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A great warm-up for young players

One minute to get a ball and dribble back - then steal from the others.

Warm-ups are vital when you are coaching young players - they not only get your players in the right frame of mind for taking part in the session but they also help reduce the risk of injury.

Often my players have come straight from school having been cooped up all day and are ready to release bursts of energy - you need to harness it and give them some fun, energising and competitive exercises from the word go.

This is a simple one to get them going:

Set up four cones in a square around 15 metres x 15 metres. Have a player on each cone, and 8 balls in the centre.

The players have one minute to race to the balls and dribble one back to their cone. Players can steal from each others corner but can only dribble one ball at a time.

The game is played for one minute. The winner is the one with most balls in their corner at the end of the minute.

For more warm-up ideas click here.