BEYOND WARM-UP CARDS
A CASE STUDY IN BUILDING BETTER PRE-POOL WARM-UPS
Part One:
Understanding the Challenge
At Basingstoke Bluefins, the original goal was relatively simple:
Improve the quality, consistency and engagement of pre-pool warm-ups.
Over time, it became clear the deck could support much more than simply organising exercises before swimmers entered the water.
Used consistently, The Swimmer’s Warm Up Deck helped reinforce positive warm-up habits, greater swimmer ownership and a more consistent approach to pre-pool warm-ups across the club’s Development, County Development and Age Group Performance squads.
Although the deck was originally developed for use within Bluefins, the challenges it was designed to address are not unique to one club. Many competitive swimming clubs experience similar issues around pre-pool preparation, consistency, swimmer engagement and positive warm-up habits.
This case study explores how The Swimmer’s Warm Up Deck was developed, how it was introduced within a working club environment and the observations made as swimmers and coaches began using it as part of everyday training.
The Original Problem
Like many clubs, Bluefins identified several recurring issues around pre-pool warm-ups.
Swimmers often arrived on poolside with very different levels of readiness. Some completed a warm-up independently, others waited for instructions and many simply copied what swimmers around them were doing without understanding the purpose behind the movements. For many younger swimmers there was also little enthusiasm for land-based warm-ups. Like most young athletes, they came to training because they wanted to swim, not spend time on poolside doing warm-up exercises that often felt disconnected from the part of the sport they enjoyed most.
Coaches also experienced familiar operational challenges:
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Swimmers arriving unprepared.
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Inconsistent or rushed warm-ups.
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Younger swimmers copying others without understanding movements.
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Limited engagement with traditional pre-pool warm-ups.
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Weak ownership around preparation.
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Inconsistent standards between squads.
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Inconsistent expectations as swimmers progressed through the pathway.
Most clubs and families already have access to warm-up guidance through downloadable PDFs, online resources and governing body materials.
In practice, however, these resources often present their own challenges. Sheets need printing and laminating, swimmers need to remember to bring them and consistency can vary between squads and coaches. Even when good resources are available, they do not always become part of everyday behaviour on poolside.
The challenge was never a lack of information.
What was missing was something young swimmers would consistently use and understand within a busy club environment.
Many swimmers knew they should warm up.
Far fewer understood:
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Why they were doing it.
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What different movements were designed to develop.
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Why some exercises were more demanding than others.
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How warm-ups support swimming performance.
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Why good warm-up habits matter over the long term.
The challenge therefore became not simply creating better exercises, but presenting warm-ups in a way that felt:
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Visual.
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Interactive.
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Repeatable.
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Swimmer-friendly.
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Social.
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Engaging.
The Objective
The goal was never simply to create a set of exercise cards.
The objective was to design a practical coaching resource that could help:
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Build stronger warm-up habits.
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Improve swimmer ownership.
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Create more consistent pre-pool warm-ups.
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Help swimmers understand the purpose of different movements.
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Make warm-ups more appealing to young swimmers.
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Support swimmer development across the pathway.
Just as importantly, it had to work in real coaching environments.
That meant busy poolside areas, limited space, different age groups, varying levels of motivation and coaches delivering sessions in their own individual styles.
If the deck was going to be used regularly, it needed to be simple to deploy, easy to understand and practical enough to become part of everyday coaching rather than an occasional activity.
The challenge was clear. The next step was to design a warm-up resource that young swimmers would genuinely want to use.
Part Two:
Designing the Deck
The Swimmer’s Warm Up Deck was built around a structured five-stage warm-up model commonly used within youth sport and athletic preparation environments:
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Raise
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Mobilise
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Activate
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Prime
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Explode
Rather than simply listing exercises, each movement was placed within a clear stage of the warm-up process so swimmers could gradually understand how an effective warm-up progresses from general movement towards faster, more specific preparation before entering the water.
One of the earliest design decisions was to simplify the language.
Traditional strength and conditioning terminology can often confuse younger swimmers or leave them relying entirely on coach instruction.
Instead, the deck uses:
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Visually engaging design.
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Simple exercise names.
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Child-friendly explanations.
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Clear coaching cues.
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Swimming-specific references.
The aim was to help swimmers understand what they were doing without removing the coaching that sits behind it.
The coaching principles behind the deck remain detailed.
The language presented to swimmers is intentionally simple.
Underneath that simplicity sit principles drawn from:
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Athletic development.
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Personal training.
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Movement preparation.
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Posture and stability.
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Coordination and control.
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Physical literacy.
Building the Educational Layer
As swimmers, parents and coaches began using the deck, some wanted to understand more about the movements and the thinking behind them.
To support that, an Exercise Companion Guide was developed.
The guide provides:
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Detailed movement explanations.
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Coaching cues.
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Common faults.
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Easier (Regression) and harder (Progression) options.
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Swimming-specific Stroke Insight guidance.
