Stop It on the Line: A 4v4 Dribbling Game for U5 to U10

How to set it up

• Mark a 20 by 20 metre area. With more players, set up two or more areas side by side.
• Two teams of four, one ball, no goals and no goalkeepers.

How to play

• A team scores when a player stops the ball under the sole on the opponents' end line.
• After a point, the team that conceded restarts from its own end line, and the scoring team must first drop back to its own half.
• No corners. A ball over the side line comes back in with a pass or a dribble.
• Play short games of three or four minutes.

Why it works

The whole end line is the goal, so a dribbler always has somewhere to go, and there is no keeper to shoot past: the ball has to be carried, or passed to a teammate who can carry it.

Stopping the ball on the line is harder than it looks at speed. It rewards control at the end of a run, not just a fast run.

What to coach

• Head up to see the space and the defenders.
• Ball close when a defender is near; protect it with the body.
• Long touches and speed when the path to the line is open.
• Find a position away from your teammate who has the ball.

Questions to ask

• "Where was the space when you scored?"
• "When was it better to pass than to dribble?"
• "What did you do when two defenders came at you?"

Make it easier, make it harder

• Easier: all four sides score; two balls in the game; 3v3 for more space each.
• Harder: a rectangle that is longer than it is wide; the ball must be stopped inside a narrow end zone; a point only counts if every player touched the ball.

How to adapt it by age

• U5 to U6: any side scores, or two balls at once; very short games.
• U7 to U8: a round robin of four teams on two areas.
• U9 to U10: a longer rectangle, the drop-back rule after each point, and a bonus for beating a player before the line.