The effect of the NetballSmart Dynamic Warm-up on physical performance in youth netball players

Abstract Objectives To investigate the efficacy of the NetballSmart Dynamic Warm-up in improving physical performance measures in New Zealand secondary school netball players. Design Cluster randomised controlled trial. Setting A seven-week intervention study in secondary school netball. Participants 81 youth netball players (Intervention group, n  = 45; Control group, n  = 36). Main outcome measures Performance measures included prone hold, change of direction, sprint, vertical and horizontal jump, Y-balance and time-to-stabilisation. Mixed effects models and t-tests were used to determine significant differences of pre and post measures between groups. Results Significant improvements in prone hold (β = 20.46 s; p = 0.01) and vertical jump (β = 6.73 cm; p = 0.01) were found in the intervention group compared to the control group, while horizontal jump was found to significantly decrease (β = −9.86 cm; p = 0.03) in comparison to the control group. Conclusions The results of this study show the NetballSmart Dynamic Warm-up can improve some physical performance measures in youth netball players. It is recommended that coaches should consider implementing the warm-up in their netball programmes.