Soccer Warm up Drills
For soccer warm up drills, warm up drills for kids and youth soccer warm ups, check out our age and topic specific drills for kids of all ages.
Soccer Warm up Drills
Soccer warm-up drills are necessary to introduce a skill, technique, or tactic while allowing the player to loosen up and get ready for practice. These drills are often best at the beginning of training; however, depending on the skill level of the team can be the main drills on your topic.
1v1 Corner Escape
This drill sharpens a player’s ability to receive under pressure, recognize defensive cues, and dribble into space. It emphasizes decision-making, ball protection, and breaking away from pressure in tight areas.
Troll Crossing Game
Develops dribbling under pressure, decision-making in 1v1 situations, and ball protection. Players learn to change direction and use feints to evade defenders.
Escape
This drill enhances a player’s ability to move under pressure while maintaining balance and control. It also encourages teamwork and coordination among defenders using their hips to contain the central player.
Y Passing Drill - Variation 3
Develops players' ability to execute quick one-two passes, play accurate long balls, and transition into new positions efficiently. Encourages decision-making and proper body positioning for receiving and distributing passes.
Y Passing Drill - Variation 2
Develops passing accuracy, movement off the ball, and one-two combination play. Encourages quick decision-making, communication, and proper body positioning for receiving and distributing the ball.
Y Passing Drill - Variation 1
Develops players' ability to receive with an open body position, execute accurate passes, and transition quickly between roles. Encourages movement, decision-making, and proper body positioning when receiving the ball.
Fixed Distance Passing Game
This drill helps players develop passing accuracy, weight of pass, and first-touch control. It also reinforces teamwork and focus while progressively increasing difficulty by narrowing the passing gate.
Variable Distance Passing Game
This drill improves passing accuracy, technique, and decision-making at varying distances. Players learn to adjust power and precision while maintaining consistency under pressure.
Dribbling and Turning with Pressure on the Back
This drill teaches players how to turn effectively when under defensive pressure. It improves awareness, body positioning, and ball protection while developing confidence in 1v1 situations.
Dribbling with Pressure on the Back
This drill improves a player's ability to protect the ball while dribbling under pressure. It teaches awareness, quick reactions, and body positioning to maintain possession against a defender.
Dribble Speed Tag
This drill enhances dribbling under pressure, quick changes of direction, and spatial awareness. Players learn to protect the ball while navigating through a crowded area at speed.
4v4+1 Corner Support Rondo
This drill improves quick passing, spatial awareness, and teamwork by encouraging players to use both central and corner support players to maintain possession. Players develop composure under pressure and transition awareness.
4v4+4 Corner Rondo
This drill enhances passing accuracy, spatial awareness, and teamwork by encouraging players to use the four corner players as outlets to maintain possession. It also develops defensive pressure and quick transitions.
4v4+4 Continuous Transition Rondo
This drill enhances quick decision-making, possession retention, and defensive pressing. Players develop composure under pressure, transition speed, and teamwork through a continuous cycle of possession and defending.
1v1 Reaction Gate Challenge
This drill enhances 1v1 attacking and defending skills by training quick decision-making, reaction speed, and close ball control. Attackers learn to use deception, while defenders focus on anticipation and body positioning.
3v3, 4-Goal Small-Sided Game Funino
This drill encourages players to recognize attacking opportunities by creating space, making quick decisions, and choosing the best option between two goals. Defensively, players learn to cover space effectively and transition quickly.
Hexagonal Rondo
The Hexagonal Rondo drill focuses on quick passing and movement within a six-sided grid, emphasizing control and spatial awareness. Players work to maintain possession by creating passing angles and exploiting gaps in the defensive shape. The objective is to enhance technical precision, quick decision-making, and fluid team coordination.
3v1 Transition Rondo
The 3v1 Transition Rondo drill emphasizes quick combination passing to unbalance the defender and shift the point of attack to an adjacent grid. This exercise challenges the defender to transition rapidly between areas, enhancing their ability to react under pressure. The focus is on sharp passing and strategic movement to exploit defensive weaknesses.
