Pre Practice Warm ups / Stretching

[madzell]

I am a coach of an Under 12 Girls Team, this year for the first time My girls have a chance to compete for a championship. I have coached rec soccer for the past 7 years, this is my 8th.

I began when my girl was 3 and she wanted to play... it was mixed teams, until she played U 10. Up until that time we were undefeated, our teams never lost a game. When we went all girls we had a tough season, I blame myself, we tied one game and lost all the rest. Since then my girls have steadily improved. Until last year we won 70% of our games.

No one in our league believes that our team can even compete against some of the stacked teams in the U12 Champ Division, one in particular. My goal is to prove them all wrong.

My problem is this, up until now, stretching have been nothing really more than a formality to begin practice.

What I am looking for is some GOOD SOLID warm ups to get these girls ready for some tough practices.

Can Anyone help?

MadZell

[goyoureddevils]

Do you want to warm them up to stretch, or stretch or .......what exactly. I think girls like to have a routine for the beginning of pre game, something that they can do all by themselves, away from a coach. A series of SAQ (Speed Agility Quickness), moves, and a stretching routine that they can do all on their own while bonding and chatting about inconsequential stuff. Let them do this, and you will be surprised about how serious and focused they will become when you start them on some pre game activities like 4v2 keep away, or pass n shoot, or passing lanes, or whatever you want. Girls play sports to compete and to socialize with other girls....even on a serious team with championship potential, it is very important that you remember both of these things.

My closest friend coaches a championship girls high school team in the Miliwaukee area and he swears that he can tell the first week of pre season if they are going to do well by paying attention to the team chemistry as it relates to how the girls get along before and after practice. He says that if they all like each other and chat away like a bunch of chickens in a henhouse before and after practice, he can almost guarantee a winning season!

Let them be girls first, and serious butt kicking soccer chicks second.... you will be surprised I think at the result.

[madzell]

WHat I currently do PRE Practice and Pre Game, has been a Coach run Excersize Routine.

Toe Touches standing then sitting Legs together then spread no bending of knees, neck stretch, windmils, jumping jacks.

All on a 5 count where they all Spell the Home Town Name. H A V E N they do each set 5 times.

I am looking for a routine to do for Both Pre Game and Pre Practice, then some short drills Gives them shooting, handling, and Gives our keeper a chance to defend one ball at a time, rather then the girls all taking 1000 shots from 1000 different directions.

I Love the idea of a Squad run Warm up, I just am not sure what routine to set them up with to give them the best warm up possible.

[Roush]

Since your time with them in practice is limited, your warm-up should be used as an extension of what you'd like to work on during the actual practice.

e.g. - for a passing practice I would split my team into three small groups and go through a cycle passing (1-2-3-4-5-1...) drill, adding progressively more conditions (limited touch, alternating foot requirements, mix a long pass in) in stoppages. When I have them stop, I stretch the major muscle groups, and then after about 15-20 minutes I turn them loose to stretch whatever they need and grab a drink while I set up the first exercise.

[Keane_Fan]

Yeah, roush beat me to the answer I was gonna give. Try to make the warm up exercise look like what ever it is you are going to focus on in practice...for younger players I pick games like Sharks n Minnows for dribbling day, Godzilla or Duck Hunter for passing or shooting day, team handball for small group tactics day, ect. As for the SAQ routine, if you are interested in getting the full routine as given to me by my friend who coaches U14's at Preston North End in england, IM me and I will get it to you.

As I said before, pre game warm ups are best left as routines that you establish but the girls get to do on their own before you jump in and start coaching them. One other BIG piece of advice is that it is best for your keeper to be warmed up seperately by an assistant or by you or by another player.....if she stands in goal and gets pounded on by her teamates for 10 minutes, how does that affect her confidence going into the match if she has had 100 goals scored on her? On the flip side..... if she has stone walled the entire team for 10 minutes, how does that affect the confidence of your forwards and midfielders about their ability to shoot during the game? I let my field players warmup with shooting drills or offense v defense drills, shooting on an empty net or against the backup keeper. The starter needs to have her own space and time off to the side to be warmed up before being thrown into the goal to face some warm up shots from a coach or selected players....I used to let my starting forwards warm up my keeper with the understanding that they were to shoot for placement, not power, and to warm the keeper up to game speed gradually.

As I've said before, after 17 years coaching soccer, I want to know where my honorary psychology degree is dammit!

[kopiteinkc]

To liven up the stretching routine I have my team all stand in a circle and one in the middle, we go around each player and they call out their "favorite" stretch. The girl in the middle counts "One", the rest all shout "Two" and so on until they reach 10. New player, new stretch. Go around the whole circle of players.

Of course if it involves one side (leg, arm, etc), they need to both legs 10 times.

