---
title: "Four Square (Ball Control)"
description: "Four players, four squares: guard yours and land the ball in someone else's, with any part of the body except the hands and two touches at most."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/four-square
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Four Square (Ball Control)

> Four players, four squares: guard yours and land the ball in someone else's, with any part of the body except the hands and two touches at most.

U9 to U14 · 4 to 4 players · 6 × 6 m · 12 min

Also called Ball Control, Soccer Tennis.

![Diagram of Four Square (Ball Control)](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/four-square)

## How to play

1. Mark a 6 by 6 metre square and split it into four squares of 3 by 3 metres, one player in each. With more players, mark more courts and play them all at once.
2. Kick the ball over the line so it lands in another player's square. Use any part of the body except the hands, and two touches at most.
3. You get a letter when the ball lands in your square, when you lose control of it, when you play it outside the court, or when you touch it a third time.
4. Play rounds of 3 minutes and keep your own letters; fewest letters wins. Between courts, the winner moves up one court and the player with most letters moves down.

## The decision it trains

Every ball is a choice of target: which of the three squares to attack, and where in it, the far corner, along the line, or just over the line in front of a player standing deep. The two touches decide how: kill it and place it, or play it first time before the others are set. After you play, your own square is open, so a risky ball that leaves you off balance has a price. Players check where everyone stands before the ball arrives.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** the ball may bounce once in your square before you play it, and use a bigger, softer ball.
- **Too easy:** two balls in play at once.
- **Younger players:** only two squares, two players in each, and one bounce allowed.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Whose square did you aim at, and what made you choose it?"
- "When did you use one touch, and when two?"
- "Where did you stand in your square before the ball came?"

## Where it comes from

Designed by Oscar S. Mwaanga and tested by peer coaches in the EduSport programme in Zambia, for the Kicking AIDS Out network, in a book published by NORAD, Norway's development agency. The manual calls it Ball Control, for ages 10 to 13; each mistake added a letter of the word AIDS, followed by HIV questions. The design credit covers the whole book. Nigeria's street game four post, one goal per player, has the same structure but only one source.

## Documented by

- Norad, Norway's development agency (Norway): Ball Control
- Swedish FA (Sweden)
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Soccer Tennis

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