---
title: "Knock It Off"
description: "Two teams shoot with their laces to knock the balls off the other team's cones: pick a ball that is still standing, and move along your line until you have a clear shot at it."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/knock-it-off
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Knock It Off

> Two teams shoot with their laces to knock the balls off the other team's cones: pick a ball that is still standing, and move along your line until you have a clear shot at it.

U4 to U6 · 4 to 12 players · 12 × 8 m · 8 min

Also called Team Battleship, Kingpin, Knock It Off!.

![Diagram of Knock It Off](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/knock-it-off)

## How to play

1. Mark two lines 12 metres long and 8 metres apart, facing each other. Along each line put six disc cones about 2 metres apart and balance a ball on each. Two teams of up to six, one behind each line, everyone with a ball. With more than 12 players, set up a second pair of lines.
2. On the coach's "Go!", everyone shoots with their laces at the cones on the other line, to knock a ball off its cone.
3. Shoot only from behind your own line, but move along it as you like. Any ball that comes over to your side is yours to shoot back. A ball that stops in the middle goes to whoever reaches it first: dribble it back behind your line before you shoot.
4. The first team to knock every ball off the other line wins the round. Put the balls back on the cones, swap lines and go again.

## The decision it trains

Every shot starts with a look: which balls on the other line are still standing? Early on there are targets everywhere and the nearest one will do. As they fall, the last few are often bunched at one end, and the shooter has to walk along the line until one is straight ahead before striking. With a ball at your feet and another rolling towards you, you choose: shoot now, or stop the one coming and take aim. A ball sitting in the middle is a small race of its own: go and get it, or shoot the one you have? And when everyone aims at the same cone, the child who picks a different one knocks more off.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** bring the lines to 6 metres apart.
- **Too easy:** move the lines to 10 or 12 metres apart.
- **Next step:** each team puts one keeper in front of its own line, moving along it to stop shots before they reach the cones. Now the shooter watches the keeper too: aim where the keeper is not, or shoot while the keeper is moving the other way. A new keeper every round.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Which ball did you aim at, and why that one?"
- "When only a few balls were left, where did you go to shoot?"
- "When a ball stopped in the middle, how did you decide whether to go and get it?"

## Where it comes from

Canada Soccer documents it as "Knock It Off!" among the shooting activities in the Active Start coach's toolkit of the Canada Soccer Pathway, the stage for players under 4 to under 6, with one keeper per team as an option. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- Canada Soccer (Canada): Knock It Off!
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark): Superliga, PASNINGER - SUPERLIGA, Ram de andres bolde
- AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) (United States): Kingpin, Knock It Off
- Swedish FA (Sweden)
- BC Soccer (Canada)
- Football Australia (Australia): Knock It Off
- Royal Belgian FA (Belgium): LE BOWLING
- PA West Soccer (United States): Hit the Target, Team Battleship
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Mini World Cup
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Hütchen-Schießen

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