The warm-up room is a sort of sacred space, a place where athletes and coaches can prepare safely, can make final, last-minute adjustments, can analyse and plan from either loss or victory. Specific contest strategy, those whispered and much-needed pre-fight words from the right person, and the fuelling and hydration that are balanced ahead of a match, all come together in that space.
The local organisers and the IJF team design the room to have plenty of tatami for the judo itself, for the main warming up ahead of the fights, but there is also mat space for resting, there’s an area to check upcoming contests and fight orders, another to sit and watch the screens showing the competition passing on each mat. There’s usually somewhere to get water and ice and in many venues there is a sewing station. There can be recycling bins and other sustainability actions too. The warm-up area is therefore a multi-use space but one which facilitates all activities moving in one direction, in the direction of performance and improvement.
In Linz, the Upper Austria Grand Prix has just begun and the warm-up area behind the scenes is teeming with activity, giving every competitor the best chance to prepare to compete on the World Judo Tour at their best.