Warm-Up🔥 🎾 🥎
Please click here for YouTube link for warmup tutorial
🧠 Purpose
To activate children’s bodies, improve balance and coordination, and get them engaged and smiling before the session begins!
📍 Set-Up
🟠 Use one colour of round cones in a large circle in the middle of the space
🎶 Optional: play fun music to get energy levels up
✅ No rackets or balls at the start — just bodies, cones, and imagination
🚶 How to Begin
🎯 Start with basic warm-up movements inside the circle:
o ✨ Star jumps
o 🦵 One-leg balance
o 🤸 Gentle stretches
🌀 Children then move around the cone circle in different ways:
o 🚶 Walk
o 💂 March
o 🏃 Jog
o 🔙 Backwards
o 🦀 Crab walk IMPORTANT!
o 🐎 Horse gallops
🧊 Coach shouts “Freeze!” intermittently — kids stop and hold a pose or balance!
🧱 Obstacle Challenge Build-Up
Coaches begin to add progressively challenging obstacles to the circle as warm-up continues:
🔁 Movement Obstacles
🔶 Cone Lines – jump over two-foot lines
🟠 Traffic Cones – higher jumps (🧑🤝🧑 parents can assist little ones)
🐍 Cone Snake – place cones in curved zigzag to step over (two feet either side)
🌀 Slalom – weave through a line of cones
🚪 Gate Game – “open and close” gate shapes with hitting tees
🧗 Crawling & Balance Challenges
🎯 Pole Crawl – tall cones + poles to crawl under
🪜 Ladder Hops – hop through agility ladder
🚶Stepping stones (throw down dots)
🪵 Walk the Plank – throw-down lines like tightrope
🛞 Tyre Run – jump between hoops like a boot camp
🧤 Ball + Balance Add-Ons
🪄 Add rackets + beanbags → balance while walking
🎾 Coach rolls footballs slowly as moving obstacle
🥏 Coach frisbees cones gently toward feet (kids dodge them!)
🚫 Use foam balls to fire at footballs in path — kids must avoid!
🐣 Feathers (For Younger Tots)
💬 Narrate movements (“Let’s march like soldiers!”)
🖐️ Encourage parent/assistant to hold hands for support
🪶 Remove difficult jumps/slaloms if too tricky
⚡ Progressions (Older Kids / Confident Throwers)
🎾 Balance ball instead of beanbagà transition to keepy uppys
🖐️ Have checkpoints (tubs) where balls need to be thrown or hit (could have hitting tees) into tubs from a distance
Children perform turns, or move the ball around their bodies, as moving
☀️ Coach Tips
🗣️ Give BIG energy and be silly — kids will copy you
👀 Adjust pace to suit group — add obstacles gradually
💛 Praise effort and bravery, not perfection
🎭 Mix imagination (e.g. “Crawl under the dragon’s tail!”)
☀️ Transition into other games
There are a couple of games that the warm-up set-up can be kept out and you transition directly into; see individual sheets for these games
Seasonal variations
Halloween
🎃 Coach throws Juggling scarves (white = ghosts), Frisbee cones = flying ghoul discs 🌀Buckets or tubs = cauldrons 🪄 Optional: spooky music or sound effects
🌟 Christmas Variation: “Elf Toss & Snow Catch” 🎅❄️
Swap white ghost scarves for silver and green scarves (snowflakes & elf magic). Flat cones become chimneys or piles of presents, and buckets are now Santa’s sack. Children can “deliver snowflakes” to the chimneys or toss presents into Santa’s sack. Add fun sound cues like “HO HO HO!” (run and freeze), or “Reindeer dash!” (gallop in a circle). Encourage festive costumes and jingling bells on wrists for extra sparkle.
🐣 Easter Variation: “Bunny Toss & Egg Catch” 🐰🥚
Use pastel-coloured scarves as bouncing eggs and flat cones as nests. Buckets or tubs become Easter baskets. Children hop like bunnies while tossing or catching scarves, and when the coach calls “Chocolate egg hunt!” they must retrieve and match scarves to nest colours. Add a “Golden Egg” challenge using a gold scarf for bonus points or silly tasks.
❤️ Valentine’s Variation: “Heart Toss & Cupid Catch” 💘💌
Use red, pink, and purple scarves as love letters or hearts, and flat cones become mailboxes. Kids can float their heart scarves to each other or aim to toss them into a mailbox tub. Add matching games: “Can you deliver the pink heart to the pink mailbox?” Use phrases like “Cupid Freeze!” or “Heart Spin!” to mix up movement.