Ball activation circuit
Transcript
A ball activation circuit gets you lots of touches before training. Here's the routine. You need a ball, ten cones, a phone timer and flat grass. Set four stations, four metres apart. Sole rolls, tick-tock, pull-push and a slalom. Each gets thirty seconds to find your tempo, then one minute quicker. Rest thirty seconds, move on. Watch. Work, then walk to the next station. First, the ball stays in the station. Then, quiet, quick touches. Two laps, the second reversed, other foot leading. That's our target. It doesn't replace your injury prevention warm-up. Do that before sprints and jumps. Then take the free test at footballreach.com.
What it trains
A short ball routine before training: four stations on one clock, so you start the session with plenty of clean touches on both feet. The rhythm is borrowed from FIFA's technical activation. It is not an injury-prevention warm-up.
Set up
- A ball
- 10 cones
- A phone timer
- Stations 4 m apart
How it works
- On flat grass (about 12 x 8 m), set three 1 m cone lanes 4 m apart and a slalom of 4 cones in a line, 1.5 m apart: 10 cones. Size 4 ball at U12-U13, size 5 from U14.
- Set a phone timer. At each station: 30 s easy to find your tempo, then 1 minute quicker. Then 30 s rest while you walk to the next station.
- Station 1 sole rolls and station 2 tick-tock (episode 3), station 3 pull-push (episode 17), station 4 dribble in and out of the slalom cones, then walk back to the start.
- Lap 2: the stations in reverse order, with your other foot leading. 2 laps take about 16 minutes.
- Then do your injury-prevention warm-up (FIFA 11+ from 14, FIFA 11+ Kids under 14, see episode 2) or your club warm-up before any sprinting or jumping.
Coaching points
- Ball stays in the station. Keep the ball inside each station: between the two cones for sole rolls, tick-tock and pull-push, and close to the cones on the slalom. If it escapes, bring it straight back and keep the clock running.
- Quiet, quick touches. Small, soft touches you can hardly hear, quicker in the minute but never so quick that the ball runs away. Lift your eyes between touches (FIFA's ball-mastery cue: heads up, eyes forward).
Not this
Starting each station at full speed instead of finding your tempo, so the ball keeps running out. And treating the circuit as your warm-up: it does not replace FIFA 11+ (or FIFA 11+ Kids) before sprints and jumps.
Dose
- 2 laps, about 16 min
- Lap 2 reversed, other foot
Our target: Our target: 2 laps (about 16 min), 2-3 days a week. The stations, spacing and 30 s rest are ours; the tempo rhythm is FIFA's.
Harder / Easier
Harder
Cut the rest to 20 s. Or a partner calls out a new move as you arrive at each station (drag-back, inside-outside, a Cruyff turn), and you play it for the minute.
Easier
One lap only, with 1-minute rests, and stay at the easy tempo until every touch stays in the station.
Safety
- Flat, dry grass with space round every station, never a road or a polished floor. Keep clear of walls and windows.
- This is a ball routine, not an injury-prevention warm-up: do FIFA 11+ (FIFA 11+ Kids under 14) or your club warm-up before sprints or jumps. The FIFA warm-ups were tested in injury trials; this circuit was not.
- The ball can roll under your foot during sole work, so start each station slowly. Stop if anything hurts.
Sources
- FIFA Training Centre - technical activation circuit 1 (30 s to find the tempo, then at least 1 minute) (opens in a new tab)
- FIFA Training Centre - mastering ball control (sole and inside switches, push-pull, heads up) (opens in a new tab)
- Sports Med - Rossler et al. 2018, the FIFA 11+ Kids warm-up trial (under-9s to under-13s) (opens in a new tab)
- England Football FutureFit - ball sizes by age group (opens in a new tab)
Not sure which skill to work on first? The free Football Reach test gives you a Player Development Score and shows which of the four corners of your game to work on next, in about two minutes.
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