This not only is fun for them, it gives you, the coach, a bit of a break, it gets them to yell and start getting ready for the game, and it also unnerves the opposition as they look over at the coordinated yelling/stretching going on in the other half of the pitch :D

Then I move onto similar ball work as indicated above. Monkey in the middle in small groups works well for this age as a warm up.

[spartanpele]

Remember to use the warmup as a prep time before stretching and do it more then once if possible. Don't just stretch cold.

Anyway, some of my favorite include:
-circle passing (also known as cycle passing)
-running the lines (2x2 lines of players, run the actual lines of the field, and do different aerobic exercises such as jumps, skips, butt kicks, knees up, karoke, jump to head after touching ground, hips open and closed, "follow the leader" routine, etc.)
-3 team passing (team split into 3 equal teams in a 1/2 field, one team in middle, other two teams play keep away..team that loses ball is in middle, outside teams play 2 touch)
-dribbling/footskills inside the 18 (players all dribble inside the 18 and do various footskills. Can also do partner passing and moving with footskills, players have to learn to keep their head up when dribbling.)
-ladder/plyometrics with balls (setup soccer balls every 3 yds in 3-4 equal lines, have players do hops, every others, pattern plyos just like with ladders).
-color skill passing: 3 or 4 equal groups of players, each group has a different color pinney on, each group does a certain skill for 5 minutes then rotate the skill (wall pass, double pass, thru leg lets, overlaps, etc.)
-short, short-long passing; north-south-east-west passing, moving wall passing; passing weave to goal: different passing patters for the players doing one touch short passing
-window traps (head, chest, thigh, instep, elevator), (1) bringing down to ground, (2) first touch away, (3) 50/50 traps, (4) combinations...wall, overlaps, double pass, etc. Its a way to take the ball out of the air for focus.

This is a pretty big list and if you rotate your warmups each time, they won't get bored.... What I've found works best is also to do multiple sets of stretches. Warmup for 5 minutes, stretche for 2 1/2...another 5 warmup routine, another 2 1/2 stretch.... A final 5 minute exercise, another final stretch. I usually spend 20-30 minutes on the warmups (that includes the stretching and whenever I can I make it related to the rest of the practice skills we're working on.)

Don't forget to also stretch at the end of your practice during cool down...

Best of luck!!

[USvsIRELAND]

Remember to use the warmup as a prep time before stretching and do it more then once if possible. Don't just stretch cold.

Anyway, some of my favorite include:
-circle passing (also known as cycle passing)
-running the lines (2x2 lines of players, run the actual lines of the field, and do different aerobic exercises such as jumps, skips, butt kicks, knees up, karoke, jump to head after touching ground, hips open and closed, "follow the leader" routine, etc.)
-3 team passing (team split into 3 equal teams in a 1/2 field, one team in middle, other two teams play keep away..team that loses ball is in middle, outside teams play 2 touch)
-dribbling/footskills inside the 18 (players all dribble inside the 18 and do various footskills. Can also do partner passing and moving with footskills, players have to learn to keep their head up when dribbling.)
-ladder/plyometrics with balls (setup soccer balls every 3 yds in 3-4 equal lines, have players do hops, every others, pattern plyos just like with ladders).
-color skill passing: 3 or 4 equal groups of players, each group has a different color pinney on, each group does a certain skill for 5 minutes then rotate the skill (wall pass, double pass, thru leg lets, overlaps, etc.)
-short, short-long passing; north-south-east-west passing, moving wall passing; passing weave to goal: different passing patters for the players doing one touch short passing
-window traps (head, chest, thigh, instep, elevator), (1) bringing down to ground, (2) first touch away, (3) 50/50 traps, (4) combinations...wall, overlaps, double pass, etc. Its a way to take the ball out of the air for focus.

This is a pretty big list and if you rotate your warmups each time, they won't get bored.... What I've found works best is also to do multiple sets of stretches. Warmup for 5 minutes, stretche for 2 1/2...another 5 warmup routine, another 2 1/2 stretch.... A final 5 minute exercise, another final stretch. I usually spend 20-30 minutes on the warmups (that includes the stretching and whenever I can I make it related to the rest of the practice skills we're working on.)

Don't forget to also stretch at the end of your practice during cool down...

Best of luck!!

Where do you coach??

[spartanpele]

I coach HS in the Madison, WI. (USA) area.

I've got a ton of different skills, exercises, routines that I've been using for over a decade. Like most coaches, I'm not ashamed to use ideas from other coaches, even different sports, then turn around and pass them onto my players and other coaches. I study tapes/dvds, read books, subscribe to Success in Soccer, attend conferences/seminars, watch other teams, etc.

..."the more you learn and share your knowledge, the more the sport will improve...."


Do some of the exercises I listed sound familiar to you?

[madzell]

Thanks for all the help.. i will copy this over and look it over add to my current and make some changes.

My Practices begin tonight.