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A decent pre-match warm up routine for U12s?

Hi, can anyone suggest an effective warm up routine / drill for an under 12's side before a match?

Steve ODonoghueCoach, England

2 answers

ANSWERS

Ian MarshCoach, England

With my team I always keep it very simple, building the tempo as we get closer to kick off.

Passing in pairs, or in groups of three (get a feel for the ball and the pitch). Include some bobbling / high passes to improve touch.
Team warm up - running, high knees, heels to bum, side-steps. Important everyone runs as one line, as one team! Can be lead by coach for younger teams, or captain with more senior teams.
Form a circle with one ball. Each player takes a turn to go in the middle of the circle in a pair. Aim here is for outside players to keep possession through passing. Rotate middle pair of players every 1 minute. Every player should go inside the circle.
Shooting practice. Split players evenly so that there are shooters, feeders on the edge of the penalty box (passing into the middle) and players behind the goal to collect the missed shot. Each player has two shots each before rotating players in clockwise movement around each position.
Team talk.

Hope this basic structure helps. Would like to hear how other coaches do this as well.

Chris GreeneCoach, Thailand

I think this is great. Only thing I would do is reverse No. 1 and No. 2 As warming up should be first and when passing in pairs they may overstretch and pull something.