Tail Tag - Fun Soccer Game
Tail Tag is an energetic game designed to enhance agility, spatial awareness, and quick decision-making for U6 players. This drill encourages young players to stay alert and react swiftly to changing situations. The focus is on developing foundational movement skills in a fun and engaging environment.
Red Light, Green Light, Bumper Cars
Red Light, Green Light, Bumper Cars drill enhances dribbling, coordination, and agility while introducing players to controlled body contact. This exercise helps young players develop comfort with physical play and improves their ability to maintain control under pressure. The goal is to build confidence in handling body contact while refining fundamental soccer skills.
Hospital Tag Soccer Game
Hospital Tag combines fun with skill development, reinforcing dribbling techniques in a lively, competitive setting. This drill keeps young players engaged while challenging them to maintain control of the ball under pressure. The focus is on improving dribbling accuracy and agility in a dynamic environment.
Stop and Turn Dribbling Relay Race
Introduce a competitive element with the Stop and Turn Soccer Dribbling Relay Race, emphasizing stopping, turning, and directional changes. This drill reinforces quick transitions and sharpens players' ability to control the ball during directional shifts. The objective is to improve precision and speed in executing turns under pressure.
Dribbling Through Gates Competition
Develop players' dribbling skills by challenging them to navigate through multiple gates within a 1-minute timeframe. This drill emphasizes quick decision-making and ball control under pressure. The goal is to enhance agility and precision while maintaining speed during dribbling.
Dribbling and Passing Warm-up Drill
This dribbling and passing drill is a great start to a dribbling or passing training session and will quickly get the blood pumping and players legs warm.
Follow the Leader Dribbling
In this drill, players follow a leader who dribbles the ball around the field, performing various movements and turns. The followers must mimic the leader's actions, encouraging them to pay close attention and react quickly. Use this drill to help enhance dribbling skills and agility and to develop the ability to imitate and react to different movements and techniques.
Obstacle Course Dribble Drill
The Obstacle Course dribbling drill is a fun way for young players to practice dribbling in a more dynamic and challenging environment. This drill involves an obstacle course with cones through which players dribble their soccer balls. It's designed to mimic game situations where players must navigate opponents or tight spaces. It helps develop their ability to control the ball under various conditions, an essential skill for soccer players of all levels. This drill helps to improve dribbling skills and agility and enhances coordination and control while maneuvering the ball around obstacles.
Soccer Dribbling Basics
This soccer dribbling drill is fundamental to young player's development, laying the foundation for more advanced dribbling skills. Keeping the environment fun and encouraging is important, allowing players to build confidence in their ball-handling abilities. This drill introduces and improves basic dribbling skills and helps develop coordination and control of the ball with both feet.
Shark Attack Soccer Drill
The Shark Attack drill is excellent for developing dribbling skills in a fun and engaging environment, encouraging young players to think and move quickly while maintaining control of the ball. This drill will help improve dribbling skills under pressure and to develop spatial awareness and agility.
4v2 Rondo
The 4v2 Rondo is a great soccer possession game to work on passing, angles of support, and movement off the ball to maintain possession.
Three-Cone Passing Drill
The three-cone passing drill focuses on passing, awareness, and movement after the pass. This is a great warmup to focus on passing technique and movement after the pass.
Four-Cone Passing Drill
This four-cone passing drill focuses on soccer passing technique and movement after the pass. This is a great passing warm-up drill or a good start to a passing session.
Six-Cone Passing Drill
The six-cone passing drill focuses on passing, awareness, and movement after the pass. This is a great warmup or to focus on passing technique and movement after the pass.
Four-Corner Shielding Drill
This is a great drill for teaching the basics of shielding as it focuses on positioning your body between the ball and the defender to protect the ball.
One-Touch Passing Combination with a Dribble; Series 2
This is the second series to a fast-paced one-touch passing combination warmup drill with a light dribble at the end.
One-Touch Passing Combination with a Dribble; Series 1
This is the first series to a great one-touch passing combination warmup drill with a light dribble. This is a passing pattern drill that focuses on one-touch passing, receiving, movement off the ball with touches on the ball.
Soccer Tic-Tac-Toe Warm-up
Soccer Tic-Tac-Toe is a fun warmup drill that focuses on making good decisions while under pressure.
