---
title: "Red Light, Green Light"
description: "Dribble towards the watcher while their back is turned. When they turn, every ball must be dead still under the sole. How far do you dare go?"
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/red-light-green-light
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Red Light, Green Light

> Dribble towards the watcher while their back is turned. When they turn, every ball must be dead still under the sole. How far do you dare go?

U5 to U8 · 6 to 12 players · 15 × 20 m · 8 min

Also called What's the time, Mr Wolf?, Shrek, Red Light Green Light.

![Diagram of Red Light, Green Light](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/red-light-green-light)

## How to play

1. For 6 to 12 players, mark an area 15 metres wide and 20 metres long. One player is the watcher and stands on the far end line, back to the group. Everyone else has a ball and stands side by side on the start line.
2. With their back turned, the watcher calls "one, two, three, red light!", fast or slow as they like, and turns round on "red light". While the watcher calls, everyone dribbles forward.
3. When the watcher turns, every player must be still with a sole on the ball. Anyone the watcher sees moving, or whose ball is still rolling, goes back to the start line.
4. The first player to stop their ball on the watcher's line wins the round and becomes the next watcher.

## The decision it trains

The decision is timing. While the watcher's back is turned, each player chooses how much to risk: big touches to cover ground fast, or small ones that can be stopped dead the instant the watcher turns. The closer to the line, the bigger the risk, because one rolling ball sends you all the way back. Reading the watcher becomes part of it: do they call fast, slow, or change it up? The watcher's own choice is when to turn.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** a player caught moving goes back five big steps instead of all the way to the start.
- **Too easy:** put one defender in the middle who may win balls while the watcher's back is turned; a player who loses the ball goes back to the start.
- **Younger players:** any foot touching the ball counts as stopped, not only the sole.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you know when to slow down?"
- "Big touches or small touches: which got you further, and why?"
- "Watchers: how did you catch people moving?"

## Where it comes from

It is a children's game played in many countries under different names: 1, 2, 3 soleil in France, un, due, tre, stella in Italy, daruma-san ga koronda in Japan, mugunghwa kkoci pieot seumnida in Korea, 1, 2, 3, mu tou ren in China. The dribbling version appears in French FA material for under-7s from the Haute-Marne and Loiret districts, and in a primary school football booklet from the Ardèche. In US coaching, red light, green light is often a coach calling stop and go, with no watcher to beat.

## Documented by

- French FA (FFF) districts (France): 1, 2, 3 Soleil
- French national education (school PE) (France)
- Royal Belgian FA (Belgium): 1-2-3 piano!, 1 - 2 - 3... SOLEIL, L’OURS
- AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) (United States): Red Light, Green Light, Mr. Wolf
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Red Light - Green Light, Red Light Green Light, JACK AND THE BEANSTALK, RED LIGHT! GREEN LIGHT!, SNAKE IN THE GRASS, WAKE THE GIANT!, WHAT TIME IS IT MR. WOLF?
- PA West Soccer (United States): Red Light! Green Light!
- Japan FA (Japan): だるまさんがころんだ
- ONFI, Uruguay's children's football body (Uruguay): El oso dormilón
- Massachusetts Youth Soccer (United States): Red Light/Green Light
- Ontario Soccer (Canada): Shrek, What's the time, Mr Wolf?, What’s the Time Mr. Wolf?

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