---
title: "Bank It With a Goal"
description: "The further you dribble the ball yourself, the more your goal is worth, but nothing counts until it goes in: carry on for more, or shoot and bank what you have."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/bank-it-with-a-goal
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Bank It With a Goal

> The further you dribble the ball yourself, the more your goal is worth, but nothing counts until it goes in: carry on for more, or shoot and bank what you have.

U8 to U16 · 6 to 10 players · 20 × 30 m · 15 min

![Diagram of Bank It With a Goal](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/bank-it-with-a-goal)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 20 metres wide and 30 long, split across into three zones of 10 metres. Put two small goals at each end. Four against four, no keepers; with more players, run a second pitch.
2. Each team attacks the two goals at the far end. A goal is worth more the further the scorer dribbled the ball themselves: from a dribble that started in the last zone, 1 point; from the middle zone, 3; all the way from your own zone, 6. A goal straight from a pass is worth 1.
3. Points are only paid when the ball goes in. Lose it on the way, and whatever you were carrying is gone.
4. After a goal, the team that conceded restarts from its own end. Play games of 5 minutes, then change opponents.

## The decision it trains

Every metre the dribbler carries the ball raises the value of the goal, and the cost of losing it. So the player on the ball keeps weighing two things: can I get past the next defender, and how much am I carrying? With 6 on the way, is it the pass to a free teammate in front of goal for a sure 1, or one more defender for all of it? With 3, a gap opening towards the other goal may be worth the risk. Two goals at each end mean the dribbler also picks which one: the one the defenders are leaving. The defending team has a choice of its own: step in early, before the dribbler builds up points, or hold back and protect both goals.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** widen the pitch to 25 metres, so there is room to carry the ball past someone.
- **Too easy:** narrow it to 15 metres, so every zone has to be won past a defender, not round one.
- **Younger players:** play it with gates. Scatter 2 metre gates in a square of about 18 metres with a small goal on each side. Four attackers with a ball each collect a point for every gate they dribble through; after a minute, four defenders run on, one for each attacker, and the points only count once the attacker scores in any of the four goals. Swap roles after every round.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "When did you decide to stop dribbling and shoot? What made you decide?"
- "When you lost the ball with points on it, what was happening around you?"
- "Defending, when did you go to the dribbler, and when did you stay by the goals?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions in two forms, both from 2024. In "Through the gates", a session shared by Samantha Griffiths, a coach development officer, the points an attacker collects through the gates only count once they score, and a 4v4 through three zones pays 3, 2 and 1 for each zone dribbled through, added up when the player scores. In "Penetrating from central areas", a session for 12 to 16 year olds, the closing game pays its points only when the move ends in a goal. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom)
- Football Australia (Australia)
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany)

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