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Home/Training Drills/Conditioning Drills/Warm-Up Passing Square
ConditioningBeginner

Warm-Up Passing Square

Warm the body and the touch at the same time: quality passes to the correct foot, an open body to receive, and constant small movement. Raise the tempo as players get loose.

Create your own drill
Live animationCON
Duration
10 min
Total drill time
Players
4
Recommended
Pitch
15 × 15 m
Setup space
Level
Beginner
Skill required
Intensity
Low
Physical demand
Age band
U6-U8
Any format

Setup & instructions

Mark a 15x15m square with a cone on each corner and a player on each. Pass around the grid one way, then switch direction on the coach's call. Start two touch (control and pass), then progress to one touch as players warm up. Keep the ball on the floor and pass to the receiver's back foot.

Setup time: 2 min

Tactical breakdown

Warming up is a temperature problem before it is anything else. Muscle warms, becomes more elastic and contracts faster, and that is the physiological purpose of the first ten minutes. Static stretching a cold muscle does not achieve it and can briefly reduce power output, which is why a modern warm-up moves rather than holds.

What makes this particular square worth using with young players is organisational rather than physiological. Four players, one ball, four cones, and everybody is touching a ball within a minute of arriving. The alternative in most grassroots sessions is a coach explaining something to a circle of cold children, which wastes the part of the evening they are most receptive to and starts training with everyone standing still.

Raise the tempo gradually rather than starting fast. The first passes should be unhurried and short, and by the end of the ten minutes the ball ought to be moving at close to session pace. Going hard immediately is how a cold hamstring gets pulled in a passing drill, which sounds absurd and happens regularly.

Two technical habits are worth insisting on even here, because they cost nothing and they transfer. Pass to the correct foot, meaning the one that lets the receiver play forward, and open the body before the ball arrives instead of squaring up to it.

Do not coach heavily during a warm-up. The purpose is temperature and touch, and a coach who stops the square to correct technique has started the session before anybody is warm.

How to run this drill

  1. Get everyone on a ball within a minute. The main failure of grassroots warm-ups is a coach talking to cold children. Start the square first and explain while it runs.
  2. Start unhurried and build the tempo. Short and slow at first, close to session pace by the end. Going hard from cold is how hamstrings get pulled in a passing drill.
  3. Move rather than hold static stretches. Static stretching a cold muscle does not raise temperature and can briefly reduce power output. Movement is what warms tissue.
  4. Pass to the foot that lets him play forward. Costs nothing to insist on and transfers directly. The receiver's next action is decided by which foot the ball arrives at.
  5. Open the body before the ball arrives. Half-turn to see the next corner. Squaring up to the ball means every touch is followed by a turn nobody had time for.
  6. Resist coaching it heavily. Stopping the square to correct technique has begun the session before anyone is warm, which is the thing the warm-up existed to prevent.

Coaching focus

FROM SESSION PLAN

Coaching points

  • Pass to the correct foot so the next player can pass first time
  • Open the body before the ball arrives: half-turn to see the next corner
  • Stay on your toes and check to the ball, never wait flat-footed
  • Weight the pass so it arrives at a controllable pace
  • Talk early: call the receiver's name and the direction

Common mistakes

  • Passing to the wrong foot and killing the rhythm
  • Standing square with a closed body, unable to play forward
  • Over-hit passes that the next player cannot control
  • Going quiet: no calls, so runs and passes are mistimed

Progressions & regressions

VARIATIONS

Progressions

  • One touch only once players are warm
  • Pass and follow: sprint to the corner you passed to and join it
  • Add a second ball going the opposite way
  • Overlap: pass, then run outside the receiver to the next corner

Regressions

  • Unlimited touches to control and settle first
  • Enlarge the square so passes have more time
  • Walk the pattern before adding pace
Equipment
Cones×4
Markers×1
Tactical principles
warm up passing squarefootball warm upraising muscle temperaturepassing warm up drillsession startopen body shapepass to the correct footu7 warm upgrassroots warm updynamic warm up
Audience
U6-U8

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