---
title: "Freeze Tag with a Ball"
description: "Two taggers freeze the dribblers, and a teammate frees you by passing a ball through your legs. Every rescue is a risk worth weighing."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/freeze-tag-with-a-ball
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Freeze Tag with a Ball

> Two taggers freeze the dribblers, and a teammate frees you by passing a ball through your legs. Every rescue is a risk worth weighing.

U5 to U10 · 8 to 16 players · 20 × 20 m · 10 min

Also called Freeze Tag, Candy store owner, Mud Monster.

![Diagram of Freeze Tag with a Ball](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/freeze-tag-with-a-ball)

## How to play

1. For 8 to 16 players, mark a 20 by 20 metre area. Everyone has a ball except two taggers, who hold a bib each.
2. A tagger freezes a dribbler by touching them with the bib. A frozen player stands still with legs apart and holds their ball above their head.
3. Any free player can rescue a frozen teammate by passing their own ball through the frozen player's legs, then going to collect it.
4. Play 90-second rounds. At the whistle the taggers score a point for every player still frozen; then two new taggers take the bibs.

## The decision it trains

Every dribbler watches two things at once: where the taggers are, and who is frozen. A rescue is a real risk. To pass through someone's legs you have to slow down, look at the target and let the ball leave your feet, often with a tagger close by. So each child keeps weighing it up: rescue now, circle round to a safer angle, or wait until the tagger turns away. The taggers choose too: chase the free players, or stay near a frozen one.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** a tagger only freezes a dribbler by kicking their ball out of the area, not with a touch, as in the French FA's les sorciers.
- **Too easy:** a rescue only counts if the pass through the legs starts at least three big steps away.
- **Younger players:** play it first with the ball in the hands and rescue by crawling through the frozen player's legs, then put the ball at the feet.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you decide whether to go for a rescue?"
- "Where were the taggers when you made your rescue?"
- "Taggers: what made a player easy to catch?"

## Where it comes from

Freeze tag is a children's game played under many names, and no source says who first played it with a ball. In Mexico the playground game is encantados, in Japan koori oni. A primary school sheet in England calls the football version Football Stuck in the Mud. Canada Soccer and the FAI document freeze-style tag games for young players, the French FA's Loiret district plays it as les sorciers, and the Japanese FA's kids material lists koori oni among its tag games.

## Documented by

- Canada Soccer (Canada): Freeze Tag
- Japan FA (Japan): 鬼ごっこ, こおりおに , フラフープおに, こおりおに
- Italian FA (FIGC) (Italy)
- Football Association of Finland (Finland): Havainnointihippa
- Royal Belgian FA (Belgium)
- AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) (United States): Web-Slinger, Freeze Tag, LA Freeway, Car Thief
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): A-Fangi, Die Piraten greifen an!, Toiletten-Fangi, Fangspiel
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Octopus Tag, JUNGLE, TUNNEL TAG/MUD MEN, TURTLE TAG, TAG
- PA West Soccer (United States): Freeze Tag
- Football Australia (Australia)
- Irish FA (Northern Ireland) (United Kingdom): Flush the Toilet
- Ontario Soccer (Canada): Mud Monster, Pirates, Candy store owner, Mud Monsters
- French FA (FFF) districts (France): Les sorciers
- Massachusetts Youth Soccer (United States): Freeze Tag
- Diccionario del español de México (Mexico): Encantados
- Goldsborough Primary School (United Kingdom)
- BAYFA (United States)
- iCoachFootball (Ireland)
- Veo (Denmark): Freeze tag with ball
- MOJO (United States)

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