---
title: "Turn or Recycle"
description: "Take a pass with a defender at your back, then choose: turn and pass into one of four small goals for 2 points, or play it safely back to a server for 1."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/turn-or-recycle
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Turn or Recycle

> Take a pass with a defender at your back, then choose: turn and pass into one of four small goals for 2 points, or play it safely back to a server for 1.

U7 to U12 · 3 to 5 players · 15 × 15 m · 10 min

![Diagram of Turn or Recycle](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/turn-or-recycle)

## How to play

1. Mark a 15 by 15 metre square and put a small goal in the middle of each side, its mouth facing into the square. Play in fours: one attacker and one defender inside, two servers outside at opposite corners, each with half the balls. Set up a square for every four players, so nobody waits.
2. The attacker moves to show for one of the servers and calls for the ball; that server passes it into the attacker's feet.
3. The attacker turns and passes into any of the four goals for 2 points. If the turn is not on, a safe pass back to either server is worth 1. The servers keep count.
4. If the defender wins the ball, they score 1 point by passing into any goal, and the attacker defends at once. After every goal, pass back or ball out of the square, a server plays the next ball straight in.
5. After 30 seconds the attacker and defender swap roles without stopping. Once both have attacked, the pair swaps with the servers. With five in a group, add a third server at another corner; with three, play with one server and rotate all three roles every 30 seconds.

## The decision it trains

The decision starts before the ball arrives. While the pass is on its way, the attacker looks over a shoulder: is the defender tight behind, off to one side, or a step away? With a goal on every side there is always one to turn towards, so the question is which way, and whether at all. A defender on one side leaves the other open: take the ball on the foot further from the defender and turn away from them. A defender tight and square behind closes both turns, so shield the ball and play it back for one point; the next pass comes from the other corner, the defender has to get round again, and the turn may open. Two points is the risk, one point is the safe choice, and neither is wrong. The defender decides how tight to stand, close enough to stop the turn but not so close that one spin leaves them behind, and when to step in: on the pass, or on the first touch. A steal flips it all: find the nearest goal before the attacker recovers.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** the defender may not tackle until the attacker's first touch, which leaves a moment to look and turn.
- **Too easy:** two touches for the attacker, so the turn has to happen on the first touch.
- **Next step:** as in Ontario Soccer's own progression, the servers vary the pass: bouncing, rolling, spinning and at different heights, like the untidy passes of a match.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "While the ball was coming to you, what did you see behind you?"
- "When did you turn, and when did you play it back? What made you choose?"
- "Defending, where did you stand to stop the turn, and when did you go for the ball?"

## Where it comes from

Ontario Soccer documents it in a Learn to Train session plan on receiving, written for coaches of girls under 8 to under 11 and boys under 9 to under 12, as Station C of the session's four stations. It calls the game "Footbonaut", a name borrowed from a training machine. There each player attacks for 30 seconds before becoming a server, and the station runs for 10 minutes. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- Ontario Soccer (Canada)

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