Training Cones for Kids: How to Set Up Garden Games and Skills Drills at Home
A good set of training cones for family use is simply this: bright, soft and stable in number, a dozen or so flat discs for marking lines plus a handful of taller cones for slaloms and goals, all in plastic that will not crack when a wellington stamps on it. You do not need a coach's kit bag. You need enough to lay out a course, a colour scheme children can follow, and something light enough for small hands to set up and tidy away.
Cones turn a flat lawn into a hundred little games. They are the cheapest, most flexible piece of garden play equipment I know, and they pair beautifully with a ball, a badminton racket or nothing at all. Below are the buying notes, then a handful of named drills you can run after school without much fuss.
What makes a good set of cones for family use
Start with the count, not the colour. A workable home set is around a dozen flat discs for marking lines and bases, plus four to six taller cones for slaloms, goals and turning gates. Flat discs are the unsung heroes: they sit flush on grass, they will not topple in a breeze, and a child can stand on one without it splitting. Taller cones do the showy jobs, but you need fewer of them.
For materials, look for soft, flexible plastic rather than anything rigid. Children fall, and a cone that gives under a knee is kinder than one that does not. Bright primary colours help younger ones follow instructions, and a sensible rule from the British Association for Early Education applies here too: keep the choices simple. Three colours is plenty for sorting an easy course from a harder one.
Durability matters because cones live outdoors. Anything that fades or cracks after a wet fortnight is a false economy, a point we make in our guide to choosing children's toys that actually get played with. Storage is the quiet test of whether a set survives: cones that stack and nest into a single column are far more likely to be tidied away than a loose heap, and the NHS activity guidelines are far easier to meet when the kit is by the back door, ready to go.
A sensible starter set
Drills for younger children (roughly 3 to 6)
Little ones do not need formal drills. They need a course they can name and follow. Lay five discs in a wiggly line and call it the snake; the child walks, then jogs, then dribbles a ball along it. Spacing of around a metre keeps it gentle for short legs. The NHS advice for under-fives is about lots of light, varied movement through the day rather than anything intense, and cone games suit that perfectly.
Try Traffic Lights: a green disc means run on the spot, red means freeze, amber means tiptoe. It builds listening and stopping, which is half of staying safe in a garden. Or Colour Calls, where you scatter discs and call out a colour for the child to run to and touch. The body of research collected by the National Institute for Play reminds us that this kind of free, joyful movement is doing real developmental work even when it looks like nothing much.
End with a tidy-up game: who can stack the cones fastest. It is a drill disguised as helping. If you want more screen-free ideas for the holidays, our screen-free summer plan is full of low-fuss starting points, and many pair naturally with a cone or two.
Three easy games for small children
- Five discs in a wiggly line
- Walk, then jog, then dribble
- Green run, red freeze, amber tiptoe
- Builds listening and stopping
- Scatter discs around the lawn
- Call a colour to touch
- Who can stack fastest
- A drill that clears up after itself
Cones are the cheapest, most flexible piece of garden play equipment I know. Lay them out and the lawn becomes a hundred little games.
Drills for older children (roughly 7 to 11)
From around seven, children enjoy a challenge they can measure against themselves. The classic slalom is the place to start: six taller cones in a line, spaced a little over a metre apart, dribbled with a football and timed. Children love beating their own clock, and the gentle competition fits the spirit of the PE programmes of study that schools follow, where developing balance, agility and coordination is the heart of the early years of the subject.
The Box Drill is another good one: four discs marking a square a few metres across, sprint to one, sidestep to the next, jog backwards to the third, and so on. It teaches changing direction, which is most of sport. For two children, set two parallel goals from taller cones and play a small-sided passing game, no goalkeepers, just touches and movement.
Cones also extend games you already own. Mark out a long alley for skittles, or a throwing line for cornhole. The Chief Medical Officers' guidance asks for a daily hour of activity at this age, and a cone course in the garden is one of the easier ways to chip away at it without anyone feeling they are exercising.
Three measurable drills
Turning a flat lawn into a games garden
Cones are a starting kit, not the whole afternoon. Once children are warm and moving, the best gardens offer something to aim at and something to share. A net and post set turns the lawn into a court for swingball-style rallies or short tennis, and a badminton racket in each hand keeps two children busy for ages.
For something slower and more sociable, croquet is hard to beat, and it happens to be a game Jaques of London brought to the world. Our guide to setting up a croquet court shows how to scale the lawn to the space you have, and cones make perfectly good temporary markers while children learn the lines. The Croquet Association has further notes on the full game when they are ready for it.
The point is variety. A child who has done a cone slalom, knocked a few croquet balls through a hoop and had a rally over the net has moved in three different ways without once being told to exercise. If you want more on the case for this kind of childhood, our piece on real play at home sits squarely behind everything in this guide. You can browse the wider best-sellers for ideas too.
A sturdy garden net and post set that turns a flat lawn into a court for rallies, short tennis and small-sided games. It pairs neatly with a cone course for a full afternoon of active, screen-free play.
Buying notes, sizes and a word on value
When you are choosing, weigh durability against price honestly. The cheapest sets often use brittle plastic that splits in winter, and a set that lasts three summers is better value than one replaced every spring. We make the same case for indoor toys in our note on wooden toy gift sets, and the principle holds outdoors: buy once, buy well.
