Ideas
Learning is not learning without application — we must test the sets of knowledge and skills in our conceptual models in many different situations.
I call this testing Purposeful Application, which has a few different (but related) parts:
Warm-up
Practice
Performance
These three parts are on a spectrum of intensity, with each part having their own importance to the development of your conceptual models through purposeful application.
[For a much deeper discussion about the spectrum read this essay: That’s How Learning Works?!?! A Comprehensive Model for Understanding the Learning Process.]
What is the Warm-up?
The Warm-up is a time of preparation before practice or performance.
Through a structured sequence of activities, the Warm-up prepares the body, mind, and spirit for the upcoming practice or performance — serving as a bridge to create the heightened state needed for optimal learning and performance. The Warm-up is focused on exploration and priming, both of which are crucial to prepare for the practice or performance.
The Warm-up is on the far left of the spectrum, have no stakes and beginning with low intensity. This combination creates a safe place to experiment, make adjustments, and set intentions — then build the intensity through complexity and demand. As the intensity builds, you continually assess your readiness while simultaneously preparing your systems to meet the demands of the practice or performance.
Why include the Warm-up?
Including the Warm-up creates a deliberate transition into the practice or performance, greatly increasing the learning and odds of success in practice or performance.
Without the Warm-up for your body, you might pull a muscle or strain a ligament; with the Warm-up, your body is prepared for the physical demands in the practice or performance.
Without the Warm-up for your mind, you might forget an important part of the knowledge and skills; with the Warm-Up, your mind is ready to test and refine the knowledge and skills in the practice or performance.
Without the Warm-up for your spirit, you might have a terrible attitude or tear down your teammates; with the Warm-up, your spirit is able to handle the emotions and intensity in the practice or performance.
The goal of the Warm-up is to prepare yourself for the practice or performance. This preparation happens through the creation of space — checking your body, mind, and spirit for the challenges ahead. Making space through preparation will help you reach higher levels individually or with a team, learning efficiently and effectively while performing well.
How to create an effective Warm-up?
The Warm-up has two main points: Exploration and priming.
The role of exploration is to do a self-check for the activities in practice or performance, calibrating yourself with simple and small activities then moving to more complex and larger activities. Exploration also finds the end ranges of the activities, which helps you understand your weaknesses and strengths for the upcoming activities. Though the specifics for timing and activities of a Warm-up depend greatly on the practice or performance, there are common traits for exploration:
Progressive intensity — start with low intensity, then increase the intensity
Feedback — body awareness, emotions and mental state, environment
Knowledge and skills — technical and tactical information
The role of priming is to get your body, mind, and spirit ready, preparing yourself to be in a heightened state during the practice or performance. Though specifics vary, there are common traits for priming:
Psychological safety — Risk-taking, success and failure, setting intentions
Comfort — Acclimating to the environment, visualization, positive self-talk
Mindset — Connect to purpose, meditation, acceptance
Though the Warm-up is mostly associated with a preparation before athletes practice or perform, we can use the Warm-up before any practice or performance. Before solving physics practice problems, the teacher has students take one minute to check in with themselves. This creates space for the students to check their emotions and stress level, allowing the students to self-regulate — then begin the practice and enhance their learning. Another example: A musician runs through their scales before a show, reminding themselves of the fingering techniques and rhythm. This gets the musician into a groove, helping them reach a higher plane of performance.
By creating this intentional space for preparation through the Warm-up, you'll find more focus, confidence, and readiness to engage at your highest level.
Stories
We all have stories on using the Warm-up to prepare; here are a couple of my stories.
Story 1: When I see my wife and children after a work day, I don’t want to bring any negativity from work into my house. After setting this intention, I started using a “relationship Warm-up” to create space and prepare myself to enjoy the time with my family. During my 10-minute walk home, I processed and released any lingering thoughts and emotions from the day. This movement through walking plus the mind and spirit awareness helped me (usually) be in a great place to see my family, creating joy and connection with them!
Story 2: Golf is a hard game for everyone, but especially for those of us who do not touch a club everyday. The margins of error are tiny, with extreme consequences for a small miss. To perform as well as I can, I enjoy having a nice, long Warm-up — but this is not always possible. At a minimum I do a five-minute set of body movements, focusing on my balance and tension. As I swing a club before hitting the first tee shot I remind myself of cues for the swing, connecting to the knowledge and skills in the game. I also take another minute to be thankful for the opportunity to play the game and spend time with my playing partners, which helps my spirit accept the outcomes of each shot. If I have time to have full swings, pitches, and putts, I start with low intensity and work to higher intensity during the Warm-up. All of the exploration and priming help create space for the golfing journey, allowing me to learn and enjoy the game.
Questions
What is the last Warm-up you did?
To what level do you agree with my definition for the Warm-up?
Did any part of the “why” section resonate with you?
What is confusing about the ideas of exploration and priming?
What makes sense about the ideas of exploration and priming?
Have you ever been intentional about creating a Warm-up?
How will these ideas help the next time you need to do or lead a Warm-up?
Learning happens when we share what we are thinking, so I would love to hear your answers! Also, you can use these questions as conversations starters with friends and family — hearing their answers and having a conversation would be great!
Want more information about learning? Check out The Principles of Learning course (the same information, with different levels of feedback):
Self-directed course — No feedback / all videos and readings / certificate of completion
Graduate course through Fresno Pacific University — Graded feedback / all videos and readings / three hours of graduate credit upon completion
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