---
title: "Safe Diamond"
description: "Three against three with a diamond in the middle where one player can take the ball and nobody may tackle them: play through the diamond, or round it."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/central-safe-zone
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Safe Diamond

> Three against three with a diamond in the middle where one player can take the ball and nobody may tackle them: play through the diamond, or round it.

U7 to U11 · 6 to 8 players · 16 × 25 m · 15 min

Also called channel game.

![Diagram of Safe Diamond](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/central-safe-zone)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch about 25 metres long and 16 wide with a small goal at each end. In the middle, put four cones in a diamond about 6 metres across.
2. Three against three, no keepers. With more players, set up more pitches side by side and change opponents every 5 minutes.
3. Nobody may run or dribble through the diamond, with one exception: one player from the team with the ball may step in to take a pass. Inside, nobody can tackle them, and the ball has to leave by a pass.
4. Defenders never enter the diamond, but they can cut out the pass on its way in or out.
5. Score in the other team's goal. When the ball goes off the side, restart with a pass or a dribble in from where it went out.

## The decision it trains

The diamond is a free pass, and everyone can see it. The team on the ball decides when to use it: when the routes round the outside are blocked, a pass into the diamond and straight out again is the way through. The player who steps in decides when to go. Too early, and the defenders shut the line into it, so the move has to come just as the pass can be played. Inside, nobody can tackle them, but the defenders are already moving to block the way out, so the look comes before the ball does: to a teammate's feet, or into the space in front of one. Defending, the team has a hole in the middle of its pitch, and has to choose between pressing the ball and standing in the lines to the diamond.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** a bigger pitch, about 30 by 20 metres, so there is more room to find the diamond and the teammates around it.
- **Too easy:** a smaller pitch, about 20 by 14 metres, so the lines into the diamond close faster.
- **Uneven sides:** give a team that keeps losing a fourth player, and take one from a team that keeps winning.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "When was the diamond the best way through, and when was it better to go round?"
- "In the diamond, when did you look to see where your pass was going?"
- "Defending, how did you stop the ball getting into the diamond?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions as the diamond pitch of "Festival week" (2025), a passing and receiving session shared by Megan Todd, an FA regional coach developer, in which the players rotate through three 3v3 pitches. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom)
- Football Australia (Australia)
- Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT) (Japan)
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany)
- FIFA Training Centre (International): channel game

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