April 14, 2026
Good soccer warm-up drills do three things: raise the heart rate, wake up the muscles a player is about to sprint on, and get their touch sharp before the whistle. Twenty minutes is plenty. What you don’t want is the thing I still see every Saturday in Charleston — a line of kids doing static stretches, then jogging out flat and needing ten minutes of the first half to find the game.
I’m Olly. I play for the Charleston Soccer Club and coach younger players around Mount Pleasant. This is the warm-up I use, why each part is there, and what to cut when you only have ten minutes because the game before ran long.
Two reasons, and the second one is the one nobody talks about.
First, injury. Cold muscles going straight into sprints and changes of direction is how you pull something. A proper warm-up gradually raises body temperature and takes joints through the range of motion they’re about to use.
Second — and this is the one that actually shows up on the scoreboard — confidence. A player who has already taken forty clean touches before kickoff walks onto the field expecting the ball to stick. A player whose first touch of the day happens in the third minute under pressure is playing catch-up. Confidence comes from reps, and the warm-up is free reps.
Start easy and build. No static stretching yet — that comes after, if at all.
By the end of this block a player should be warm and slightly out of breath. If they’re still cold, the warm-up hasn’t started yet.
Every player on a ball, working in a small space. This is the block most teams skip and it’s the one I’d protect hardest.
Keep the touches quick and light. The goal here isn’t fitness, it’s waking up the feet. Ten seconds of sloppy touches undoes the point. If your player wants to get properly sharp at this, it’s the same work as first touch drills you can do in a backyard — five minutes a day beats an hour once a week.
Partner up, eight to ten yards apart, and build up:
Weight of pass is what I’d coach here. A pass that arrives too hard makes your teammate look bad. Details matter.
Short, sharp, full effort — but only a few reps. This is priming, not conditioning.
If a player is gassed after this block, it was too long. They should feel switched on, not tired. This kind of sharpness is trainable outside of game day too — it’s the core of agility training for young players.
Finish on something that feels like the game. A few shots on the keeper, or a quick 3v1 rondo. Something with a bit of noise and competition in it.
Then water, and get them focused. The last thirty seconds before walking out should be quiet, not frantic.
The game before overran. It happens constantly. Cut in this order:
You lose volume, not structure. What you never cut is the gradual build to full speed.
Worth saying plainly, because September here is still hot and humid. On a 90-degree afternoon, shorten the running blocks and lengthen the ball work — a player can get sharp on the ball without cooking themselves before kickoff. Get shade between blocks, and make sure they’ve been drinking water for hours before the game, not just at the field.
What they eat matters here too, and the timing matters more than the food. What to eat before a game or practice covers that properly.
Fifteen to twenty-five minutes for youth players, finishing about five minutes before kickoff. Long enough to get properly warm, short enough that they don’t cool down again before the whistle.
Dynamic movement — high knees, leg swings, build-up runs — yes. Long static stretches held for 30 to 60 seconds are better saved for after the game, when the goal is recovery rather than performance.
A gradual movement block, ball mastery on an individual ball, two-touch and one-touch passing in pairs, a few short sprints with a change of direction, and a small competitive finish. That sequence covers everything the game will ask for.
About five minutes. Enough time for water, a team talk and a breath — not enough time to go cold.
Yes. Keepers need handling, footwork, and progressively harder shots — starting close and gentle, building to game-speed. They should join the team movement block, then break off for keeper-specific work.
Absolutely, and the good ones do. Five minutes of ball mastery in the driveway before you leave means arriving with your touch already awake.
A warm-up isn’t a formality. It’s the first twenty minutes of your performance. Players who take it seriously start games sharp — and starting sharp is often the whole difference in a 40-minute youth game.
If your player wants to build the technical foundation that makes all of this easier, get in touch about a session. We’ll work on the things that show up on game day.
About Olly: Oliver “Olly” Sovenyhazy is a 15-year-old soccer player with the Charleston Soccer Club and a volunteer with the professional Charleston Battery. Through Olly on the Ball he coaches private, semi-private and small-group sessions for young players across Mount Pleasant and the Charleston area — building confidence through reps, and skills that hold up in real games.
