Warm-Up Drills

A few ideas for warm-ups at practice, which you may already have used:
 

1. Players jog in a limited area without the ball. Periodically, coach gives an instruction which players must execute -- any players failing to comply must perform a 'forfeit' of some kind such as sit-ups, pushups, sprint, etc. Some examples:
    
   1. "Groups of n" where n is any number from 1 to the number of players
      present. Some players will be unable to make a 'group of n' if the number
      of players present is not evenly divisible by n -- try to ensure that these
      players are not always the ones left out.
       
   2. "Simple Simon" where players must imitate what the coach does without
      any verbal instruction (e.g. if the coach goes down on one knee, so must
      the players -- last one or two to comply do a forfeit).
       
   3. "Pyramids of n" where n is the number of players who have to make a
      human pyramid (on hands and knees).
       
   4. "Horseback": players must immediately carry another player or be carried
      by one.
       
   5. "Pick up": players must pick up another player in their arms or be
      picked up by one.
       
   6. "Shorts/shirts/socks" all players wearing same color must stand
      together, e.g. if coach says "shorts" all players wearing same color
      shorts have to locate each other.
       

   You can think of more variations. Follow each pause with more jogging, but
   vary the rhythm so that sometimes there is a long wait between instructions
   while other times several instructions come quickly one after the other.
    

2. Circle drills
   
   There's a multitude of these, including 'pass and follow', 'man on/turn/hold', 'monkey in the middle' and so on. As players improve, put multiple balls into play and impose restrictions (one-touch play, alternate side-of-the-foot and lofted passes, etc). Also ones where half the players are on the outside, half on the inside; the players on the inside look to the players on the outside for a thrown-in ball, receive it and one-touch it back (vary the service so that the ball is thrown to feet, to thigh, to chest, to head).
    
3. Threes (Alternate these)
    
   1. 3-man pass and move; 3 players in triangle. Each player passes and then
      runs between the other two players.
       
   2. small triangle: one-touch passing across next player's body to far foot
      to encourage opening up (right foot first, then left foot)
       
   3. volleys: two players alternately serve thrown balls to the third player
      for him to volley back to them. Start with low balls about 30-50 cm off the
      ground, progress to higher and higher balls (obviously these need to be
      thrown to the side of the player). Service should be rapid enough so that
      the player volleying is in constant movement.
       
4. "German tunnel"
   
   Divide players into groups of 5-6. All players in each group except for one make a tunnel (side by side, hands and feet on the ground, butts in the air). On coach's signal, the other player bowls a ball through the tunnel, runs to the end of the tunnel and collects the ball, bowls it back through the tunnel and joins the end of the tunnel. The player who was at the other end of the tunnel stands up, retrieves the bowled ball and repeats the exercise. The tunnel will move slowly down the field -- make it a competition between the groups over a 25-40 m distance. This is a strenuous exercise and should be used after players have done an initial warm-up.
    
5. Tag
   
   Players move in a restricted area. Two players are 'it' (give them each a pinnie to hold) -- they are not allowed to tag any player who has a ball. Give the remaining players a number of balls smaller than the number of players (how much smaller will depend on players' skill, but you will need at least two balls in play). A player who is tagged or who plays a ball out of bounds becomes 'it'.
    

These warm-ups all tend to be energetic and a fair amount of fun. Hope you find some useful -- I'll leave the other part of the question to someone else.

Provided by David Graham || Professeur titulaire, langue & littérature françaises
Memorial University of Newfoundland  ||  St John's, NF CANADA A1B 3X9
-> http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~dgraham    ||  dgraham@morgan.ucs.mun.ca   <-
"I'm going to make a prediction: it could go either way."-R. Atkinson

 

More Warm-Up Ideas
for Young Players

 

 

• My U-9 team just practiced indoors this afternoon, and we used the following 1v1 game that would work well for players of any age, whether as a warm-up or as part of the main course. Best of all, it's very simple. Below is a simple diagram:
  
• ================================================ Gym Wall

                               (X)cone <------ 12-18 ft ------> (X)cone

                                 /|\
                                  |   
                                  |
                             12-18 ft
                                  |
                                  |
                                 \|/
                                                           Player B
                                             Player A

                              (Z) cone                                        (Z) cone

•  
  On a roughly 12x12 to 18x18 square or rectangular court with a wall on one
  side, and the other three boundaries marked by four cones, one at each corner, player A serves into the wall between the two wall cones (X), and his opponent B gets either one or two touches (your pick as coach) to control it and play it back into the wall between the wall cones (X) for player A to play the rebound back into the wall between the wall cones (X) in either one or two touches, and so on. A ball that goes out of the court between the side cones (X) and (Z) on either side is out of bounds, and the player off whom it was last touched's opponent gets to restart by serving the ball. A score is made when a player successfully plays the ball off the wall between wall cones (X) and (X), and:
  
  1) the rebound goes past the line between outside cones (Y) and (Y) without the opponent being able to stop it; or
  
  2) the opponent is not able to control it and return the ball off the wall between (X) and (X) within one or two touches (whichever condition the coach has set).
   
• The final condition is that once a player has played the ball into the wall, they cannot interfere with their opponent's ability to play the ball. Of course, you can modify this last condition as suits your emphasis, just like the number of allowable ball touches. Another condition is that the ball must return from the rebound at a playable height; no trying to blast over your opponent in this game. You could also do this by a table-tennis type rule that the ball must bounce at least once on the floor after hitting the wall before it goes past the Y cones to score.
   
• My kids loved this game, and it is really vigorous enough to get their blood
  and lungs pumping as well as their ball touch. Best of all, you don't need all
  that much space to set up your entire team in adjacent spaces along the wall in 1v1 games, perhaps setting up a ladder where the winner of each mini-game moves up and the loser moves down.
  
   
• chris mohr, Coach
  Girl's U-9 Falcons
  NCYSA 'D' License

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