---
title: "Pairs to the Keeper"
description: "Pairs score by passing between two players of another pair and then finding a keeper first time: see the gap and the keeper before the ball arrives."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/pairs-to-the-keeper
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Pairs to the Keeper

> Pairs score by passing between two players of another pair and then finding a keeper first time: see the gap and the keeper before the ball arrives.

U8 to U12 · 8 to 14 players · 18 × 18 m · 12 min

![Diagram of Pairs to the Keeper](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/pairs-to-the-keeper)

## How to play

1. Mark a circle about 18 metres across with cones. Inside it put two small squares, 3 by 3 metres and well apart, with a keeper in each.
2. Everyone else plays in pairs with a ball, except one pair in bibs with no ball: the pressers.
3. To score, pass between the two players of another pair to your partner, who passes first time to either keeper. Your pair gets a point and the keeper rolls the ball back to you.
4. If the pressers win a ball, it is theirs: they become a passing pair and the pair that lost it presses.
5. Every 2 minutes, one pair swaps places with the two keepers.

## The decision it trains

A point needs three things in a line: you, a gap between two players who keep moving, and your partner on the far side. So the passer looks for a pair standing far enough apart and waits, or moves, until the line opens. The partner does the other half, moving until the gap points at them. Then the first time pass means the receiver must know where the free keeper is before the ball arrives: a look over the shoulder, a body turned half open. The pressers choose which pair to hunt: the one about to pass, or the receiver who has not looked.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** make the circle bigger, allow one touch before the pass to the keeper, or play the first rounds without pressers.
- **Too easy:** make the circle smaller, or add a second pressing pair.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you choose which pair to pass between?"
- "Before the ball reached you, where was the keeper?"
- "Pressers: which pair did you go for, and why?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions as part of "Connecting with teammates" (2025), the first week of a passing and receiving programme shared by Emily Senior, an FA regional coach developer, who adds the pressing pair as the next step. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom)

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