---
title: "Locked Thirds"
description: "A match with every player locked in one third of the pitch, so the ball has to be passed through the lines to your attacker: when is the pass forward on?"
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/locked-thirds
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Locked Thirds

> A match with every player locked in one third of the pitch, so the ball has to be passed through the lines to your attacker: when is the pass forward on?

U7 to U11 · 10 to 12 players · 20 × 30 m · 20 min

Also called Zoneball, Table football, Fields of Three.

![Diagram of Locked Thirds](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/locked-thirds)

## How to play

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 decision it trains

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?

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** the player who passes into the final third may follow the ball in, making it two against two there.
- **Too easy:** two touches each in the middle third, or a narrower pitch, so the gaps close faster.
- **Next step:** once the ball reaches the final third, one middle player may join the attack; later, unlock everyone and play the match.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Before you passed forward, how did you know the line was open?"
- "Attackers: what did you do to get free between two defenders?"
- "Defenders: when did you go for the interception, and when did you stay with your player?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions under several names: "Table football" (2025 and 2026), "Finishing through the thirds" (2026) and "Playing forward to find the target" (2023). Other FA sessions lock players in halves with three against three in each (2025), or in five zones with one against one in each (2025), and a 2023 receiving session ends with a match in locked zones. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom): Table football
- Canada Soccer (Canada)
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany)
- Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT) (Japan): グリッドサッカー
- Football Australia (Australia): Zoneball
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark)
- PA West Soccer (United States): Fields of Three
- Irish FA (Northern Ireland) (United Kingdom)
- FIFA Training Centre (International)
- Ontario Soccer (Canada)

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