Warm Up Drill – Sprint, Dribble, Shoot

Brilliant Warm up Drill.. If you’re looking for something a little different to get your players warmed up this is the one.

It’s all about ball control and varying paces, whether it be a straight sprint or navigating cones ant varying distances, a couple of sharp changes of direction followed by a shot from the edge of the area.

It’s faced paced and sets a good tempo. It also sets the players up for the training session ahead by giving them a bit of what they want so they are engaged and good to go.

Warm Up Drill – Sprint, Dribble, Shoot – How it works

Set your cones out like above, ideally you want to be using a full half a pitch that matches the age group the play on.

Start off with a full sprint of that half a pitch, led by the goalkeeper. Once they get to the goal, the keeper stops at takes their place.

The rest of the players carry on to the gate and collect a ball.

The first part is a full paced sprint to the first black cone. When the player in front gets to the red cone the next player sets off.

First part of the cones dribbling is tight control through the small gaps.

Then acceleration into the cones with bigger gaps, before slowing down again for a tight dribble.

At the far corner, they turn back on themselves and drive toward the white cone.

When they get there they attack the wall of cones before shift the ball left or right and the next touch is a shot.

After their shot, they collect the ball and go again.

Warm Up Drill – Sprint, Dribble, Shoot – Keepers

For the goalkeeper, encourage them to take a position further out of the goal than they are perhaps comfortable with. The “6 yard box” for 9v9 & 11v11 or the equivalent for 7v7 and below.

Tell the goalkeeper not to worry about being chipped and concentrate on narrowing that angle, being on their toes and using quick feet to adjust their position.

It’s natural for young goalkeepers to want to retreat to their goal line, this is about giving them the confidence to start dominating their box.

By having a more prominant starting position, they will find that they actually intimidate the players into shooting straight at them as they are more in their eyeline as they take a shot.

If they are unsure at first, tell them that for the first round they can stand where they want, then the 2nd round follow the above and then see the difference in the shots the stop.

Warm Up Drill – Sprint, Dribble, Shoot – Coaching points

Its really important that the players understand how key the changes in pace are, they really must accelerate when the get the space to do so, but then adjust to maintain control of the ball as the cones close in.

Using both feet to navigate the cones is a must, as this really helps keep the drill flowing and stops a back log.

Having a coach manage the flow in the bottom left corner is a good idea for the first few times. If the position of the red cone needs to be changed then do so accordingly to give your players the time they need.

With regards to the shooting, encourage your players to alternate between strong foot shot and weak foot shot.

Warm Up Drill – Sprint, Dribble, Shoot – What next ?

If when the goalkeeper takes a more aggressive starting position you may find that more shots end up going straight at the keeper.

This is because the keeper is in the line of site of the players and just before they shoot, the keeper is the last thing they look at rather than the goal itself.

This shooting accuracy drill is a great way to start combating that problem

Brilliant Drills are nothing without a plan !!

Combine the power of our drills with a plan…

Don’t bounce from one week to the next trying to fix problems from the previous weekend, it’s just papering over the cracks. It’s not going to have a lasting effect on your players.

Give them the chance to take it in, give them the chance to develop properly.

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