Warm-Up Drills

The warm-up is the most wasted fifteen minutes in youth soccer. Static stretching in a circle while the coach takes attendance, then two laps, then a bit of jogging with arm swings. Nobody has touched a ball. Nobody is any warmer than they were, because it's forty degrees and they're jogging.

Every warm-up here has a ball in it from the first minute. That's not a preference, it's arithmetic — fifteen minutes with a ball, three times a week, is roughly forty extra hours of touches a season. Free.

Match the warm-up to what's coming. If the session is passing, warm up with the passing grid or pass and follow square, so they arrive at the main topic already in it. If it's a game day or a high-intensity session, the activation circuit and mirror and react race get the nervous system going properly. If it's a Tuesday in November and they're flat, ball tag, and don't overthink it.

For anyone under about ten, the whole warm-up is a game with a name. Musical balls, traffic lights, body part freeze, mud monsters rescue. They arrive, something starts immediately, nobody stands about. The best coaches I've watched with young children have the game running before half the squad has arrived, and the stragglers just join in.

For older squads the rondo carousel is the best fifteen minutes you can spend. Warm, technical, competitive, and it tells you within two minutes who has turned up ready and who is somewhere else.

Cool-down possession circle at the end if you want one. Gentle ball work and three questions about what they learned beats standing in a circle holding an ankle.