---
title: "Zone-by-Zone 1v1"
description: "Move the ball from one end to the other through two zones, each with its own locked 1v1: get free, get past your defender and pass forward, never back."
canonical: https://hobbit.football/drills/zone-by-zone-1v1
language: en
publisher: Hobbit (https://hobbit.football)
---

# Zone-by-Zone 1v1

> Move the ball from one end to the other through two zones, each with its own locked 1v1: get free, get past your defender and pass forward, never back.

U9 to U16 · 5 to 7 players · 10 × 30 m · 12 min

Also called No going back.

![Diagram of Zone-by-Zone 1v1](https://hobbit.football/api/game-library/diagram/zone-by-zone-1v1)

## How to play

1. Mark a pitch 10 metres wide and 30 long and split it into two halves. In each half, one attacker and one defender, who may not leave their half. A neutral player stands at each end. Six players per pitch; with more, set up pitches side by side. With five, use one neutral, and at the other end a goal is a dribble over the end line.
2. A neutral passes in to the attacker in the nearest half. The attacker gets past their defender and passes over the halfway line to their teammate.
3. The teammate gets past the second defender and passes to the neutral at the far end: a goal. That neutral plays straight back in, and the same pair attacks the other way.
4. The ball only goes forward: no pass back to the neutral who played it in, and no pass back over the halfway line.
5. If a defender wins the ball, they pass it to the nearest neutral and their pair becomes the attackers. Every four minutes, swap the neutrals with two players from the zones, so everyone plays every role.

## The decision it trains

Nobody can come to help, so each attacker solves their own 1v1, and it starts before the ball arrives. The receiver has a defender right beside them and has to get free: step away and come back, or show short and spin in behind, and open the body to see forward. With the ball, the choice is which way to turn and when. If the defender is tight, go past them with a turn; if they hang back to block the next pass, carry the ball at them first. The passer reads their teammate too: into the feet when they are marked tight, into space when they have room. The defender chooses between getting tight to stop the turn and standing off to cut out the pass that comes after it.

## Make it harder or easier

- **Too hard:** widen the pitch to 14 metres, so there is room to get past.
- **Too easy:** narrow it to 8 metres, or add a second defender in one half.
- **Next step:** a pitch 27 metres wide and 36 long in three zones, a goal at each end and one defender locked in each zone. Three attackers move freely and combine through the zones to score; defenders who win the ball are unlocked and counter together.

## What to ask at the breaks

- "Before the ball came, what did you do to get free?"
- "How did you choose which way to turn?"
- "Defending, when did you get tight, and when did you stay off?"

## Where it comes from

The FA documents it in its England Football Learning sessions as "No going back" (2023), shared by Bex Garlick, an FA grassroots coach developer. A version with three zones and a goal at each end appears in a 2025 FA passing and receiving session for 12 to 16 year olds, shared by Emily Senior, an FA regional coach developer. No source names who created it.

## Documented by

- The FA (United Kingdom): No going back
- German regional FAs (Bavaria, Hamburg, South Baden) (Germany)
- US Youth Soccer (United States)
- FIFA Training Centre (International)

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