How to play
- Mark a 20 by 20 metre area. Two teams of four in bibs, one ball. With more players, run a second area beside it rather than making this one bigger.
- The team on the ball counts its passes out loud. Ten in a row, without the other team touching the ball, score a point and the count starts again.
- When the other team wins the ball, or it goes out, they get it and start their own count from one.
- Play rounds of four minutes. The team with more points wins the round; then change the teams around.
The decision it trains
The player on the ball chooses between the safe pass that keeps the count alive and the riskier one that gets the ball away from pressure. The real work is off the ball: every player without it decides where to move so the passer has a free line, away from their marker and not hidden behind an opponent. The defending team decides whether to press the ball together or cut the passing lines and wait for a mistake.
Make it harder or easier
What to ask at the breaks
"When your team lost the count, what happened just before?"
"Where were you when the passer had nobody to pass to?"
"Defenders: when you won the ball, what had your team done just before?"
A free account plans 2 sessions and talks to Hobbit 5 times a month; after that, Pro.
Who documents it
14 sources · each opens the originalNo origin is documented. A Spanish PE article says every PE teacher and coach knows the juego de los diez pases, and another Spanish author built a whole football teaching unit on it. In France it is passe à dix. It is played with the hands too: the Kicking AIDS Out manual from Zambia uses a throw-and-catch version. In Serbia, a Red Star Belgrade first-team session played it as ševa, where ten passes moved a team into the other half.
- FIFA Training CentreInternational · 4 documents
Italian FA (FIGC)Italycalls it passaggi a coppie con intercettatori
Norad, Norway's development agencyNorwaycalls it 10-PASS
Swiss Federal Office of Sport (mobilesport.ch)Switzerland · 3 documentscalls it Quattro, Schnappball
Canada SoccerCanada
Danish FA (DBU)Denmark · 6 documentscalls it Southampton
Football AustraliaAustralia · 2 documentscalls it Pass World Record
PA West SoccerUnited States · 2 documentscalls it Keep Away- US Youth SoccerUnited States · 2 documentscalls it keep away
German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden)Germany · 8 documents
EFDeportesSpain · 2 documentscalls it Juego de los diez pases, Juego de los 10 pases
