Movement and anticipation

Organisation

• Simple‑to‑organise warm‑up activity to raise the heart rate and promote working as a team
• Tag game between two teams, or you can select a small number of taggers
• If a player is tagged, he or she has to stand still for five or ten seconds and balance on one leg
• Introduce safe zones for players to rest for a maximum of five seconds only
• Encourage players to balance on both the right and left leg
• If all players are tagged and frozen, the taggers win the game

Ways to make the exercise easier:

• Require the taggers to move with a ball at their feet

Ways to make the exercise harder:

• Require the other players to dribble a ball while running

Great questions to ask the children

• Can you show me ways to change direction to avoid the tagger(s)?
• How do you know where the tagger(s) is/are?
• How can you be clever to avoid being tagged? Show me

Safety tips:

• Make sure taggers tag the body, not the head

Organisation

• Create mini‑pitches for 3v3 with a net or middle zone 
• Play the game like a tennis game
• Players need to land the ball on the ground in the opponents’ half to score a point, after either one bounce or two
• Players can throw the ball, kick it, volley it, head it etc.
• When a team wins the point, it serves for the next point
• The first team to ten points wins

Ways to make the exercise easier:

• Allow underarm throwing to start with, as well as catching
• Make it one bounce to score a point

Ways to make the exercise harder:

• Require players to play the ball with their feet or body; no hands allowed
• Ask them to try to play without the ball touching the ground

Great questions to ask the children:

• Can you spread out as a team to defend your half?
• Can you try to land the ball in the spaces in the other half?
• Can you show me your tricks and skills to juggle the ball and keep it off the ground?

Safety tips:

• Players on each team should remain in their own half
• Create a safe zone between the mini‑pitches

Organisation

• Pick equal teams and make a pitch or pitches
• Create more pitches for more teams if needed
• Play a maximum of 6v6 including goalkeepers
• Let the players referee their own games, or a child who is injured or not taking part in the match can be the referee
• Create a mini‑competition if you have several teams

Ways to make the exercise easier:

• Give one team extra players to make it easier for them

Ways to make the exercise harder:

• Make a team play with fewer players
• Limit the number of touches per player

Great questions to ask the children:

• What is your game plan for each match? Discuss it as a team
• Can you try to spread out as a team?
• Can you choose a captain for each match – what is the role of a captain?

Safety tips:

• Create a safe zone between each pitch
• Give players a short rest between each mini‑match, and drinks breaks if needed