Coach Says

Also called: Simon Says

Simon Says with a ball at every foot: toe taps, sole rolls, freeze — but only when Coach says so.

👟 U4–U6
👥 1+ players
🧰 ball
⚽ 1 ball each
📏 backyard
🔥 medium energy
⏱️ 5 min

Setup

No cones, no grid — any patch of grass where every kid can dribble without bumping elbows. Give every player a ball and spread them out an arm-span apart. The caller — coach at practice, parent in the backyard — stands where everyone can see and hear. That's the whole setup: you can start this game ten seconds after getting out of the car, which is exactly why it makes the perfect first five minutes.

How to play

Everyone dribbles gently around the space while the caller talks. Commands only count when they start with the magic words: "Coach says."
"Coach says toe taps!" — tap the top of the ball with alternating feet. "Coach says sole rolls!" — drag it side to side with the bottom of your foot. "Coach says freeze!" — stop the ball dead and strike a statue pose.
Mix moving calls (dribble fast, slow motion, spin and go) with touch calls (knee on the ball, left foot only, tiny-tiny touches).
Every so often, sneak in a command without "Coach says." Anyone who falls for it owes three toe taps on the spot — then they're right back in. Nobody is ever out.
End the round with "Coach says show me your goal celebration!" — then hand the calling job to a player and go again.

Coaching points

Rapid-fire beats long-winded. A four-year-old's attention lives in five-second windows — call something new before anyone drifts.
Every command should end with the ball at somebody's feet. The trick of this game is smuggling a hundred ball touches into what feels like recess.
Spot the kid staring at their shoes and call "Coach says look at me!" — it retrains eyes-up dribbling without a single lecture.
Keep the gotcha penalty tiny — three toe taps, never sitting out. The kids who get fooled the most are the ones who need the touches the most.
Ham it up. Robot voice, opera voice, whisper voice — the sillier the caller, the harder they listen.

Why it works

Coach Says is the highest-value five minutes in U6 soccer because it costs nothing — no cones, no lines, no explaining. Kids arrive already knowing Simon Says, so the whole game is pure repetition: toe taps, sole rolls, stops and starts, dozens of surface touches disguised as a listening game. And the listening is real practice too — reacting to a voice while the ball is at your feet is the seed of reacting to a game while the ball is at your feet. When the gotcha costs three toe taps instead of a seat on the grass, even getting fooled makes you better.

Variations

Every command counts makes it easier

Drop the trick entirely for the youngest players: every call counts, no gotchas. It becomes pure copy-the-coach with a ball — exactly right for a first week.
Kid callers makes it harder

Hand the game over: players take turns being Coach for a round, with one brief — call fast and sneak in extra gotchas. Keeping up with an unpredictable kid caller is a real listening test, calling the moves teaches them twice, and the giggles double.
Wrong-foot round makes it harder

One full round where every touch uses the non-favorite foot only. Sole rolls get wonderfully wobbly.

See it in action

Watch a demo on YouTube

Video by Soccerspective — opens on YouTube.

Sources & credits

A traditional game — nobody owns it, everybody plays it. Our write-up and diagram are original.

folk Simon Says — the classic listening game, adapted to soccer by generations of youth coaches (the underlying command-and-catch mechanic — common childhood knowledge)
article Simon Says - Youth Soccer Drill — SoccerXpert (mechanic confirmation)
article Simon Says — Fun Soccer Drill — Soccer-Drills.net (mechanic confirmation)
video SIMON SAYS drill | How to Coach Soccer for U5 U6 U7 Age Groups — Soccerspective (demo video)

Links are credits, not endorsements — creators aren't affiliated with Soccer Fun.