Quick Reference resources were also developed to help coaches deliver sessions consistently across different squads.
Swimmers were encouraged to learn:
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What different exercises develop.
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Why movements matter.
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How exercises vary in difficulty.
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How warm-ups support swimming performance.
To support this learning, every movement was scored across five physical qualities:
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Coordination.
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Flexibility.
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Impact.
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Strength.
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Intensity.
The scoring system was never intended to be a scientific measurement tool.
Instead, it was designed to help swimmers compare movements and recognise that different exercises place different demands on the body depending on the purpose of the warm-up.
Almost immediately, swimmers began comparing scores, discussing exercises and asking questions about why different movements had different ratings.
Those conversations had rarely been seen within our usual pre-pool warm-ups.
Top Score Challenge
Top Score Challenge introduced a simple game that encouraged swimmers to interact with the movements in a different way.
Rather than simply following instructions, swimmers could:
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Compare movement scores.
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Learn through interaction and friendly competition.
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Challenge teammates.
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Win cards through gameplay.
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Discuss different exercises.
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Revisit favourite movements.
The game was deliberately easy to understand.
The highest score wins the round, the winner collects the cards and play continues until one swimmer or team wins the deck.
This made it easy to learn, easy to replay and accessible across a wide range of ages.
Before long, coaches noticed swimmers creating score battles, discussing movement qualities and comparing favourite cards without being prompted.
Many swimmers also began using the game before training, during race-day downtime and at home.
Warm-ups increasingly became something swimmers wanted to take part in rather than simply another instruction before training.
As the deck began to be used regularly on poolside, coaches were able to observe how those changes developed within everyday training.
Part Three:
Putting the Deck into Practice
Introducing the Deck into Everyday Coaching
One of the biggest changes came when the deck became part of everyday coaching rather than simply a resource for individual exercises.
At Basingstoke Bluefins, swimmers now complete structured pre-pool warm-ups before entering the water.
Using the Coaches PRO Deck:
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Cards are selected in five-stage order.
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Movements are laid out sequentially across clear, dry areas of poolside.
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Swimmers work progressively through each stage in small groups.
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As one group moves forward, the next group follows behind, creating a continuous flow through the warm-up.
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The layout also helps organise swimmers more clearly and reduce unnecessary movement through wet or busy areas of poolside.
Warm-ups became more visible, more organised and easier for swimmers to follow independently.
One simple change had a particularly noticeable effect.
The first swimmer to arrive on poolside became the session Warm-up Builder, selecting the day’s warm-up with coach guidance before laying out the cards ready for the rest of the squad.
This created an opportunity for swimmers to take ownership before training had even started.
Being the Warm-up Builder quickly became something many swimmers wanted to do, encouraging active involvement before entering the water. Quite often, other swimmers joined in to help lay out the warm-up together, creating an unexpected moment of teamwork before training had even started.
Late arrivals were still expected to complete their warm-up before getting into the pool, reinforcing that warm-ups were part of training rather than an optional extra.
Within the first four weeks of introducing the deck, coaches began noticing:
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More punctual attendance.
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Faster organisation on poolside.
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Greater engagement with pre-pool warm-ups.
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Calmer transitions into training.
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More consistent warm-up routines across squads.
What had previously been something many swimmers simply completed became something they increasingly wanted to be involved in.
Behavioural Observations
One of the most interesting outcomes was that changes in behaviour became much easier to observe.
Over time, coaches noticed swimmers arriving earlier to become the Warm-up Builder, more experienced swimmers encouraging teammates to complete their warm-up, swimmers moving through the sequence with less prompting and conversations about movement quality becoming more natural.
None of those behaviours were introduced as formal coaching objectives.
They developed gradually through consistent use of the deck within everyday training.
Supporting Different Stages of the Pathway
Although every squad used the same deck, the way it was introduced evolved as swimmers progressed through the pathway.
Within the younger Foundation squads, coaches guided much of the warm-up while swimmers became familiar with the routine.
Within Development and County Development squads, swimmers increasingly organised their own warm-ups, supported teammates and took greater responsibility for completing them consistently.
By Age Group Performance, warm-ups had become an established part of training and swimmers were expected to arrive ready to complete them independently before entering the water.
Alignment with the OADF
Although the deck was not originally designed specifically around the Swim England Optimal Athlete Development Framework, many of the behaviours observed during implementation reflected its wider principles around athlete ownership, independence, readiness and positive training habits.
What We Learned
One of the biggest lessons was that improving warm-ups was not simply about providing better exercises.
The difference came from using the deck consistently as part of the normal training routine.
As swimmers used it week after week, warm-ups gradually became more familiar, more consistent and more engaging.
On Reflection
The original aim was to improve pre-pool warm-ups.
Looking back, we found the deck did considerably more than help organise them. Warm-ups became easier for swimmers to follow and increasingly became part of the way they prepared for training.
Those changes developed gradually as the deck became part of the normal training routine.
For us, that became the real measure of success.