Pre-Game Warm-Ups: The 15 Minutes Most Coaches Waste

Have You Ever Stopped to Think About What Pre-Game Warm-Ups Are Actually For?

Most coaches would say: get the body warmed up, prevent injuries.

That answer isn't wrong, but it only tells half the story.

PDP (Player Development Project) co-founder Dave Wright and coaching consultant James Coutts discussed this topic during a Q&A session. Coutts has a rather unique perspective — he's both an active player and a professional youth development coach — so he can speak from both sides: the person being warmed up, and the person designing the warm-up.

After their conversation, the conclusion was actually a bit of a wake-up call:

The pre-game warm-up is one of the best coaching opportunities you have all week. But most coaches turn those 15 minutes into lining up and jogging in circles.

Young Kids Don't Need to "Warm Up" — They Need to Touch the Ball

Let's start with the foundation phase: U7 to U11.

At this age, the core purpose of a pre-game warm-up has absolutely nothing to do with physical preparation. The moment these kids run onto the pitch, they're already warm — excited, curious, dying to kick a ball. Your job isn't to "get them ready." It's to not kill their enthusiasm.

Wright put it bluntly: if you're making kids this age line up for laps and stretching, you're not warming them up — you're destroying their interest in football.

So what should you do? It's simple — give them a ball. As soon as they arrive, hand out balls. Pairs juggling, passing, free play. Then run a Rondo to get everyone touching the ball. After that, you can add some light positional walk-throughs so they get a feel for "roughly where I'll be standing in a bit."

But positional walk-throughs have a common pitfall. Coutts said he's seen far too many coaches line up 9 players in their positions and have them slowly pass the ball from one person to the next — no pressure, no tempo. Sure, the kids "see" the formation, but what does that have to do with an actual match? Is anyone going to stand still and wait for you to pass them the ball in a game?

A much better approach is to play 9v4 or 9v3 — the starting 9 against a small group of substitutes providing light defensive pressure. This way, the starters get a feel for the game, and the substitutes aren't just standing on the sideline watching — they have a sense of involvement and belonging.

One more thing worth noting: even with the youngest kids, you can start building the concept that "the warm-up is part of the matchday routine." A consistent routine gives children a sense of security — they know what to do when they arrive at the pitch, what comes next, and what comes after that. This sense of ritual matters more than you might think.

Physical Preparation Only Truly Begins at Puberty

Once you enter the U12 to U16 phase, things start to change.

Kids are growing, joints are shifting, muscles are readjusting to skeletal growth. Injury risk genuinely increases at this stage, so activation programs like FIFA 11+ can start being introduced. Wright was very clear on this point: once players enter their growth spurt, you have to take injury prevention seriously.

But Coutts added a crucial caveat — don't let the activation routine become something the coach spoon-feeds them.

Here's what he does at his own club: both training sessions and matches have an activation protocol, but once the players understand the content, it's handed over to them to manage. The coach stops standing there directing every step — "now do this, now do that" — and steps back, letting the players run it themselves.

The logic behind this is the same thing we talk about in session design: the more ownership a player has, the more invested they become. Warm-ups work exactly the same way.

The Most Important Part of the Warm-Up Has Nothing to Do with the Body

This is something Wright and Coutts kept coming back to, and something most coaches completely overlook:

The pre-game warm-up is your best window for psychological preparation.

Think about it — how much time do you actually get to speak to players individually on matchday? The pre-match talk is for the whole group, halftime is for tactical adjustments, and post-match is for review. The only window is during the warm-up — those moments when players are passing in pairs, doing a Rondo, or moving freely.

Coutts said that when he coaches high-level teams, he walks up to different players during the warm-up and says short, targeted things:

"They can't handle you today."

"Remember that run we practiced on Wednesday — go out there and make it happen."

"You've been in great form lately. Today is your game."

These words take less than 10 seconds, but the effect is visible to the naked eye — you can literally see the player's eyes change the moment they hear it.

