Maybe you are searching for ideas for a pre-game warmup for 7-8-9 year olds. I got an email from a coach who had just beat my team, and he said, “It was a great game (we only lost 4-2) and you absolutely set the gold standard for best pre-game warmup”
So what do I do? First, I have the kids run down to the foul line – right field foul line if we are in the 1B dugout and LF if we are in the 3B dugout. Then I have them do their stretches on their own. No coaches. We work it in practice and after a few practices I have them practice doing it on their own. If there are 10 kids, they do five arm stretches and five leg stretches. Each kid leads an exercise, and they all count to 10.
They take such pride in it — at practice yesterday a kid came over and said “Coach, we added PLANK”. I have advocated elbow planks for core strength but haven’t inserted them into a pre-game warmup–they did it on their own.! If I had made them do it, they would have groaned. This came from them. It’s remarkable when a team comes up with things on their own and the pride they take in it is so much greater than just doing whatever the coach told you to do.
After that the rest of the warmup is fairly standard with ground balls, etc., but I think the team warming up on the sideline is just great.
