(The following is from a letter sent by Coach Corey. It's an excellent way to get players to play these games without complaining. These games will really benefit your players)
Before practice waiting for everyone to arrive - I would sit on the ground in front of a backstop, the girls would line up 30 feet out and, one at a time, I would roll a ball to them and they would just try to get a solid foot on it with their laces.
Dribble Across a Square Practice Game - When it was time to start practice, this is the first thing we did. I said it was part of warming up so the girls didn't complain having to play it every single practice. Sometimes I would require them to do a pull back on each side, or to do a hook turn in the middle, things like that, so they could learn how to stop and turn the ball in various ways.
Tap on Top, Tick Tocks, and Steparounds Practice Games - This was also considered part of "warming up" and we did it every practice. It does not take very long to run through dribble across a square and these three games a couple of times as part of warming up.
Push and Blast Off Practice Game - We added this to warm-ups late in the season. This helped them to understand how to get around a defender and to be quick by pushing off hard.
Shoulder Tackle and Strength on the Ball Practice Game - We did this first thing after warm-ups for the first half of the season until I was satisfied the girls weren't going to be afraid of contact. I do recall doing this a few times late in the season just to remind them of the importance of this.
Each of the above things was considered part of warming up.I think the girls accepted the fact we played most of these games every practice because they were part of "warming up."
(Note from David: The above idea about “warming up” is excellent)
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