From warm-up to handball team play

No. 9 Team ball with two different tasks

Topic: Short warm-up games

Minimum number of players: 10

Difficulty level:

Equipment required:1 handball, 8 small gym mats, 4 cones

Course:

- Both teams play team ball within the defined playing field (cones); however, they are not allowed to dribble. If a team manages to pass 8 times in a row, without the other team stealing the ball, the second part of the game begins.

- The attacking players now try to pass the ball to a teammate standing on one of the gym mats (C). If the player on the mat catches the ball, the team scores and stays in possession of the ball. In order to score again however, the team needs to attack a different gym mat.

- The team does not score if there is an opponent standing on the same gym mat as the attacking player while this player catches the ball (A).

- The players keep playing until the ball gets lost. The teams need to count the score (times they caught the ball while standing on a gym mat) themselves.

- Which team manages to catch the ball on the gym mat most often and scores highest?

Variants:

- Only a maximum of 3 players per team are allowed in the outer playing field (around the gym mats).

- After scoring, the players are neither allowed to attack the same gym mat again nor to attack the neighboring mats (B).

No. 10 2-on-2 intensive soccer variant

Topic: Short warm-up games

Minimum number of players: 12

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: 1 soccer ball, 4 balance benches

Setting:

- Position four balance benches as shown in the figure. The seating surfaces must point towards the court (turned over by 90 degrees).

- Make two teams.

- The teams play soccer 2-on-2.

- The teams need to decide in which order their players are to enter the playing field.

Course:

- and play against and and try to score by kicking the ball against the seating surface of the balance bench (A, B, and C).

- If a team scores, the four players , , , and need to leave the playing field at their balance bench immediately (D) (give a high-five). They are not allowed to enter the game again while leaving the playing field. One new player per balance bench is allowed to enter the playing field then (E).

- Now, and play against and until a team scores the next goal. The players then also leave the playing field at their balance bench, and so on.

- The players waiting outside to be substituted do both push-ups and sit-ups alternately during the waiting periods.

For larger groups, play 4-on-4 (two players per balance bench).

3. Sprint contests
No. 11 Sprint relay race with balance benches

Topic: Sprint contests

Minimum number of players: 6

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: 3 balance benches

Course:

- On command, and start simultaneously and sprint straight forward towards the first corner of the balance bench (A).

- Then, they swiftly sidestep to the inner balance bench (corner) (B); afterwards, they sprint forward diagonally (corner) (C).

- Subsequently, they swiftly sidestep to the inner balance bench (corner) (D) before they eventually sprint around the cone, run back, and exchange a high-five with the next player (E).

- And so on.

The end of each balance bench should be touched lightly with one hand.

The losing team needs to do push-ups or sit-ups, for example.

No. 12 Going to Jerusalem

Topic: Sprint contests

Minimum number of players: 6

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: Foam beams (total number of players -1)

Setting:

- Make three teams.

- Spread the foam beams across the court. There must be one foam beam less than there are players on the court (musical chairs principle).

Course:

- The players crisscross throughout the goal zone at relaxed pace and “say hello” by exchanging high-fives (A).

- On command, the players start to run. They must try to be the first to stand on a certain foam beam and block it (B).

- The player who does not get a beam, drops out (C). Remove one beam then; the course needs to be repeated until only three players are left.

- The team that has the most players left on the field scores. If there is a tie (1 player left per team), each team scores.

- Spread the foam beams again and repeat the course three times.

- At the end, the team that scored highest wins the game. The two other teams need to perform a predetermined exercise (push-ups, jumping jacks, or similar).

If a player leaves the goal zone before the sign was given, he drops out immediately.

If two or more players step onto a foam beam almost at the same time, they need to come to an agreement about who was first; if they do not come to an agreement, they all drop out.

Team-internal running tactics could be helpful.

If there are many players, define exercises the drop-outs need to perform (strengthening exercises, endurance run, or similar).

No. 13 Team tag

Topic: Sprint contests

Minimum number of players: 10

Difficulty level:

Equipment required:

Basic setting:

- Make 2 teams

- The center line is the “boundary” of the playing field.

Course:

- On command, one player per team ( and ) starts to run, crosses the center line (A), and tries to tag a player of the other team (B).

- If succeeds (C), immediately runs back, and crosses the center line, the team has scored. Now, another player of the same team () is allowed to cross the center line in order to tag a player of the other team as fast as possible (D).

Tasks:

- Which team scores highest within 2 minutes?

- Each player of a team needs to tag 2 times (between the two “taggings”, he needs to run back and cross the center line).

Only one player per team is allowed to cross the center line. If two players of the same team have crossed the center line, the team does not score, even one of them may have tagged an opponent!

If is in the “opponents’” half and is about to tag a player, he may not be tagged by . Players may only be tagged if they are in their own half of the playing field (and not in the opponents’ half).

No. 14 Intensive sprint competition

Topic: Sprint contests

Minimum number of players: 6

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: 5 to 8 small vaulting boxes, 1 handball per team of 2

Setting:

- Make pairs; each pair has one handball.

- Position 5 to 8 small vaulting boxes upside down along the center line (see figure).

Course:

- On command, , , and start to run from the goal zone simultaneously with their handball (A).

