How to play
- For 8 to 16 players, mark a 20 by 20 metre area and put five castles inside it: small squares from 3 by 3 to 5 by 5 metres.
- Pick two or three dragons. Everyone else is a knight with a ball. Dragons can go anywhere, castles included.
- A knight scores a point by dribbling into a castle and out again without a dragon touching their ball. The next point has to come from a different castle.
- A dragon catches a knight by touching their ball with a foot. Then they swap: the dragon takes the ball and becomes a knight, the knight becomes a dragon. Everyone keeps their own points.
- Play rounds of 90 seconds, with a short break in between.
The decision it trains
A knight sees five castles and two or three dragons, and has to find the gap: which castle has no dragon near it, and which dragon is busy chasing someone else. The big castle is easy to get into, but a dragon can reach it quickly; the small one is quiet, but the ball has to be kept close to get in and out without losing it. So knights look up between touches, change speed when the way opens, and turn their body between the ball and a dragon that comes close. Dragons have their own puzzle: stay by one castle and wait, or chase and leave it open. Two dragons who share out the castles catch far more than two who chase the same knight.
Make it harder or easier
What to ask at the breaks
"How did you choose which castle to go for?"
"What was the dragon doing when you decided to go in?"
"Dragons: when did you stay by a castle, and when did you chase?"
A free account plans 2 sessions and talks to Hobbit 5 times a month; after that, Pro.
Who documents it
5 sources · each opens the originalThe FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions as "Knights, castles and dragons" (2024), a Play Phase game for children aged 4 to 6, and again as the opening activity of "Pressing and tackling session: 3v3 tournament challenge" (2024), shared by Stacey Miles, where guards protect castles of different sizes and a guard who steals a player's bib swaps places with them. No source names who created it.
The FAUnited Kingdom · 2 documentscalls it Knights, castles and dragons
Football Association of FinlandFinlandcalls it Ryöstöhippa
Royal Belgian FABelgiumcalls it Krokodillenspel
Massachusetts Youth SoccerUnited Statescalls it Field of Doom
Ontario SoccerCanada · 3 documentscalls it You Can't Catch Me!, You Still Can't Catch Me!, Find the Underload!