Passing Warm-up Drill
This is a passing warm-up drill that is a great start to every practice and before a game. Players will get a lot of touches on the ball and can focus on receiving and passing while getting in a good warm-up.
4v1 Rondo
This rondo variation is geared for younger player or players you are just introducing to the rondo training.
Rondo Soccer Drill
This rondo soccer drill is the rondo at its simplest. This rondo game is great as a warm-up drill to a game, or a drill for your practice session.
Circle Rondo Soccer Drill
This circle rondo soccer drill is a great warm-up drill before a game, or a drill for your practice session.
Combination Play Through the Central Midfielders
This soccer passing and combination drill focus on passing combination play through the central midfielder players.
The Cristiano Ronaldo Speed Test
The Cristiano Ronaldo Speed Test is an individual assessment of ones ability to dribble the ball at pace while maintaining control.
Figure Eight Dribbling Drill
The Figure Eight soccer dribbling drill is a good change to weaving in and out of cones and is great for dribbling with the inside and outside of the foot.
Zig-Zag Dribbling Drill
The Zig-Zag soccer dribbling drill focuses on dribbling with speed with the inside, the outside, and the bottom of the foot.
T-Cone Dribbling Drill
The T-Cone soccer dribbling drill is a great drill to focus on dribbling with speed, controlled touches, turns, and fitness.
Catch Me If You Can
The soccer dribbling drill is a fun and competitive exercise that focuses on dribbling with speed.
Hot-Box Passing and Receiving Drill
The hot-box passing and receiving soccer drill focuses on small group and individual passing and receiving skills.
Shooting Agility Drill
This soccer shooting drill focuses on agility and check-runs after the pass.
Inside of the Foot Passing Warm-up
This passing warm-up drill will focus on accuracy when passing with the inside of the foot.
Shooting Agility Drill
This soccer shooting drill will focus on passing combination along with agility. This drill is an excellent pre-game warmup for passing and shooting.
1v1 Diamond Shooting Drill
This 1v1 drill focuses on a passing combination with movement off the ball and finishes with a one vs. one to goal. If players miss they become the keeper and the game continues. Players love the fun, competitive twist of being able to make a player become a goalkeeper.
Alien Tag Soccer Game
This is a fun game for 3 through 6 year-olds. This will focus on agility, vision, and awareness, but best of all, it's fun.
Clean Your Room
This soccer game is a great drill for U5 through U8 players. The clean your room soccer drill will focus on dribbling under pressure while also working on defensive pressure as an individual or a small group.
Combination Shooting Drills
This shooting drill focuses on combination play and building up for a shot on goal. There are multiple combination ideas to make the shooting drill more difficult progressively.
Triangle Combination Passing Drill
This passing drill focuses on combination play in a small area. You can concentrate on the pace of the pass, angle of the pass, the weight of the pass, timing of the runs before and after the pass, one-two’s, and movement.
Line Passing Overlap Warm-up
This passing and overlapping warm-up soccer drill will help perfect the introduction of overlapping runs, playing off the pass, as well as teamwork through communication.
Line Passing Combination Warm-up
This combination passing drill is designed to work on combination play while advancing up the field. This passing drill focuses on the timing of passes, runs, combination play, and will be a great warm-up to passing practices.
Three Person Passing Combination
This passing combination drill that involves three players at a time. The combination sequence that will help perfect passing, combination play, movement off the ball, and will help improve player’s fitness level.
Circle Passing Overlap Combination
The circle passing overlap combination drill will focus on passing, combination play, overlapping, playing with speed, and playing to feet. This combination drill is an excellent passing warm-up drill that can be a great start to a passing practice that incorporates overlapping.
3v1 Rotating Defenders
This 3v1 game will focus on keeping possession in a tight space. Work on passing, decision making, movement on and off the ball as well as improve communication.
Circle Passing Combination Drill
The circle passing combination drill will focus on passing, communication, playing with speed, and playing to feet. This soccer passing drill is an excellent passing warm-up drill that can be a great start to a passing practice.
