Warming up before soccer practice or a game helps you both mentally and physically. You need to get your focus from the bike or car ride to soccer playing, and this transition may take a few minutes. Your heart rate needs to rise, and your muscles need to warm up. Even pro players like David Beckham of the LA Galaxy carefully focus on warming up before a game for peak results. Allow five to 10 minutes for easy warm-up activities for youth players and for focused exercises for adults.
Bulls in the Ring
Long-time coach D.W. Crisfield recommends in "Knack Coaching Youth Soccer" putting all the players, each with his own ball, in the center circle of the field. Have players dribble with just the inside or outside of their feet, or just the right or left foot. On your command, have them sprint out of the ring and put a foot on top of the ball when they cross the border of the ring. The last player out is the loser.
Half -and-Half Drill
This drill, also from "Knack Coaching Youth Soccer," allows the warmup to double as a skills drill. You can mark a grid 25 yards on each side with plastic disks or cones. Half the players will have a ball at any given time. Players with the ball work first on dribbling and passing, as they take two touches and pass to an open player. The player who receives the ball accelerates and looks for another open player. Author Crisfield recommends continuing the drill until the players' heart rates are elevated. Players also work on thigh and chest control, with one player tossing the ball underhanded to an open player's thigh or chest. The receiver controls the ball, brings it down to his foot and dribbles away. She then picks up the ball and tosses it to an open player. Finally, players toss the ball five times to each other, head the ball back and change places.
Skipping
Adult players can warm up with vigorous movements, including skipping, University of North Carolina Greensboro coach Michael Parker recommendas in "Premier Soccer." These movements raise the heart rate and dynamically stretch the muscles. For the "A" skip, bring alternate legs up, heel nearly to your buttocks, and briefly hop off the ground and land in a skipping motion. For the "B" Skip, bring the heel up to the buttocks like with the A skip, but instead of lowering your skipping leg to the ground, extend it in front of you until it is relatively straight. Then lower it to the ground.
Carioca, Shuffle and High Knees
Sideways motions also warm the muscles and stretch the body. Coaches everywhere recommend the carioca, which is much like the grapevine dance step in which you cross one leg over the other as you move sideways. The shuffle goes side to side without crossing the legs. Parker also recommends high knees. Moving slowly down the field, drive your knees up and lean forward, as if you are running in place. Follow with a game involving a few people on each side to complete the warmup, he advises.
