If the session emphasised repeated high-velocity throws, prioritise shoulder mobility, scapular control and gentle rotator cuff stretching.

A Good Cool-down Routine may Consist of:

• Pulse Lowering: Gentle jogging to walking progression or controlled shuttle walks for 2–3 minutes to gradually reduce heart rate. In dodgeball, follow this with slow movement that reverses game demands (backpedals, side-steps at low intensity).
• Dynamic-to-Static Transition: Begin with a minute of slow dynamic movements (arm swings, hip circles) to maintain joint motion, then move into static holds for the major muscle groups used.
• Targeted Mobility and Soft Tissue Work: Short mobility drills for shoulders, thoracic spine, hips and ankles (e.g., wall slides, thoracic rotations, 90/90 hip transitions, calf foam roll or self-massage for 60 seconds per area).

Reflection & Plenary

A plenary:

• Consolidates learning by linking what happened to the session aim.
• Increases retention through retrieval practice (players recall what they did).
• Builds player ownership and communication skills.
• Surfaces safety or wellbeing issues before players leave.

Plenary Formats

Click the image below to download as a printable PDF which you can use in your sessions.