---
title: "Find the Free Player"
description: "Outside players feed balls in, and the attackers inside must get each one back out to an outside player with no ball, past three defenders: look before it arrives and find the free one."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/find-the-free-player
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Find the Free Player

> Outside players feed balls in, and the attackers inside must get each one back out to an outside player with no ball, past three defenders: look before it arrives and find the free one.

U12 to U16 · 9 to 12 players · 20 × 20 m · 12 min

Also called Open the Gate.

![Diagram of Find the Free Player](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/find-the-free-player)

## How to play

1. Mark a 20 by 20 metre square. Inside: four attackers and three defenders. Around it: five outside players, four of them with a ball. With fewer than twelve, keep one more attacker than defenders and one more outside player than balls; with more, set up a second square.
2. An outside player with a ball passes it in to an attacker.
3. The attackers score a point by passing a ball out to an outside player who has no ball, but never straight back to the one who passed it in. Attackers may pass to each other first.
4. Outside players move along their side to stay open and play a ball back in as soon as they get one, so several balls are moving at once.
5. A defender who wins a ball passes it out to any outside player: a point to the defenders. Swap roles every three minutes, so everyone plays inside and outside.

## The decision it trains

Every pass in asks the same question: which outside player has no ball right now? The answer keeps changing, because each pass in leaves another outside player empty-handed and each pass out fills one. So the attacker has to look before the ball arrives, at the ball, the defenders, their teammates and the space, and open their body towards the free player. With the ball, the choice is to play it out first time, take a touch away from the defender first, or use the spare attacker inside when the way out is blocked. The defenders, one short, decide which lane to close, and when to leave a player free so they can step into a passing line.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** take two balls off the outside players, so fewer balls are moving and there are more free players to find.
- **Too easy:** make it four against four inside.
- **Next step:** add a goal at each end and a halfway line. Play 4v4 inside, with four outside players who play for whichever team has the ball; after a goal, the outside players swap with the team that conceded.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Before the ball came to you, did you know who was free? How?"
- "When the way out was blocked, what did you do?"
- "Defenders: which pass did you choose to take away?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in a 2025 England Football Learning session for 12 to 16 year olds, "The lions' den", shared by Emily Senior, an FA regional coach developer. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom)
- PA West Soccer (United States): Open the Gate

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