Warm-Up🔥 🎾 🥎
🔥 Movement, Coordination & Focus
🧠 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 a 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
☀️ 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!”)
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