Combination Crossing Drill
This combination crossing and finishing drill will focus on crosses within the 18 and is designed to help players become comfortable on crosses inside the 18.
Combination Shooting with Dummy Run
This combination shooting drill focuses on shooting and finishing within the 18. It starts with a dummy run stepping over the ball, then a combination play ending with a shot on goal.
Pirate Treasure Dribbling Game
This soccer dribbling game is designed for young players ages 3-8. The Pirate Treasure Dribbling Game will focus on young players dribbling skills and is great fun for the kids.
Passing Combination | 1-2 | Wall Pass | One-Two
This soccer passing and combination drill focuses on passing and receiving ground balls and performing a one-two (1-2) and a wall pass around the defender.
Diamond Passing Combination
This soccer passing drill focuses on quick ball movement and combinations. Use this soccer combination drill to clean up first touch and tight passing, or spread it out and work on long passing.
Triangle Goal Game
The Triangle Goal Soccer Game will focus on all aspects of the game such as passing, moving, and finishing. The players will have to work together as a team to quickly off-balance the defender and catch the goalkeeper off guard.
Shooting Combo, 1v1 Shooting Drill
This is a great shooting drill that focuses on making a move before shooting, making a 1-2 combination play before shooting, then taking on a defender 1v1 before shooting.
Combination Shooting & Finishing Drill
This is a dynamic shooting and finishing soccer drill that will focus on the timing of the combination play, touching the ball with your back to the defender, and having a quick tight turn and finish with a shot on goal.
Dribbling Warm-up Drill
This soccer dribbling exercise is an excellent dribbling warm-up drill that will get players many touches on the ball in a short time.
Combination Shooting Rotation Drill
This soccer shooting and finishing drill focus on combination play and build-up before getting the shot off. It is a great shooting soccer drill to focus on burying the ball with a shot after a small combination play.
Check-in Passing Warm-up
This passing and receiving warm-up drill is a great soccer drill to help with timing and striking a ball while checking in to a pass.
Indoor Shooting Drill
This is a great indoor soccer shooting drill to use while practicing indoors. This indoor soccer shooting drill also touches on dribbling, passing, using the walls, and finally shooting on goal.
Indoor Dribbling and Passing Drill
This indoor soccer drill is great for warm-up to your indoor soccer practice. This focuses on dribbling and passing warm-up indoors.
Trapping with Passive Opposition
This soccer trapping drill focus on trapping and control with the addition of a passive defender. The defender causes the receiving player to be more aware of their surroundings.
Trapping and Control with No Opposition
This soccer skills drill aims to practice trapping and control with the foot, chest, and thigh.
Reaction, Acceleration, and Winning the Ball
This soccer drill focuses on reaction, acceleration, and winning 50-50 balls. This is a great warm-up drill when focusing on fitness, reaction time, or winning 50-50 balls.
Team Reaction Dribbling Drill
The team reaction dribbling drill is a fun soccer dribbling drill that focuses on dribbling and reacting to teammates.
Coach's Revenge
This drill is a fun soccer drill. It will focus a bit on young players' agility while dodging balls kicked at them and is a great ice breaker or a fun warm-up game at the beginning of practice.
1v1 50/50 to Goal Team Competition
This 1v1 soccer drill focuses on soccer fitness, scoring goals, shooting, goalkeeping, and winning 50-50 balls. This is a fun soccer drill for the younger soccer player.
1v1 1st Attacker Dribbling Without Opposition
This 1v1 dribbling exercise allows coaches to focus on the 1st attacker's ability to beat the defender on the dribble. In this soccer drill, the coach should focus on the attacker's approach, make sure the attacker has a change in direction, and finish with a burst of speed (change of pace). This drill helps beginners get a feel for moving around defenders.
Shadow Dribbling
This shadow soccer dribbling drill uses partners who do not attempt to gain possession of the ball but adds extra pressure as they follow the dribbler around and tries to imitate the lead dribblers every move.
Speed of Play Warm-up
This soccer drill is a great warm-up to sessions relating to the speed of play in a soccer game. Players must have a good grasp of necessary passing and receiving skills to execute this soccer drill successfully.
