---
title: "Ten Passes"
description: "Two teams, one ball, no goals: ten passes in a row score a point, so every player has to find space before the ball comes."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/ten-passes
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Ten Passes

> Two teams, one ball, no goals: ten passes in a row score a point, so every player has to find space before the ball comes.

U8 to U16 · 6 to 10 players · 20 × 20 m · 12 min

Also called Keep Away, Soccer Keepaway, Pass World Record.

![Diagram of Ten Passes](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/ten-passes)

## How to play

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. When the other team wins the ball, or it goes out, they get it and start their own count from one.
4. 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

- **Too hard:** five passes score a point instead of ten.
- **Too easy:** two touches each, so the next pass has to be found before the ball arrives.
- **Younger players:** play 3v3 in a 15 by 15 area, so every child is close to the ball and touches it often.

## 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?"

## Where it comes from

No 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.

## Documented by

- FIFA Training Centre (International)
- Italian FA (FIGC) (Italy): passaggi a coppie con intercettatori
- Norad, Norway's development agency (Norway): 10-PASS
- Swiss Federal Office of Sport (mobilesport.ch) (Switzerland): Quattro, Schnappball
- Canada Soccer (Canada)
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark): Southampton
- Football Australia (Australia): Pass World Record
- PA West Soccer (United States): Keep Away
- US Youth Soccer (United States): keep away
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany)
- EFDeportes (Argentina): Juego de los diez pases, Juego de los 10 pases
- PE Update (United States): Soccer Keepaway
- Netboard (France): Passe à 5
- Telegraf (Serbia): ševa

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