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See Confident BeginnersFootball Games for 6 Year Olds: Six Games With One New Rule Each
Confident Beginners
Add one rule at a time, and only when the last one feels easy.
Choose any of the six football games for 6 year olds below, play it for about five minutes with a soft ball and keep the same rule until it stops being a challenge. Then add one more, so the game grows with your child and nobody is ever knocked out or left waiting at the side.
For a long time I thought a bigger child needed a bigger game. The first time I gave mine three rules at once, we spent the whole session arguing about the second.
A bit more game, still a short one
What Changes at Six
Most coaching plans written for six-year-olds start with a squad of children on a club pitch. In a garden it is just you and your child, and a game with a single rule does the same job in a fraction of the time.
In my experience many six-year-olds can take a turn, keep a score and care who wins, and still lose interest fast. That is why each game here is short and starts with one rule, and why the next rule waits until the first one feels easy.
One coach's rule of thumb, from a guide written for people running group sessions, is 3 to 5 minutes an activity for ages 4 to 6 and 5 to 8 minutes for ages 7 to 9. The same guide warns against games that leave a child watching from the side. Both are practical coaching guidance, not research, though they match what I see in our garden.
Football is one part of an active week, not the whole of it. The UK Chief Medical Officers' guidelines ask that children's activity across the week includes things that build movement skills as well as muscle and bone strength. A few minutes with a ball is one easy way to do the first.
On a tired evening, going back a step is fine: the football games for 5 year olds have no score and no rules, and nothing stops a six-year-old playing them.
One starting rule on every card
Six Games and Their Starting Rules
Each game needs a ball and a grown-up for about five minutes. England Football's age-group table lists a size 3 ball for both Under 7s and Under 8s, and at home I use a soft one. Every card gives the rule to start with, and the ladder further down says what to add after that.
Gate Pass Pairs.
Two trainers make a gate and you pass the ball through it to each other. Starting rule: none, just pass. For more, here is the gate passing challenge.
Count the Touches.
Keep the ball close and count touches out loud while walking round the garden, aiming for their own best from last time. Starting rule: no score, count only. Try ball mastery toe taps for a closer version.
Wall Return.
Kick against a blank wall or fence and stop the rebound. Starting rule: any stop counts. There is a fuller version in wall and fence passing.
Follow Me.
Your child leads and dribbles anywhere they like while you copy, then you swap. Starting rule: you copy exactly and they set the pace. Nobody can get it wrong.
Corner Targets.
Put four hoops or boxes in the corners of a goal-sized space, call a corner and they kick towards it. Starting rule: any target counts. Next, try mini target shooting corners.
Mini Match to Three.
Make two small goals from shoes and play first to three, then swap ends and go again, because losing one and winning the next is the point. Starting rule: you play with your weaker foot. See marking out a mini football pitch.
Choose one game for tonight and leave the other five for later in the week, when the first has had its run.
Measure it once, then forget it
A Mini Pitch for Whatever Garden You Have
Most gardens are smaller than a club pitch, and that is fine. Two shoes at each end of the longest stretch of lawn you have keep the shape of a real match, and four of the six games above need no pitch at all.
| Your space | What to mark | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Most gardens | Two shoes for each goal, along the longest line you have | The game stays close and quick, and it still has two ends and a middle. |
| A patio or a narrow lawn | Nothing: play Wall Return or Follow Me | Neither needs a pitch. |
| No garden | Count the Touches in a hallway, or any game in the park | A park gives you the space without the marking. |
| 15 by 10 metres or more | The Under 7 pitch England Football recommends | It matches a club mini match, though two shoes get you close enough. |
For the record, England Football's table puts Under 7s in 3v3 matches on a recommended pitch of 15 by 10 metres, with goals of 4 by 2.5 feet, which is about 1.2 by 0.8 metres. Under 8s move up to 5v5 on 37 by 27 metres, and that is a park rather than a garden.
