Football/Soccer Session (Moderate): School Soccer: Session Ideas - Warm-Ups

Arrival Activity - Rondo (10 mins)

Organization

 10x10 area

 1 player in the middle 

 4 on the outside (depending on numbers, maybe 3)

 1 ball per group

Activity

 Rondo 2 touch max and the ball can't stop

 Central player tries to prevent passes from getting through. 

 Defenders change once the defenders get possession of the ball or after 1 minute. Players keep track of the highest number of successful passes and it's a competition with other rondo groups. 

Coaches Emphasis

Receiving body shape

First touch

Awareness

Passer setting the receiver up for success

Communication  

Possible Progression

Encourage 1 touch passing if possible

Increase the speed of passing

Physical Literacy - Dynamic Warm Up (10 mins)

Set up:

• 6 cones (3 each line)
  
• Same amount of player in each line

Instructions:

The pair at the front of the line leads the warm up under the supervision of a coach. Players perform a movement from the first marker to the second marker and then turn and jog to the start. Repeat using different movements.

Movements:

1. Jog

2. High knees

3. Heel kicks

4. Shuffling right

5 Shuffling left

6. Open the gate

7. Close the gate

8. Dynamic hamstring stretch

9. Lunges

10. Sprint (repeat twice)

Coaching emphasis:

Perform each movement correctly, it is not a race

Physical Literacy - Nuts and Squirrels (10 mins)

Set-Up:  

As many tall cones as you will need (depending on the number of players you have) placed in a big circle. In the middle of the circle place as many discs as you have scattered like in the picture above.

Instruction: 

Divide your group into lines of 2 or 3. They stand behind the tall cones. On coaches demand, the first player in line each runs as fast as they can to get 1 disc and bring it back to their cone. They place the disc on the tall cone and say go to the next person in line. Continue until there are no discs left. Whichever team has collected the most discs wins! Get players to take the discs off their cone, and scatter them back into the middle. Then you can play again. 

Progressions:

1. To get to the discs you must run backwards.

2. To get to the discs you must hop on 1 foot, or two feet.

3. To get to the discs you must bear crawl. 

4. To get the discs you must (high knees, butt kicks, karaoke, etc.)

5. They must dribble a ball to the disc, grab it and dribble back.

Arrival Activity - Ball Tag (10 mins)

Ball Tag

• The red team works together, throwing the ball to eachother to try and tag a black player. 
• The red team can only tag a black player if they have possession of the ball in their hands and are right beside that player. 
• If a black player is tagged by a red player they need to do a lap around the grid and are back in the game. 
• Switch teams every few minutes.

• How can we communicate with our teammates?
• What works better? Short or long passes?
• How can we trap the black team?

Things to Consider

• Make the space smaller if the red team is struggling.
• Make the space bigger if the black team is struggling.

Arrival Activity - Robin Hood (10 mins)

Set-Up

To set up the activity, make a 20×20 meter grid. Then, divide the players into four teams and have them line up at the 4 corners of the grid. Next, place many soccer balls in the middle of the grid. Now the game can begin.

Instructions

Tell the players that they are ‘Robin Hood’ and the balls in the middle of the grid belong to the ‘rich’. Their job is to steal the balls from the rich and return them to their team. When the coach shouts ‘Go!’, the first player from each team should sprint to balls in the middle, perform a drag back on one of the balls, and then dribble the ball back to their team's grid. Once the player has controlled the ball in their team's grid, the next player should then sprint to retrieve the next ball. When there are no balls left in the middle, the team with the most balls is the winner!

Progressions

1. Perform a drag back to retrieve the ball from the middle.

2. Incorporate different turns or skill moves to retrieve the ball and challenge the players.