triangle tag

a soccer coaching team building exercise from Catch Them Being Good

Objective: To require participants to protect and take responsibility for their teammates, co-operate with group members, use strategic deception to gain competitive advantage and project a confident appearance throughout the contest.

Equipment: none

Space: several 10-yard grids (as in a football field)

Numbers: groups of four

The Game:
Three of the four players for a circle or a triangle. They link arms at the wrist, shoulders or elbows, and are never allowed to break that connection. The 4^th participant is outside the circle/triangle and is designated the tagger. One of the 3 in the triangle is designated the target and the job of the other two members is to shuffle, move, spin and otherwise protect the target from being tagged. This competition continues for 15 seconds and then someone else is designated the tagger and the game continues. The goal is to have everyone take turns being a protector and one turn being a tagger. Keep track of wins and losses as a protector and as a tagger so that all four players are competing for the best win-loss record.

Lesson:
This is a game of intense physical competition. Players have to act as if they’re doing one thing and then do another, fake one way and then go another. They have to act as if they are going to sneak over the back when they’re really coming up from the bottom.

Debriefing:

How competitive were you in this game?
How competitive was your team?
How did you react when a teammate was tagged?
How did that teammate react?
What does this exercise teach about winning and losing?
How did the tagger act when she was successful? When she was unsuccessful?
How do these lessons apply to the 'Act as If' principle? (playing with confidence … acting as if you’re confident, as if you’re in control, as if you are the dominant player)

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