On sizes, flat discs of around fifteen centimetres across and taller cones of twenty to twenty-five centimetres cover almost every game described here. Anything much taller becomes a trip hazard for small children and is harder to stack. Bright colours that stay bright matter, because faded cones are surprisingly hard to follow on a green lawn.
Finally, think about who is setting them out. If you want children to run their own games, the kit has to be light enough for them to carry and simple enough to tidy. That, more than any single feature, decides whether a set gets used. For families thinking carefully about screens and active alternatives, our guide to raising a screen-free child is a gentle companion to this one, and the 3 for 2 collection is a good place to combine a few garden bits. Independent reviews on Trustpilot are worth a glance before you commit.
Quick buying checklist
- About 12 flat discs
- 4 to 6 taller cones
- Soft, flexible plastic
- Stacks and nests for storage
- Discs around 15cm
- Cones 20 to 25cm
- Lasts several summers
- Light enough for children to carry
How many cones do I actually need for the garden?
For most family games, around a dozen flat discs plus four to six taller cones is plenty. The discs mark lines and bases and will not topple in a breeze, while the taller cones make slaloms, goals and turning gates. With that set you can run a slalom, a box agility drill, a passing game and several younger-child games. You can always add more, but starting bigger than this usually means a heap that never gets tidied away and so never gets used.
What size cones are best for young children?
Flat discs of around fifteen centimetres across are ideal because they sit flush on grass and a child can stand on one without it splitting. For taller cones, twenty to twenty-five centimetres is a sensible range. Anything taller becomes a trip hazard for small children and is harder to stack and store. Keep the kit light and low so children can set it out and clear it away themselves, which is what decides whether a set actually gets played with rather than left in the shed.
Are plastic cones safe for kids to fall on?
Look for soft, flexible plastic rather than rigid material. Children will trip and land on cones, and a disc or cone that gives under a knee is far kinder than one that holds firm and digs in. Flat discs are safest of all because there is nothing to fall over. Set courses out on grass rather than hard ground where you can, and keep spacing generous for younger ones so there is room to slow down. With sensible spacing, cone games are among the gentlest active play there is.
What drills can I do with cones at home?
Start simple. For little ones, lay five discs in a wiggly line as a snake to walk, jog and dribble along, or play Traffic Lights with coloured discs. For older children, a timed slalom of six cones, a four-disc box agility drill and a small-sided passing game between two goals cover most skills. The aim is varied movement, changing direction, stopping and starting, rather than anything resembling formal training. A daily cone course is one of the easier ways to meet the hour of activity the NHS recommends for school-age children.
How far apart should I space the cones?
It depends on age and the game. For a young child's dribble line, around a metre between discs keeps it gentle for short legs. For an older child's slalom, a little over a metre between cones makes for a good test of control. A box agility drill works well at a few metres a side. As a rule, start closer than you think and spread out once children find it easy. Tighter spacing builds control; wider spacing builds speed. You can adjust in seconds, which is the joy of cones.
Can cones be left outside all year?
They can, but the cheapest sets often crack or fade after a wet winter, which is a false economy. Soft, flexible plastic in fast colours holds up best. Even so, a set that nests into a single stack and lives by the back door is far more likely to be tidied away and to last, simply because it is not left scattered to be mown over or trodden into the lawn. Bring them in over a hard frost if you can; cold makes brittle plastic more likely to split.
What age can children start using training cones?
From around three, children can follow a simple cone course such as a snake to walk along or coloured discs to run between. They will not do formal drills, and they should not, but they enjoy a named game with a clear instruction. The NHS suggests under-fives get plenty of light, varied movement through the day, and cone games suit that beautifully. From about seven, children start to enjoy timing themselves and beating their own score, which is when slaloms and agility drills come into their own.
Do I need expensive sports cones or will cheap ones do?
You do not need professional kit. What matters is enough cones, soft flexible plastic, bright colours that stay bright, and a set that stacks for storage. Very cheap sets sometimes use brittle plastic that splits, so the saving disappears within a season. A mid-range set that survives several summers is usually the better value. Spend the difference on something to aim at, like a net and post set or croquet balls, rather than on cones that are fancier than a garden game needs them to be.
How do I keep my child interested in cone games?
Variety and ownership. Rotate the games so it is not the same slalom every day, let children invent their own courses and rules, and add a timer so they can race themselves. Pair the cones with something to aim at, a ball, a net, a few hoops, so a session has a shape and an ending. Crucially, let them set the course out and tidy it away; children value games they run themselves. Our screen-free play guides are full of ways to fold cone games into a wider afternoon outdoors.
Can cones help with sports skills or just fun?
Both, and the line between them is happily blurred. Slaloms build dribbling control, box drills build changing direction, and freeze games build stopping and listening, all of which underpin school PE and most playground sports. The school PE programmes of study put agility, balance and coordination at the heart of the early years, and that is exactly what cone courses develop. But children are not thinking about skills. They are racing a clock and beating a sibling, which is precisely why the skills stick.
The honest truth about cones is that they are nearly nothing on their own, just a handful of bright discs and a few taller markers, and yet they unlock an afternoon. Lay them out, name a game, set a timer, and a flat lawn becomes a place where children move, laugh and forget to ask for a screen. That, more than any feature on a label, is what you are really buying.