Coaching tools › Activities › Warm-ups and arrival games

The 30-Minute Game-Day Warm-Up

By Gabe Ramos · U.S. Soccer Coach Educator · Updated October 2026

The same warm-up before every game, all season: rondo, move, pairs with a ball, a habit game, shots and saves, then the huddle. Players who know the routine run it themselves, which leaves you free to hand in the card and watch the other team.

Setup

The same warm-up before every game, all season. Players who know the routine run it themselves, which leaves you free to greet parents, hand in the card and watch the other team. By week 4, two captains should be running steps A to C while you watch. The clock counts down to kickoff, so ask players to arrive 40 minutes before the game.

Coach’s notes

• A · Arrive And Rondo (30:00 · 5 Min): The block's rondo, in two squares, as players arrive. Loose and fun, no coaching. Keepers play in it with their feet. SAY THIS: “Ball moving, feet moving. Welcome.”
• B · Move (25:00 · 6 Min): Two lines, 15 yards, out and back together: jog, side shuffle both ways, skips, open the hips, close the hips, backpedal. Finish with three build-up runs at 60, 80 and 100 percent. SAY THIS: “Tall and light. Last one is game speed.”
• C · Pairs With A Ball (19:00 · 7 Min): Partners 10 yards apart: two-touch passing, receive across the body, both feet. After three minutes step back to 20 yards and drive it along the ground. Keepers leave with a helper: handling, low balls, footwork. SAY THIS: “Open up. First touch out of your feet.”
• D · Habit Game (12:00 · 6 Min): Starters against the rest in a 25x20, keep-ball, two games of two and a half minutes. Score it with this week's habit: the same bonus rule you used in training. SAY THIS: Use this week's SAY THIS line from the session page.
• E · Shots And Saves (6:00 · 4 Min): Two lines 25 yards out. Pass in, set back, strike. Every player shoots at least three times and the keeper sees game-speed shots. No lines longer than four: use both sides of the goal. SAY THIS: “Pick a corner. Hit the target.”
• Huddle (2:00 · 2 Min): Water. The 60-second talk from this week's match-day page: one habit, nothing else. Lineup, captains, hands in. SAY THIS: Read the BEFORE KICKOFF box, as written.
• Set Up On Your Half Only: Everything stays on your own half, between your goal and the halfway line. The other team has the other half. Lay the five areas out once and players move from A to E without waiting for you.
• Keepers: Rondo and Move with the team. At step C they leave with an assistant, a parent or a substitute for seven minutes of handling and low balls, then come back for the shots.
• Substitutes: Everyone does the whole warm-up. Anyone coming on later jogs and does the Move steps for two minutes behind the bench first.
• Only 15 Minutes?: Rondo 4, Move 4, Habit game 5, Huddle 2. Pairs and shots are what go.
• No Space Before Kickoff?: Everything except the shots fits in a 20x15 strip behind the goal or along the touchline.
• Hot Or Cold Day: Hot: shorten Move, add a water stop after step C. Cold: keep layers on until the habit game.

Why it works

A warm-up that changes every week is a warm-up the coach has to run. One that never changes is a warm-up the captains can run by week four, and that is the point of it: your players arrive at kickoff having already made a hundred passes and a dozen decisions.

Step D is the clever part. The habit game uses the same bonus rule you used in training that week, so the warm-up reminds the team what Saturday is about without a single word from you.

Where it sits

This is the Warm-Up block of Match Day · Game-Day Warm-Up in the Full Season Travel Curriculum for ages 9 to 12 (Match Day). Every session in the book runs the same 90 minutes: rondo, sharpen, solve, play and a set piece, drawn for 7v7 and 9v9, with two coaching points a day and a match-day page for every week.

See it inside a full U10 practice plan ›

More like this

Ages 9–12 · RondosFour-Line Rondo

A 10x10 with one attacker on each side line and one defender inside. Attackers may slide along their own line but not leave it.

Open the activity ›Ages 9–12 · Possession and passingWide Gates

Cone gates scattered 12 to 15 yards apart across a 30x30. In pairs, pass through a gate to your partner, then both run to a new gate.

Open the activity ›Ages 9–12 · Possession and passingChannel Game

4v4 to mini goals on a 35x30 with a five-yard channel down each side. One attacker at a time may be in a channel and nobody may tackle them there.

Open the activity ›