Mat movement: knee walk, sprawl and shoulder roll

Sport-specific warm-up for the combat sports unit: students travel across the mat using the movements found in ground and standing grappling. It prepares the neck, shoulders, hips and knees for contact and makes safe falling automatic before any live wrestling.

How to play

1. In 8-meter mat lanes, go down knee-walking with a straight back and come back in a crab walk (2 min).
2. Technical sprawl: from stance, shoot the legs back and land with the hips down on the mat; 3 sets of 5 on the partner's signal (2 min).
3. Forward and backward shoulder rolls, tucking the chin and coming up into a base position (2 min).
4. Level changes in pairs: one partner signals high, middle or low with a hand and the other drops the hips without leaning the trunk (2 min).
5. Final mobility circle for the neck (no load), wrists and ankles, led by a student acting as mat captain (2 min).

Rules

• No neck rotations under load: the neck is only moved actively and gently.
• In the roll, the shoulder touches the mat, never the head.
• Only one person moves in each direction in each lane at a time.
• No shoes or objects (watches, earrings, hair ties with metal) on the mat.

Variations

Adaptations

• Shoulder injury: replace the roll with a side fall from sitting.
• Overweight students: sprawl against a gym bench, with the chest higher and less impact.
• Hearing impairment: the partner's signals are visual (hand high, middle or low).

Learning goals

• Mobilize the joints used in grappling before contact.
• Make the roll and the sprawl automatic protective movements.
• Take on the mat captain role and lead part of the warm-up.

Equipment for a class of 25

• mats: 16
• stopwatch: 1

Teacher tip

Check that the mats are joined with no gaps before starting. Rotate the mat captain every session of the unit.

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