---
title: "Target Ball"
description: "Two teams shoot footballs at one big ball between them to drive it over the other team's line: read where the big ball is rolling, then choose where and how hard to hit it."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/target-ball
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Target Ball

> Two teams shoot footballs at one big ball between them to drive it over the other team's line: read where the big ball is rolling, then choose where and how hard to hit it.

U5 to U10 · 6 to 10 players · 10 × 10 m · 10 min

Also called Magic Marble, Team-Billard, Prickboll.

![Diagram of Target Ball](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/target-ball)

## How to play

1. Mark two lines 10 metres long and 10 metres apart, facing each other, and put a big ball in the middle, such as a basketball. Two teams of three to five, one behind each line, every player with a football. With more than ten players, set up a second pair of lines.
2. On "Go!", shoot at the big ball to drive it over the other team's line. Only footballs may move it: nobody touches the big ball.
3. Shoot only from behind your own line, but move along it as you like. Any football that comes over to your side is yours to shoot again. Go between the lines only to fetch a football that has stopped there, and dribble it back behind your line before you shoot.
4. When the big ball rolls over a line, the other team scores a point. The coach puts it back in the middle and play goes on at once. If it rolls out at a side, it goes back to the middle too.
5. Play rounds of two minutes, then swap lines and go again.

## The decision it trains

Every shot starts with a look at the big ball: where is it, and which way is it rolling? Hit it full in the middle and it rolls straight on; clip it on one side and it squirts off at an angle, often out at the side. So the shooter moves along the line until the big ball is straight ahead before striking. A ball in the air flies over the top, so only a low strike works, and children find that out without anyone telling them. When the big ball is rolling towards your line, one firm shot can stop it and turn it round; when it sits close to the other line, a soft pass is enough to tip it over. With a ball at your feet and another rolling in, you choose: shoot now, or stop the one coming and take aim. And a team that bunches in the middle of its line gets in its own way; spread along it, and whichever way the big ball runs, someone has a straight shot at it.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** swap the basketball for a beach ball or a gym ball, bigger and lighter, so every hit moves it; or bring the lines to 8 metres apart.
- **Too easy:** move the lines to 12 to 14 metres apart, so only a clean, low strike reaches the big ball with any force.
- **Younger players:** throw or roll the balls with the hands first, then play the same game with feet.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Where did you hit the big ball, and where did it go?"
- "When the big ball was rolling towards your line, what did you do?"
- "Where along the line did you stand, and why there?"

## Where it comes from

Several sources document it. The South Baden FA (Südbadischer Fußball-Verband) has it as Team-Billard ("team billiards") among the ball school games of its training collection for children's football, on the sheets for its three youngest age groups, under 7 to under 11 (G-, F- and E-Jugend). The Swedish FA's Skolbollen folder for schools calls it Prickboll, and AYSO's 6U Kickstart programme manual calls it Magic Marble, the marble being a coloured ball or a beach ball that only the coach may touch. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany): Team-Billard
- Swedish FA (Sweden): Prickboll
- AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization) (United States): Magic Marble
- FIFA Training Centre (International)

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