---
title: "Tail Tag"
description: "Everyone dribbles with a bib tucked in as a tail. Steal as many tails as you can while keeping your own ball and tail safe."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/tail-tag
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Tail Tag

> Everyone dribbles with a bib tucked in as a tail. Steal as many tails as you can while keeping your own ball and tail safe.

U5 to U10 · 8 to 12 players · 20 × 20 m · 8 min

Also called Hospital Tag, Tag Tails, Everybody’s It.

![Diagram of Tail Tag](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/tail-tag)

## How to play

1. For 8 to 12 players, mark a 20 by 20 metre area. Every player has a ball and tucks a bib into the back of their shorts as a tail, at least half of it hanging out.
2. On "go", everyone dribbles and tries to pull other players' tails while protecting their own.
3. You may only grab a tail while your ball is at your feet. If your ball runs away or leaves the area, get it back under control before you grab again.
4. Losing your tail does not put you out: keep playing and keep stealing. Hold the tails you win in your hand.
5. Play 60 to 90-second rounds. At the whistle, count the tails in your hand, plus one if your own is still on.

## The decision it trains

Every player is an attacker and a defender at once. To steal a tail you pick a target, ideally someone facing the other way, and close in with the ball still under control. The moment you reach for it, your own tail is exposed. So players learn to turn their body to keep the tail and the ball away from danger, to change speed to get close, and to check behind them before they go.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** grow the area to 25 by 25 metres, so there is time to look before closing in.
- **Too easy:** tuck the tails you win into your own waistband, so every tail you steal is one more you have to protect.
- **Younger players:** play one round with no ball, just tails, then add the ball for the next.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you choose whose tail to go for?"
- "What did you do with your body when someone came for your tail?"
- "When was the best moment to grab?"

## Where it comes from

It is the football version of tail tag, a playground game played in many places, and no source says who first added the ball. Canada Soccer calls its version Capture the Pinnies, US coaches call it Tail Tag or Duck Tails, and in the UK Soccer Coach Weekly has Tiger Tails. Finland's federation lists a tail game, Hännänryöstö, without a ball. Several of these versions start without the ball and add it later.

## Documented by

- Canada Soccer (Canada): Capture the Pinnies!, Last Player Standing
- Football Association of Finland (Finland): Hännänryöstö, Sulkaralli
- Italian FA (FIGC) (Italy): Lo scalpo
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Feuerwehr: Ballon-Dribbeln, Schwänzchen fangen
- US Youth Soccer (United States): Hospital Tag, Everybody’s It, KNEE TAG, TAIL TAG, Everybody’s It/Tail Tag, hand behind the back tag
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark): Halefanger
- AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) (United States): Hunters and Hunted, Sharks and Minnows, Hospital Tag
- Football Australia (Australia)
- Royal Belgian FA (Belgium): LE CHAT ET LES SOURIS
- PA West Soccer (United States): Everybody Tags
- Irish FA (Northern Ireland) (United Kingdom): Tails
- Japan FA (Japan): しっぽ取り, しっぽとりおに
- Japan's Ministry of Education (MEXT) (Japan): しっぽ取り鬼
- Swedish FA (Sweden)
- Ontario Soccer (Canada): Hospital tag, Tag Tails
- PISE (Canada): Dribbling Tails
- SoccerXpert (United States): Tail Tag
- MOJO (United States): Duck Tails
- Soccer Coach Weekly (United Kingdom): Tiger Tails

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