The FIFA 11+ manual is a complete warm up program designed to prevent injuries for amateur and recreational players who are 14 years or older. The program is designed to replace current warm-up programs before training. Research comparing usual warm up to the 11+ warm up found teams that used the 11+ at least twice a week had 37% fewer training injuries, 29% fewer match injuries, and severe injuries were reduced by about 50%.

There is a reduction in percentage of injuries across all injury types with the 11+ program

  • Acute injuries: 31.6% reduction of injuries
  • Overuse injuries: 54.5% reduction of injuries
  • Knee injuries: 44.6% reduction of injuries
  • Ankle injuries: 27.1% reduction of injuries

The 11+ is broken down into 3 parts (20 minutes total)

  • Part 1: Running exercises (8 minutes)
    • Slow speeds combined with active stretching and controlled partner contact
  • Part 2: Strength, plyometrics, and balance exercises (10 minutes)
    • Focus on core and leg strength, balance and agility
    • Consists of 3 levels of difficulty
  • Part 3: Running exercises (2 minutes)
    • Moderate to high speeds with planting and cutting movements

Click to see a visual FIFA 11+ breakdown.

The program should be run in this order with proper technique being a major goal. The focus of this warm up is to prevent injury through core training, neuromuscular control and balance, and pyometrics and agility.  The core includes training abdominal, back extensors, and muscles of the pelvic-hip region. The exercises work neuromuscular control and balance through muscle action, muscle activation, coordination, stabilization, body position, balance, and anticipatory ability. These factors help to prevent lower limb injuries especially at the knee and ankle. Specific functional exercises that emphasize rapid change in muscle action provide sport specific plyometrics and agility training. These exercises train muscles and movement patterns within the proper technique and aid in prevention of ACL and other knee and ankle injuries.

Compliance (doing the exercises regularly and correctly) is the key factor to gain the injury prevention benefits (it takes about 10-12 weeks to see an effect). The recommended way to implement the 11+ is parts 1-3 at the beginning of every training session (at least 2x/week) and with part 1 and 3 before matches.  Players should begin with level 1 and when they can perform the exercise correctly and at the specified reps and duration progress to the next level.  Progression can occur individually, as a team with certain exercises, or as a team after a certain amount of time (i.e. 3-4 weeks). No other warm up or stretching is necessary in addition to the 11+.
See the manual for field set up, descriptions of the exercise, duration and repetitions of the exercises, important tips, and pictures showing correct and incorrect body positions

References
FIFA Medical Assessment and Research Centre. (2006). The “11+” Manual: A Complete Warm-Up Programme To Prevent Injuries. Zurich: F-MARC.