Try Your Tactics

​This is a great set up for (from the offensive perspective) helping students discover ways in which they can create space to gain an advantage when invading an opponents space or (from the defensive perspective) how to move and position oneself to defend space. Hopefully you can see from the short video how the room has been set up. There is a dividing line down the middle of the room lengthwise to create 4 challenge spaces. Large matching poly-spots are positions in each quarter of the room. The poly-spot near the center line is designated for an offensive player(s) and the poly-spot located in the center of each playing space is designated for the defensive player(s). I have used this with many different age levels with a wide variety of learning targets.  Using a focus-refocus use of time, I use challenge progressions as I introduce this activity.

Challenge Progressions

Challenge 1 - Move into open spaces and stop safely when the music stops using all the space.
Challenge 2 -  Color Games - Move on the music and when the music stops move to the game space identified by the color I call. Colors are corresponding poly-spots.
Challenge 3 -  Start at one of the center poly-spots and move past the other poly-spot using changes of speed, direction and pathway, jump stop in the blue then move around the perimeter back to the center line and try again.
Challenge 4 - Fake Out/Foiled Again - In the most basic version of this activity, four students are designated as the defenders and are positioned on the 4 defensive poly-spots. The remainder of the students take turns play a  one on one game with the defenders of their choice. The player standing on the offensive poly-spot stands when his/her hand up in the air. When he/she lowers her hand it means that he/she is ready for a challenge. Once the hand comes down, the defensive player can move from his/her spot in an attempt to stop the offensive player from moving through the space to "jump" stop in the blue. If a player is successful, he/she moves back to the center line and chooses a new challenger. In this version, if not successful, he/she just exits the area, moves back around the perimeter and either tries this challenger again or chooses a new opponent. After a while we switch the defenders. I often have the kids organized into tag teams of 4 so the transitions are quick and smooth. There are a multitude of ways ways to build in this set up to increase the complexity as students learn. 
Variations
1- If tagged the player is frozen where tagged but can be rescued by another offensive player.
2 - Change it to 2 on 1 with 2 players starting together on the offensive poly-spot.
3 - Add a manipulative skill for the offensive player.
4 - With 2 on 1 change the goal to a "touch down" situation with the objective being to pass a ball over the end line with the defender trying to intercept and the offensive players only allowed to pivot and pass. 
5 - ??? Use your imagination!!