Stuck In The Mud
"If you get tagged, freeze right there with your legs wide apart and your arms out. You're stuck. The only way back in is if a friend runs under your out stretched arms. Nobody can tag you while you're going under their arms. Taggers use safe hands when tagging. Stay inside the cones. 3..2..1..GO!"
Objective
The taggers try to freeze the whole group.
The round ends on the clock, or when everybody is stuck.
Set-Up
Area: 20×20 grass or blacktop. Mark it with 12 small cones so the boundary is obvious from anywhere inside it.
Starting positions: taggers stand in the middle, everyone else spreads out inside the cones. Nobody starts in a corner.
How To Play
Choose which student(s) start as the taggers. All the other players scatter around the area.
The taggers try and get as many students as they can in an allotted time.
When tagged, a player must freeze and stand with his legs and arms apart.
The only way to be freed is for a non-tagged player to go under the arms of the tagged player.
The game ends when all players have been tagged and are 'stuck in the mud'. Or after a time limit.
Progressions
SAFE ZONE — "Stepping Stones"
Lay three or four hula hoops around the field.
A player standing inside a hoop cannot be tagged for a count of 3-5 seconds, and only one player per hoop.
After 3-5 seconds they must leave, and cannot return to that hoop until they have been to a different one.
2. POWER-UP — "Mudslide!"
The coach shouts "MUDSLIDE!" and names a way to travel — hopping, skipping or jumping.
Everyone, taggers included, must move that way until the next call.
It caps the fastest runners, gives the slower ones a genuine chance, and gets a movement other than running into the game.
3. EQUIPMENT SWAP — "Mud Ball"
Swap the run-under arms for a ball. 1 to 2 foam balls are in play.
A designated free player(s) frees a frozen teammate by rolling the ball along the ground and all the way between their legs.
Nobody goes near anybody in this version — the rescue happens entirely at range, and the ball becomes the thing every player in the game is tracking.
The freed player collects the ball and becomes the next rescuer.
The designated player or players with the ball cannot be tagged.
Stuck In The Mud Encourages
Physical movement
Balance
Friendly competition
Teamwork
Set-Up & Equipment
Field 20 x 20 yards (minimum)
Minimum of 4 students
12 small cones to mark out the field
Foam Balls
Bibs