A goal can be two trainers, and the real size is only a guide. If you would like a goal to buy, read what size goal for a garden and check the current price in the shop.
The same game, three weeks
Add One Rule a Week
Each game can grow by one rule at a time, so the same ball and the same patch of grass can last three weeks or more before anyone asks for something new.
| Game | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gate Pass Pairs | Just pass | Count points | Beat your own best |
| Count the Touches | Count only | Use both feet | Change direction every 5 |
| Wall Return | Any stop | Stop with the sole of the foot | One touch back |
| Follow Me | Copy exactly | Add one trick | Swap every minute |
| Corner Targets | Any target | Call the corner first | Weaker foot |
| Mini Match to Three | Weaker foot for you | One turn each at serving | Play to five |
Add the next rule when your child asks for it or when the last one has felt easy twice in a row, whichever comes first. That is my own reasoning, not research, so treat the weeks as a rough guide and stay on one rung for as long as it is fun.
Losing, arguing and walking off
What to Say When It Goes Wrong
Once a game has a score, the first row is never far away, and these four lines have got us through most of them.
After a loss: "That was a close one. Shall we swap ends and go again?"
When they change a rule: "Good idea, shall we try it your way for one go?"
When it was not fair: "Shall we say what the rule is before we start?"
When they don't want to play: "No problem. The ball stays out if you change your mind."
Losing on purpose now and then is fine, but not every time, because a win your child can see you handed over stops feeling like one. Try not to say "do not be silly" or "you need to try harder", and stop while they still want another go.
For the harder evenings, read when your child gets upset about losing and should you let your child win. If the ending itself is the problem, ending sessions without tantrums helps.
England Football's own advice to coaches of Under 8s and Under 9s is that "shouting instructions and telling them what to do all the time" won't help children become problem-solvers. It was written for club coaches of slightly older players, but I think it holds in a garden too, so let the game do the talking.
What is known and what is not
What England Football and the Studies Tell Us
Organised football at this age is played small. England Football's table puts Under 7s in 3v3, and its guide to 5v5 for Under 8s and Under 9s says smaller formats are fine, especially in training. That is guidance for clubs, and it says nothing about how a parent should play at home.
For context, Sport England's survey of more than 100,000 children found that 47.8% of children aged 5 to 16 in England were active in 2023-24, while 29.6% averaged under 30 minutes a day. It covers every kind of activity and does not give a figure for six-year-olds on their own.
A 2017 review linked play-based programmes with better ball skills in children aged 2 to 6, though its certainty was very low, and a 2018 review of active play could not draw firm conclusions. Most of the children in both were younger than six, and neither tests any game or the rule ladder here. See how Our Kickabout researches its pages.
When they outgrow these
Where This Fits
An older or keener child will soon want a proper score and a longer match, and the rule ladder above stretches these six games a good way towards that before you need anything new.
If your child would rather get better at one thing than play a new game each night, football drills for kids explains why repeating one skill for a while beats rotating through many.
Quick answers
Common Questions About Football Games for 6 Year Olds
What football games can I play with a 6 year old in the garden?
Any of the six above. Gate Pass Pairs and Count the Touches are the easiest starts, because they need no score and almost no kit.
How long should a football game last for a 6 year old?
About five minutes, in my experience. The coach's rule of thumb above, 3 to 5 minutes an activity for ages 4 to 6, points the same way.
What size football and goal does a 6 year old need?
England Football lists a size 3 ball for Under 7s and Under 8s. For a goal at home, two trainers about a metre apart are close enough to the real 1.2 metres.
Keep going
Where to Go From Here
Three places to go next, depending on how tonight's game went.
Want to work on one skill?
Why repeating one thing beats rotating through many.
See football drills for kidsDoes your child hate losing?
What to say when a game ends in tears.
See the losing guideTonight's five minutes
Start with one rule.
Pick a game, play it for five minutes and add the next rule only when this one feels easy.