Fun Warm ups with 7-11 year olds

Steven PortplanOther, England

Hi Natty,

I`m guessing you`re looking for some inclusive drills which will incorporate a standards? If so;

Without hockey sticks:
all the classic playground games are good, tig, stuck in the mud, etc. You could put a hockey twist by having the children only play in certain parts of the pitch, or they have to hold a good hockey position when `stuck` in stuck in the mud.
I`ve attached a drill which always goes down well too!

With hockey sticks; what the time mr wolf is always a nice game, trying to have the children slowly dribble the ball with their head up. Practising dribbling and stopping, as well as a good hockey position and the importance of keeping their head up!

Hope this helps,

Josh

Divots!

DESCRIPTION

Scatter some cones (divots) across the area, some the right way up, and some upside down. Split the group into two teams - 'Hackers and Greenkeepers' - and spread them out across the area. On the word 'Go' the Hackers run round turning the divots upside down and the Greenkeepers must turn them the right way up.

Divots!

DESCRIPTION

Scatter some cones (divots) across the area, some the right way up, and some upside down. Split the group into two teams - 'Hackers and Greenkeepers' - and spread them out across the area. On the word 'Go' the Hackers run round turning the divots upside down and the Greenkeepers must turn them the right way up.

Hockey CoachCoach

We do a game with our older girls but it will work for this age too where everyone jogs on the spot, in a circle and looks at the ground and when someone says go everyone looks up at someone else in the team, the aim is to not look at someone who is looking at you but if two people do look up at each other they run, touch the fence or something nearby and then run back and join in again.

Peter EdwardsCoach, Australia

A common problem with juniors is that they all want to be "on the ball" this of course often results in nobody being in defence!! At the start of EVERY training session (even with my seniors) I place a training cone on the penalty spot. The players know that no matter what is happening during the session, no matter the drill - if they hear me yell "CONE" (And I`m ex-Army so I can be heard!) they must bolt as fast as they can possibly muster back to the cone. It has resulted in a number of goals being stopped on match day when it appeared our GK would be overwhelmed and can also be used to show the importance of playing in position. I time the runs and they know that if the time improves - there are benefits - if not - they do laps! :)

Matthijs GroothuizenCoach, Netherlands

For 7 year olds, doing games as listed above is great. For 10 and 11 year olds though, definitely when they are girls, you want to introduce some warmup excercises which keeps them busy but also really gets them into focus, because if everything is all fun and games, you won`t be able to get them fixed on your next drills. That`s why I always start with al little bit of jogging, whereafter I let them do different kinds of body movement to stretch all the muscles that are important. It gets them warm, focused, and they can talk while doing it so they also don`t get bored.