Locked Thirds

1. Mark a pitch 20 metres wide and 30 metres long, split across into three thirds of 10 metres, with a goal and a keeper at each end. Two teams of six.
2. Each team has two defenders in its own end third, two players in the middle third, and one attacker in the far third, up against the other team's two defenders. Everyone stays in their own third.
3. The ball moves from one third to another only by a pass along the ground. Goals count only from inside the final third, so only your attacker can score.
4. After a goal or a ball over the end line, the keeper rolls it to one of their defenders. When the ball goes out at the side, a player from that third passes it back in.
5. Every 4 minutes, everyone moves to another third, so each child plays all three, and the keepers change too. With ten players, play without keepers on small goals.

The players are fixed in rows, like the rods of a table football game, so gaps open and close as the rows slide. The player on the ball in the middle reads one thing: is the line to our attacker open now, or is a defender standing in it? If it is closed, a pass across to the partner shifts the defenders and may open it a second later. The attacker, alone against two, moves to find the gap between them, often by running away and coming back to make room to receive. The two defenders decide who marks the attacker tight and who stands in the passing line, and when to step in front to intercept. Defenders who win the ball face the same question going the other way: who can I find in the next third?