Wright shared the same view: when players are in free-touch mode, the coach should go to them one by one and give each person what they need based on their situation — some need encouragement, some need a reminder, some need a hug, some need a challenge.

This isn't some advanced psychology, but it requires the coach to know their players — to understand what's been going on with this kid lately, what happened in the last match, what their current mental state is. That's the truly valuable coaching behavior happening during a pre-game warm-up.

Klopp Standing on the Halfway Line, Saying Nothing

When the conversation turned to the elite level, Coutts shared a story that really stuck with people.

A few years ago, he went back to England and attended a Bournemouth vs. Liverpool match. He arrived early, specifically to observe Liverpool's pre-game warm-up.

Liverpool started with a few rounds of Rondo, then moved into a 9v0 attacking rehearsal — no defenders, just 9 players repeatedly running through attacking patterns. Coutts was a bit curious about this, and when he asked a Liverpool staff member over dinner that evening, the explanation was Klopp's logic:

"The way we play is relentless attacking. So during the warm-up, we need to get into that mode early — complete 20 to 30 attacking sequences before kickoff so the body's muscle memory is already activated."

But the even more interesting detail was something else: Klopp stood on the halfway line the entire time, said nothing, and just watched his players complete the whole warm-up on their own.

Coutts was deeply struck by that image. He said it was itself a powerful psychological message — "I'm watching, but I don't need to say anything. You're ready. I trust you."

That's operating on a different level entirely. But the prerequisite is that the team has already fully internalized their warm-up routine, to the point where they no longer need the coach to direct it.

What Wright Did at Melbourne Victory

When Wright was coaching Melbourne Victory U20s, he took a similar approach. He designed a warm-up routine directly linked to the team's playing style — quick passing combinations in tight spaces, with positional principles embedded: Can you receive the ball in front of the player marking you? Can you find the spaces between the lines?

He said that after running this routine for a while, the players just took it over themselves. The coach only needed to set up the area, say a word or two, and everything else was the players' business.

This is really the ultimate goal of warm-up design: You design it, you teach it to them, and then you step out.

A Warm-Up Needs Winners and Losers

Coutts also brought up a design detail that many coaches overlook: warm-ups should include competition.

At his club, what he does for home games is go to the secondary pitch and run a small-sided scrimmage — with a set time, a scoreboard, winners and losers. Players love this part, because competition brings communication, intensity, and engagement.

The logic is straightforward: a match is inherently competitive. If there's no competitive element in the warm-up, the first time players enter a competitive state is after kickoff — and that's essentially a cold start.

Pouring Rain and Only 12 Minutes? Don't Panic

Finally, let's talk about adaptability.

Not every match comes with perfect warm-up conditions. Away trips, unfamiliar pitches, cramped spaces, terrible weather — these are all realities. Coutts said these experiences actually make you a better coach: you have to be able to hold onto the essentials even when conditions change.

What are the essentials? Three things: ball contact, opposition, competition. As long as those three are present, the format can change however it needs to.

Wright told a great real-life story: one match they ran into a thunderstorm, the game was delayed, the pitch was waterlogged, and in the end they only had 10 to 12 minutes for the warm-up — with the ball getting stuck in puddles. It was probably the worst warm-up preparation of his entire season.

The result? That match turned out to be one of their best performances all season.

So yes, warm-ups matter, but they're not the sole factor determining the outcome of a match. When conditions are against you, rather than stressing about "we didn't warm up properly," turn it into a team bonding moment — we face this challenge together, and then we go out there.

Those 15 Minutes Before Kickoff Are the Coach's Game

At the end of the day, the essence of a pre-game warm-up isn't "getting the body warmed up" — that's just its most basic function.

Its real value is this: it's the only window on matchday where a coach can proactively create influence. Once the match starts, the ball is on the pitch, and the decision-making belongs to the players. But before kickoff, you still have 15 minutes.

In those 15 minutes, you can get players on the ball, let them feel the rhythm of the match, activate their competitive state, and then walk over at the moment they need it most and say exactly the right thing.

Or, you can have them line up and jog in circles.

The choice is yours.