---
title: "The Zoo"
description: "Two animals guard their halves of a small square while everyone dribbles through. Keep looking, steer away, and if you lose the ball, you go in the cage."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/the-zoo
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# The Zoo

> Two animals guard their halves of a small square while everyone dribbles through. Keep looking, steer away, and if you lose the ball, you go in the cage.

U6 to U9 · 8 to 12 players · 15 × 15 m · 10 min

Also called FANGELEG I ZONER, Lo zoo.

![Diagram of The Zoo](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/the-zoo)

## How to play

1. For 8 to 12 players, mark a 15 by 15 metre square and split it into two halves with a line of discs.
2. Two players are animals, without a ball; each must stay in its own half, its cage. Everyone else has a ball and dribbles anywhere in the square.
3. An animal tries to win the ball from anyone in its half. When it does, the two swap: the dribbler becomes the animal in that half.
4. A dribbler whose ball leaves the square also swaps with the animal of that half.
5. Play 2-minute rounds and pick two new animals for each round.

## The decision it trains

With an animal in each half, the dribbler has to keep both in view: where each one is, which way it is facing, and which half is calmer right now. The choice is where to take the ball: away from the animal closing in, across the line into the quieter half, or through a gap with a change of pace when there is nowhere to escape. The animals learn to pick a target and trap it against the edges of their half.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** stretch the square to 20 by 15 metres, so each half has more room to escape.
- **Too easy:** a dribbler scores a point every time they cross the middle line, and losing the ball sets their count back to zero.
- **Younger players:** start with one animal, and every 30 seconds call "switch" so it moves to the other half; the dribblers have to notice and move away.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "How did you know which half was safer?"
- "What did you do when an animal came towards you?"
- "Animals: how did you trap a dribbler in your half?"

## Where it comes from

It comes from the Italian FA's youth sector: Lo zoo is in the exercise manual of its Programma di Sviluppo Territoriale, first version dated December 2018, for under-8s and under-9s, with a variant for younger children. The research found no second source with the same rules. It is a close relative of the crossing games such as sharks and minnows.

## Documented by

- Italian FA (FIGC) (Italy): Lo zoo
- Danish FA (DBU) (Denmark): FANGELEG I ZONER
- US Youth Soccer (United States)

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