Snake in the Grass Soccer Game
This is a great soccer game for under 6 and under 8 soccer players. This soccer game is designed to work on young players coordination and body movements.
Can You Do This?
The Can You Do This? soccer drill focuses on players under 6 years old. It is designed to work on simple body movement, coordination, and balance.
Soccer Dribbling and Juggling Warm-up
This soccer drill is a great warm-up drill that allows players to work on touching the ball with all parts of the foot. If you want to improve players footwork and dribbling skills, this is an excellent start to each practice.
Goalkeeper Warm-up Drill
The Goalkeeper Warm-up Drill is a great soccer goalkeeper warm-up drill to add to the pregame warm-up. Goalkeepers will love this warm-up.
The Flag Game - Dribbling in Tight Spaces
This soccer drill is designed to focus on young soccer players learning to dribble in tight spaces. This dribbling drill will help young players keep their eyes up and to become aware of their surroundings. This soccer drill also helps players keep close possession while dribbling.
Jam-Packed Soccer Dribbling Drill
The Jam-Packed Soccer Dribbling Drill will give players confidence while dribbling through congested areas on the soccer field.
Extreme Tag Soccer Game
The Extreme Tag soccer game is a fun soccer drill that focuses on young soccer players dribbling skills and aids in player awareness. It is a great drill that causes players to change directions quickly to find space to avoid being tagged.
Dribbling at the Cone
The Dribbling at the Cone youth soccer dribbling drill is a good soccer dribbling drill for young soccer players to learn to dribble without opposition. It is a fabulous drill to introduce different fakes and faints to gain an edge on the defender.
Angle of Support Soccer Possession Drill
The Angle of Support Soccer Possession Drill is a soccer passing drill for teaching young players angle of support and spacing.
Guard the Castle
The Guard the Castle drill is a great small-sided game that focuses on passing in numbers up situations. This soccer passing game is a fun drill the kids will love it!
1 on 1 (1v1) Soccer Progression
This one-on-one (1v1)progression will focus on required dribbling skills, body feints, and the required burst of speed to beat a defender.
Soccer Tennis
Soccer Tennis is a great game to focus on volleys and balls out of the air. It can be played virtually anywhere, and the older kids will love it.
Shooters and Shaggers Soccer Shooting Game
The Shooters and Shaggers Soccer Shooting Game is a great drill to improve shooting on target, leg strength and the instep drive when shooting with the shoelaces.
Fun Soccer Dribbling Warm-up
This is a fun soccer dribbling warm-up game that is an excellent ice-breaker at the beginning of the season or the beginning of a camp to get the kids warmed up with a light, fun dribbling game. These exercises might are a bit advanced for the beginner soccer player.
Partner Pass and Move Soccer Warm-up
This soccer passing drill will help you focus and teach a young player how to pass with the correct surface on the foot, how to receive a ball and move after receiving the pass.
Traffic Jam Dribbling Game
This game is just out right fun! The kids will have a blast playing this game. This drill is ideal for kids who know how to dribble but just need to learn to get their heads up and dribble under the pressures of mere congestion.
Soccer Tag Dribbling Game
Soccer Tag is an excellent soccer drill for young players ages under 5 through under 8. Soccer Tag is a fun soccer drill that allows players to gain confidence on the ball while getting a lot of touches.
HItters and Dodgers
The hitters and dodgers soccer drill is a great warm-up and exercise for younger players under 5 through under 9. This soccer drill is excellent for teaching players to dribble and then getting their heads up to make a pass. This soccer drill is so much fun, and the younger players love this game.
Down and Back Dribbling Game
This drill is most effective with young players just learning to dribble. This drill teaches players to dribble in high traffic, high-pressure situations while staying in control. It's a great warm-up to focus on controlling the ball with all parts of the foot.
Body Parts Warm-up Game
This fun soccer dribbling drill focuses on the younger player's dribbling skills, and the ability to listen to directions and think quick on their feet while holding the ball close. This drill is an excellent dribbling warm-up exercise for Under 4, Under 5, and Under 6 soccer players.
3-Minute Shooting Drill
This soccer drill allows the coach to focus on shooting, goalkeeping and clearing balls from the back. This drill is an excellent warmup to a shooting or clearing practice.
