---
title: "Mind the Robbers"
description: "Dribble away from the robbers and rest in a safe zone, but only one at a time and only for five seconds: when to go in, and which way to come out."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/mind-the-robbers
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Mind the Robbers

> Dribble away from the robbers and rest in a safe zone, but only one at a time and only for five seconds: when to go in, and which way to come out.

U6 to U10 · 8 to 16 players · 20 × 20 m · 10 min

Also called Big Bad Bear, Dribblers and Robbers, Pirate.

![Diagram of Mind the Robbers](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/mind-the-robbers)

## How to play

1. Mark a 20 by 20 metre square with four small safe zones inside it, about 2 metres across, one in each quarter. For 12 players: nine dribblers with a ball each and three robbers in bibs without one. Keep about one robber for every three dribblers; with more than 16 players, run two squares.
2. Dribblers keep their ball moving inside the square. Robbers try to win a ball.
3. A dribbler with the ball in a safe zone cannot be robbed, but only one dribbler fits in a zone, for five seconds at most: they count out loud. When another dribbler comes in, the one inside has to leave.
4. Robbers may not wait next to a safe zone.
5. A robber who wins a ball keeps it and dribbles on; the player who lost it takes the bib and becomes a robber. Play rounds of 3 minutes with a short break between them.

## The decision it trains

The safe zone is a rest, not a hiding place. A dribbler with a robber closing in decides whether to go for a zone now or to beat the robber in the open, and which zone: a free one further away, or a near one where going in pushes a teammate back out. Inside, the count is running and anyone may arrive, so the look starts the moment they get in: where the robbers are, and which side to leave by. Coming out without looking is how the ball gets lost. The robbers cannot stand guard at a zone, so they choose a dribbler in the open, or read which zone is about to empty and arrive just as the player leaves.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** add a fifth safe zone, or let dribblers stay eight seconds.
- **Too easy:** take one safe zone away, or add a robber.
- **Next step:** each dribbler may use each safe zone only once a round, so the safety runs out as the round goes on.
- **Younger players:** play it first as plain tag without balls, a robber's touch making the swap, then the same game with a ball each.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "When did you go to a safe zone, and when did you keep dribbling?"
- "Before you left the safe zone, what did you look at?"
- "Robbers: which dribblers were easiest to win the ball from, and why?"

## Where it comes from

Varo rosvoja ("mind the robbers") is in Kaikki Pelissä (everyone in the game), the Finnish FA's material for school PE lessons with football and futsal, in its part on playground games. The sheet lets the teacher set the time in a safe zone between five and eight seconds, suggests learning it first as tag without a ball, and offers the once-only safe zone as a variation. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- Football Association of Finland (Finland): Varo rosvoja
- Irish FA (Northern Ireland) (United Kingdom): Zone Ball
- AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) (United States): Big Bad Bear
- BC Soccer (Canada)
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Leave It, SHARK ATTACK, TIGER BALL, Blob/Mutant Blob, Running bases, Stinger Tag, stooping tag
- Japan FA (Japan): フラフープおに
- Football Australia (Australia): Dribblers and Robbers
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Dribbler und Balldiebe, Dribbler und Balldiebe im Team, Bällejagd
- Royal Belgian FA (Belgium): LE CHASSEUR CHASSÉ
- PA West Soccer (United States): Pirate, Cowboys and Indians, Get One
- Sport Australia (Australia): Dribblers and Robbers
- Ontario Soccer (Canada)
- FIFA Training Centre (International)

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