By Steven Smith
Area Size: 40 X 35 Grid
Teams: Everyone on the team in groups of two
Time: 10-12 minutes
Objective: Increase passing skills in teams of all developmental levels
Narrative
This warm up activity can take away the boredom that often comes with warming up. It is a gradual progression of passing and receiving with partners that turns into a fairly intense and fun way of getting your athletes to focus and be fully prepared to go hard once you hit the main training phase.
Set Up
A large grid of 40 X 35 is constructed for players to pass and receive with their partner. Every player finds a partner to pass and receive with inside of the grid.
This activity is a three step progression of intensity.
The activity begins with each set of partners having a ball. The ball is passed and received only with their own partner. After intervals of passing and receiving with intervals of stretching and range of motion activities the intensity is increased by inserting a set of rabbits (defenders who chase down ball). The rabbits simply attempt to knock the ball of the partner passers out of the grid to eliminate the partners.
The activity momentum increases with the number of defenders that the coach chooses to insert into the grid.
The final progression is where the intensity reaches it's peak. Two sets of partners give up their balls and are joined together by holding onto a towel. The defenders with the towel must work together to tag a player without the ball. This means that the partners who are passing and receiving must pay attention to the defenders with the towel and when their partner is being chased they must get the ball to their partner. Once a player has the ball on their foot they cannot be tagged. If a player is chased out of bounds (grid) then they have been tagged. Once tagged the chasers drop their towel and the tagged player picks up the towel and his partner joins him or her to become the taggers. The former taggers become passers and receivers. It is a continuous game until the coach ends the activity.
Variations:
Goalkeepers can be introduced into the game with the restriction that they pass and receive using their hands to catch.
By Steve Smith
Steve Smith has been a men's college coach that holds an NSCAA Advanced National Diploma and a Doctorate in Physical Education.
