Alternative names: Cat 'n' Mouse
Objective: To have juvenile fun off skates while still getting some exercise; retreat -type team building
Typical length of drill: 10 mins
Materials needed: Just a large open space (this game can be played both outdoors and in)
Skill level required: None
Description: You need an even number of skaters to play this game. One skater is designated the cat and another skater is designated the mouse. All the other skaters are safe mice and they lay down on the floor in pairs, on their stomachs, spreading themselves out around the space that is in use. The game starts on the whistle. The designated cat is trying to catch the designated mouse while the mouse is running around the space (making sure to avoid stepping on any of the safe mice laying on the floor). To save itself, the mouse can throw herself/himself down next to one of the pairs of mice forcing the mouse on the other side to have to get up and become chased by the cat. Any time that the cat catches the mouse by tagging her/him the roles switch so that there is always a cat in-play and always a mouse on the run. The cat CAN tag a mouse that is laying on the floor if s/he has not noticed that the mouse who was on the run laid down on the other side of her/his pair. The game ends when the coach decides it's over and blows the whistle.
Additional notes: Though this is one of those old children's games that has been around forever and I've played it many many times as a kid I still have to give credit to my friend Trixie GrandBang here because she's the one who came up with using this as a warm-up at one of our weekly off-skates practices this year. It was super fun to do it with all of our teammates and it really put everyone in a good mood. When you play this game with adults it can get pretty intense, with people taking huge leaps to jump over a pair of mice lying on the floor, or soccer -sliding into position next to a pair of mice on the floor to make themselves safe. It's awesome.
A word of warning: After many many months of playing roller derby I have trained my body to fall on its knees whenever I lose balance. Once when I played this game in a school gym I lost my balance and immediately went for a baseball slide to save myself. I was *not* wearing knee pads. Bad idea. Try not to do that. Those bruises took a while to heal.
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