Treasure Island: A Team Dribbling Game for U8 to U16

How to set it up

• Mark a 30 by 20 metre area with a halfway line. Each half belongs to one team.
• In each half mark two small squares: a treasury with as many balls as there are players, and a prison.
• Two teams, no balls at the start except the ones in the treasuries.

How to play

• Players are safe in their own half. In the other team's half, a touch from a defender sends you to their prison.
• A prisoner waits there until a teammate reaches the prison safely; each rescue frees one player.
• Reach the other team's treasury safely and you can take one ball and dribble it home. Get it into your own treasury and your team scores.
• While dribbling home in their half, you are caught only if a defender wins the ball and kicks it out. Then the ball goes back to their treasury and you go to their prison.
• A team wins by taking all the treasure or by putting every opponent in prison. Nobody may stand in their own treasury or prison.

Why it works

Every raid is a decision about space: which route is safe, when to go, and whether to go now or wait for a teammate to draw the defenders away.

The ride home is running with the ball in its purest form: open space ahead, a defender closing, and the choice between big touches and keeping it close.

What to coach

• Look up for the safe route before you cross the halfway line.
• Start from a position that gives you space, not from the middle of the defenders.
• With space ahead, push the ball further and sprint; with a defender close, keep it tight.
• Work with teammates: decoy runs, rescues, and who stays home to defend.

Questions to ask

• "How did you find the safe route?"
• "When did you switch from big touches to small touches?"
• "How did your team decide who raids and who defends?"

Make it easier, make it harder

• Easier: start by carrying the ball in the hands instead of dribbling; the first player into the treasury can take two balls.
• Harder: fewer balls in each treasury; a pass to a teammate who then dribbles home also scores; a rescued player can go straight for the treasury.

How to adapt it by age

• U8 to U9: play the hands version first, then dribbling. Too many rules for most children under eight.
• U10 to U12: the dribbling version, with a rescue worth two players.
• U13 to U16: a bigger area, the passing rule, and a limit on how many players can defend inside their own half.