Circle Gates: A Dribbling and Feint Game for U6 to U14

How to set it up

• Mark a circle about 12 metres across and set three small gates inside it.
• Every player has a ball.
• For the second stage, split the group into teams of three; one team defends at a time.

How to play

• Dribble through a gate, turn, come back through the same gate, then go and find another.
• A gate with nobody else at it scores a point. A ball that leaves the circle, or a collision, resets the score.
• The coach calls one, two or three for slow, medium and fast dribbling.
• Second stage: one team defends, standing on the gate lines, and can move along the line. The others score by getting through a gate: a feint or a move that beats the defender scores three, a gap scores one.
• Forty-second rounds, then the next team defends.

Why it works

In the first stage the only opponents are the other dribblers, which is enough to make children look up. In the second, the feint suddenly has a purpose: three points instead of one.

Children try moves when they are worth something. Here they are worth three times more.

What to coach

• Look for the empty gate, not the nearest one.
• Approach the defender at speed, then slow down just before the move.
• Drop the shoulder, shift the weight, then go the other way.
• Accelerate away after the move.

Questions to ask

• "Which move worked best against the defender, and why?"
• "When did you decide to use the gap instead of a move?"
• "What did the defender do just before you beat them?"

Make it easier, make it harder

• Easier: bigger gates, defenders only move one step along the line.
• Harder: smaller gates; defenders can leave the line to tackle; only a move counts, the gap scores nothing.

How to adapt it by age

• U6 to U7: the first stage only, with the speed calls and animal dribbles.
• U8 to U10: the second stage with one defender per gate.
• U11 to U14: defenders free to leave the line, and a gate counts only if the attacker carries the ball through at speed.