Indoor Warm-Up & Mobility
A five-minute warm-up that fits a hallway: marching, skipping on the spot, leg swings and lunges, no ball and no run.
Hear the coach on this drill
Every line the Audio Coach says in this drill, played back to back; the time beside each is when it comes in the 5-minute drill. No account needed.
Set-up
A cleared patch of floor about two big steps long and one wide, in a hallway, a garage or a basement, with a wall or a sturdy chair within reach for the leg swings and nothing on the floor to trip on. Shoes on, no ball, and the parent standing where the player can copy them.
What you need
- Nothing but the space
The ground: 10 × 8 ft (about 3 × 2 m). One child can run it alone in a backyard. The space and equipment check lists every drill that fits the ground you have.
How to run it
- Set up. Clear a patch of floor two big steps long. Shoes on; no ball for this one.
- March. One minute marching on the spot, knees to hip height, arms swinging. Big and slow.
- Skip. One minute skipping on the spot without a rope, light on the balls of the feet.
- Swing. Holding a wall or a chair, twenty leg swings forward and back each leg, then twenty side to side.
- Lunge and twist. Ten walking lunges along the floor and back, turning the chest over the front knee each time.
- Open the hips. Ten slow knee circles each way on each leg, then ten ankle circles. Ready to work.
Coaching points
- Tall through the whole thing: a warm-up done hunched warms the wrong muscles
- Swings grow with each rep rather than starting at full stretch
- Breathing stays easy; this is a warm-up, not the session
What to watch: Rushing the swings and skipping the holds. A warm-up done at full speed warms nothing; slow and tall is the point.
Common mistakes
- Rushing every part so the warm-up is over in two minutes and nothing is warm
- Starting the leg swings at full stretch instead of building them up
- Hunching through the march and the skip, which warms the wrong muscles
- Dropping the back knee onto the floor in the lunge rather than hovering it
- Skipping the ankle circles, which are the part a cold floor needs most
What good looks like
A good target: All 5 parts in 5 minutes with 20 full-height swings each leg.
Progressions and variations
Making it harder
- Level 1: The five parts at a walk, with the swings held small
- Level 2: Full-height marching and swings that reach hip height by the last rep
- Level 3: Add a beat and keep the march and the skip on it
- Level 4: Lunges with a slow twist and a two-second hold at the bottom
- Level 5: Run it with the ball at the feet for the march and the lunges
- Level 6: The player leads and calls the changes for a sibling
Alone, with a sibling, or in a group
- Solo: a phone timer, a minute a part, counting the reps aloud.
- Sibling: face each other and mirror, one leading each part.
- Co-op: a circle with one leader in the middle calling the changes.
Adjusting it by age
- U14: Keep it playful and copy-me, with the parent leading each part and naming the muscle being woken up. A minute each is enough, and the holds can be shorter.
- U18: Make it theirs: they lead, they count, and the swings reach full range by the end. Follow it straight into the session's first ball drill so the warmth is used.
For the parent running it
- Do it beside them. Nothing here needs more than a body's length of floor, so stand where they can copy you.
On their own: Run the five parts on a phone timer, a minute each, counting the reps out loud.
Safety
- Something to hold for the leg swings, since a cold ankle on a hard floor is where a slip happens
- Shoes with grip on a smooth garage or basement floor
More on training safely at home: Safety at Home.
Related drills
Warm-Up Jog & Stretch
Light jog around cones, followed by dynamic stretches (leg swings, arm circles, lunges).
Ladder & Cone Agility
Quick feet through a ladder (or cones as substitutes), followed by short sprints.
Cool-Down & Debrief
Slow jog, static stretches (30s each: quads, hamstrings, calves, groin), and chat about what went well.
Sprint Intervals
Repeated 30m sprints with walk-back recovery.
Run it with the Audio Coach
In Spatrian the Audio Coach talks your player through this drill while they play it, and each run goes on their own training record, which their coach or personal trainer can read and, for a homeschool family, counts as PE time. The beta is opening to a small first group of players and families.