Coaching tools › Activities › Dribbling and 1v1

Space Man

By Gabe Ramos · U.S. Soccer Coach Educator · Updated October 2026

Players dribble anywhere in the grid and freeze with a foot on the ball when you shout. Whoever is in the most space wins 100 points. The first game about finding space, for players who still arrive in a clump.

Setup

Players dribble anywhere in the grid. When you yell FREEZE, everyone stops with a foot on the ball. Whoever is in the most space wins 100 points.

Make it easier or harder

• Easier: No ball: run, freeze, find space.
• Harder: Bonus points for first foot on the ball.

Coach’s notes

• If It's Chaos: All in one clump? Freeze more often and point to the open space.

Why it works

Finding space is an idea most adults explain and most children ignore. Space Man makes it a prize: the astronaut with nobody near them wins, and inside two rounds the clump starts to spread without a word of instruction.

Freeze more often than feels natural. Every freeze is a chance to point to the open grass, and eyes-up is the coaching point hiding inside the game.

Where it sits

This activity is from Pre-K · Week 1 · Soccer Island in the Full Season Intramural Curriculum for Pre-K to 2nd grade. Every session in the book has the same shape: arrival play, Soccer Island, two or three activities and the game, with two coaching points a day, an easier and a harder version of everything, and a fix for when it turns to chaos.

Run it inside the free U6 practice plan ›

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