The benefits of a dynamic workout to your team to get them ready to play a match cannot be ignored. Young players have to give their muscles a range of dynamic and progressive movements to prepare them for the game. If they don’t you’ll be risking them getting a injury when the game starts.
Warm ups with a ball should be the thing you do just before the game starts but you can do other types of games when the players first get to a game or to training. Bib pull away is a good way to start and you don’t need to spend any time explaining the game – it is always great to get under way with a brisk run around.
Once you’ve got them running around let them have a drink when you can quickly explain the next warm up that will gear them up for the session you are coaching or the match they are taking part in. If you’re planning a session on pressing or you want them to press in a match Centre Circle Sorcery is one of the best ways to do this with plenty of pressing and tackling and movement off the ball. While Pass and Sprint is good for a possession based game.
You can get brains into gear on a cold morning by using Chase the Cones it makes players think about how they can complete the session before their best friends do.
This is an excellent warm-up that gets players into the groove for pressing, tackling, and movement off the ball, great for match days or before training for a five minute warm up. MORE
Great way to warm up before a match or training session. Similar to a Rondo but with more physical movement for days when it is cold or you have a practice based on fitness. MORE
In this set up players are racing against each other in a fun game that you can use at training or on match days. Great one to get the players alert and ready for anything MORE
It is a very difficult time to be coaching our players around the world. So to help you I have created the Coaching Classroom where you can download lessons to give to your players online. Here I have focused on Compactness and Penetration MORE
I was out walking on the local golf course where I live this week and in the distance I saw a child running from what seemed miles away at top speed. As the child got closer I realised that it was someone dribbling a ball. Of course on the fairways it was like being at Wembley on a well cared for football pitch! It was great to see a child enjoying dribbling a ball, chipping over the bunkers and swerving around the patches of heather that catch out an unwary golfer. MORE
At the United Soccer Coaches Digital Convention yesterday I was in the presentation by Dan Abrahams on performance of your team with well being in mind. He explored three environmental approaches and combines them to help you establish a healthy and safe coaching environment for players of all ages and levels. MORE
I'm usually high up in the sky on my way to the United Soccer Coaches convention in America at this time of the year – last year I was at the convention in Baltimore and there was loads of coaching education on offer. Yet it is still exciting to be entering the United Soccer Coaches Digital Convention 2021 on my computer in the home office. MORE
Turning with the ball has always been a skill that draws names from the great players through the ages – think of the Cruff turn or Zidane spin turn. It used to make me wonder how players like Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Zinedine Zidane or Johan Cruyff could turn their opponents inside out, game after game – I now know it needs practice and from a young age. MORE
One of the ways to improve your team in 2021 is to get them communicating on the pitch. Players do this by verbal and non verbal actions, like pointing where they want a ball to be passed or calling for the ball when overlapping from behind like a fullback running outside a winger. MORE