Combination Play - Improving 1-2 Combinations
This soccer passing drill focuses on improving 1-2 combination play. This drill focuses on short and long 1-2's and enhancing movement off the ball.
Combination Play; Improving 1-2 Combinations Part II
This soccer passing drill focuses on improving 1-2 combination play. This passing combination drill encourages good movement off the ball.
1v1 to Multiple Goals (Dribbling)
This 1v1 soccer drill is an excellent drill for focusing on teaching players attacking skills such as taking on their opponent or learning to attack space. Defensively it will teach players the responsibility of man-marking.
Goalkeeper Pressure Cooker Drill
This soccer drill is a great goal keeper warm-up drill. It will give your keeper a great workout while working on passing and shooting with accuracy.
Instep Shooting Drill
This soccer shooting drill focuses on the instep drive. This shooting technique is an essential method of striking a ball when shooting. The instep drive hits the shot with the foot's shoelace with the toe pointed down and the ankle locked.
Passing and Receiving Warm-up
This soccer warm-up drill focuses on passing and receiving and can be used for players 9 years and older. It's a good drill that can be tweaked to focus on any types of passing or receiving skills.
5v2 Angle of Support Passing Drill
The purpose of this soccer passing drill is to focus on players angle of support, the weight of passes and the quality of 1st touch.
Criss-Cross Dribbling Game
The Criss-Cross dribbling drill focuses on the younger player. This dribbling drill assists players play with speed while keeping their heads up. Be warned, this drill can be dangerous for players who have a tendency of dribbling with their head down.
Knock Out
This drill is a great warm-up drill for dribbling sessions as it focuses on dribbling and ball control, keeping the head up, change of direction and change of pace.
Frogger - Youth Dribbling Drill
This youth dribbling drill, "Frogger," is perfect for U6 and U8 soccer players, focusing on building confidence and improving dribbling skills under minimal pressure. This fun and engaging activity helps young players develop control and technique in a supportive environment.
The Greeting Game
This soccer drill is specifically designed for younger players (U-6 and U-8). This drill will get the players moving, greeting each other, and a building block to introduce dribbling. Good for Camp activities for the younger players.
Dribbling with Speed
This dribbling exercise that works on speed dribbling and getting the ball under control while dribbling with speed.
Ouch!
"Ouch!" is an exciting and engaging soccer drill designed for younger players (U6, U7, and U8). It introduces essential skills like dribbling, keeping their heads up, and accurately striking the ball at a target. Best of all, it's a fun and interactive game that both players and coaches will enjoy!
Shooting Warmup
This shooting warm-up drill will focus on long-range passing, accuracy, and finishing. It can also be used as a fitness exercise by manipulating the numbers.
Red Light, Green Light Soccer Drill
This soccer dribbling drill, designed for U4, U6, and U8 players, combines fun with skill-building by incorporating a familiar childhood game. It emphasizes close ball control and quick stopping, helping players refine their dribbling precision and responsiveness.
Simon Says - Youth Soccer Drill
The "Simon Says Youth Soccer Drill" is a fun and engaging activity designed for U6 and U8 players, focusing on improving dribbling skills and close ball control. This drill helps young soccer players develop quick responses to instructions while also enhancing their listening skills in a dynamic and enjoyable way.
Attacking from the Back
This soccer drill focuses on building an attack from the back starting with the keeper’s distribution. When performed on a full field this drill demands a great deal of fitness as it should be executed at top speed in a continuous fashion.
Across-Field Warm-Up
This soccer drill is mainly focused on technical skills during warm up. This is a great drill to do at the beginning of each game.
Handling Flighted Balls
This receiving soccer drill focuses on passing and receiving flighted balls during warm-up.
Accuracy Passing Under Pressure
This drill focuses on accurately passing under pressure, agility, and fitness.
5v2 Rotating Defenders
This 5v2 drill will focus on keeping possession by making good passes as well as good passing decisions, moving to open space, and good communication.
3v3 Plus 3
This drill focuses on keeping possession. Passing, receiving, movement, and angle of support can be singled out. Causes players to look up and be aware of the surrounding players.