One of the problems coaches have with warm ups is that if all the players have not turned up at the start of training traditional warm ups are difficult to run when you have to add players. So I have some arrival activities up my sleeve that I use at training when I know the players will turn up in dribs and drabs ready to start training straight away.
I will often use Rondos for this and certainly a lot of my players will turn up and set up their own Rondo, but there are times when I want to use sessions where players can just slot in.
Arrival activities
Great for any age group once players have got into the swing of passing one way and running the other in Clocks. You can use any number of players and add more as they turn up for training.
As an arrival activity Changing direction works because you can add players as they turn up to training. It develops a high level of skill and movement. It is good for technique and uses both feet, working on dribbling, turning, changing direction plus advanced movements of the ball.
Two move is a great arrival activity to get players touching and turning with the ball. Pretty simple stuff but all the best possession teams in the world practise like this. It gets players used to looking for the player with the ball and combining to keep possession away from the opposition.
If you want something easy and quick to set up Locomotion is the arrival activity for you – suitable for all ages and abilities that will improve communication, passing awareness and decision-making.
Some sessions can be used for getting players to use skills that make the players think about the training they will be doing in your training session. Skills slalom encourages your players to control the ball and unleash a shot on the run. Great way to warm up and an excellent arrival activity as players turn up.
Talking of Rondos, I often use Triangle keep ball because it is a simple 5v2 keep away game made harder by having a triangle in the middle which the two defenders must protect or stay in the middle longer. It is a great arrival activity to get players’ thinking and reacting.
This arrival activity is great for any age group once players have got into the swing of passing one way and running the other. You can use any number of players and add more as they turn up for training. MORE
As an arrival activity this works because you can add players as they turn up to training. It develops a high level of skill and movement. It is good for technique and uses both feet. MORE
This is a simple 5v2 keep away game made harder by having a triangle in the middle which the two defenders must protect or stay in the middle longer MORE
This brilliant training drill will encourage your attackers to control the ball and unleash a shot on the run – makes a great arrival activity as you can add players as they turn up MORE
Simple to set up and simple to do, but this does need accurate passing and good player movement. Good for match days when you want a quick warm up for movement and technique MORE
It was the first game of the season on Saturday and the local council had decided to close the main road leading to our club's ground. So the phone calls started coming in thick and fast: "Dave we are going to be late." MORE
My go to activities when players have had been on the summer break are Rondos – and with this being one of the longest breaks from playing due to lockdown I am going to be using Rondos over the next few weeks to get players back up to speed. MORE
There are a number of places where the social distancing rules are not the same as here in England, and I've been asked for sessions that are non contact but not just 5 players so this ssession can be used with any number of players. MORE
I cannot second guess when we will all be out of this strange way of coaching with no opposed sessions but hopefully it will be fairly soon. To that end I continually remind myself that I will be going back to getting my players warmed up in a different way to how I am doing it at the moment. MORE