- , , and sprint with their handball to the 1st box, put the ball inside (B), sprint back, and exchange high-fives with , , and , respectively (C), who have been waiting in the goal zone.

- Now , , and (D) sprint to the 1st box, which contains the handballs. They NEED to fetch THEIR handball from the box (E), sprint back to the goal zone, and touch the 6-meter line with one foot (F). Only now they are allowed to hand over the handball to the first player.

- Subsequently, , , and sprint to the 2nd box, put the ball inside (G), sprint back, exchange high-fives with , , and , respectively, who have been waiting in the goal zone (H).

- And so on (until the last box is reached). The team that first brings their handball back from the last box to the goal zone (J) wins the game.

The exercise is quite exhausting.

If a ball drops out of the box, the player must put it back before he can continue. If the handball of another team drops out of the box during a move, the player needs to first put back this ball, too, before he can continue.

The players need to compete for space in a fair manner; this particularly applies to the first boxes (box 1 to 3), as there will be a lot of “traffic” around the boxes.

No. 15 Sprint competition with playing cards

Topic: Sprint contests

Minimum number of players: 6

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: Timer, large vaulting box, deck of playing cards, 10 cones

Preparation:

- Put the cards on top of the vaulting box with the reverse side of the cards facing upwards.

- Define the running paths for the suits of the flipped cards (diamonds, hearts, spades, clubs).

Course:

- On command, and start to run simultaneously and sprint to the vaulting box at the center line (A).

- Each player flips a card. Depending on the suit of the flipped card, the players need to sprint around the respective cone (e.g., clubs = sprint around the first cone, spades = sprint around the second cone) and back (B).

- Then it’s the next player’s turn. Each player has one (two) turn(s).

The losing team must do push-ups or sit-ups.

Variants:

- Hand out the same amount of playing cards to both teams in advance. They need to decide for themselves which player must run the short/long path (tactics). The player puts a card onto the vaulting box and, depending on the card’s “value”, runs around the respective cone and back, etc.

If a player runs the wrong path, he needs to go back and then run around the correct cone.

4. Coordination
No. 16 Sprint reaction with numbers

Topic: Coordination

Minimum number of players: 8

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: 10 cones

Course 1 (figure 1):

- Once the coach has called out a number (“4” in the example), and simultaneously start to run at relaxed pace.

- and run to the 4th cone on their respective side and touch it (A). Then, both run to the center, exchange high-fives with both hands (B), and run back (C).

Course 2 (figure 2):

- This time, the players need to sprint. The first player who crosses the start line again wins the game. The loser must do an exercise (e.g., 3 push-ups).

- Once the coach has called out a number (“24” in the example), and simultaneously start to run again. The players need to run to the respective cones – hereby, the number of tens applies to the cones on the players’ own side (D) and the number of ones to the cones on the opponents’ side (E) –, touch them, and run back (F).

Course 3 (figure 3):

- Once the coach has called out a number (“325” in the example), and simultaneously start to run again. The players need to run to the respective cones – hereby, the number of hundreds applies to the cones on the players’ own side (G), the number of tens to the cones on the opponents’ side (H), and the number of ones to the cones on the players’ own side again (J) –, touch them, and run back (K).

The coach must call out the numbers loud and clear.

During course 2 and 3, the players should meet in the center so that they need to fight their way to the next cone.

No. 17 Coordination reactions

Topic: Coordination

Minimum number of players: 8

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: 3 small vaulting boxes, 4 cones, 1 whistle

Course:

- , , and each stand on a small vaulting box.

- Once whistles (A), they jump down the box straight ahead at once (B).

- Immediately after he has whistled, and while the players are jumping, raises one hand (right hand in the example (C)), which tells , , and around which cone to run (D) before sprinting to the predefined finish line (E).

- The loser must do 10 quick jumping jacks (or push-ups, sit-ups, etc.) immediately after he has crossed the finish line. The players then run back at relaxed pace.

- Repeat the course with , , and , etc.

Variants:

- If raises the right hand, the players need to run to the other side, i.e. they must run around the left cone rather than around the right cone.

- If raises the right hand, the players need to run to the other side, i.e. they must run around the left cone rather than around the right cone. However, if whistles a second time while raising his hand, the course changes again. The players then need to run around the right cone, as intended initially.

must give the sign (raise the hand/whistle) early so that the players have enough time to react accordingly.

No. 18 Coordination run with defensive action

Topic: Coordination

Minimum number of players: 8

Difficulty level:

Equipment required: 1 coordination ladder, 9 hoops, 10 cones

Course:

- and start simultaneously.

- attacks 1-on-1, whereas tries to push aside and prevent him from breaking through the space between the cones (A).

- Afterwards, and run around their respective cone.

- runs through the hoop course (one footstep per hoop) as fast as possible (B).

- runs through the coordination ladder (two footsteps, i.e. left and right foot, per interspace) (C).

- Then, and run around the cone, start to sprint, and exchange high-fives (D and E).

- and run around the cone on the other side and towards the next cone at relaxed pace. As soon as they have arrived, they sprint to the 2nd cone (F), run back to the 1st cone backwards, and eventually sprint some meters before they line up again (G).

- and start delayed in order to not get in the other players’ way.

- And so on.