Layout of our gym when we play. Green and Red are playing against each other, while Blue and Yellow are walking the sidelines. After the timer on the TV goes off, blue and yellow will play and green and red will walk.
Overview:
There are many different versions of Speedaway, but this is the one we play at my school. It's a favorite of our older children because they come up with strategies to be successful.
Goal: Score more points than the other time in the following ways that are football and soccer like. Kids can interchangeably go from playing soccer to football at any time.
Football to soccer- Drop the ball at your feet and take off kicking it.
Soccer to football- I DO NOT allow them to pick the ball up off the floor. They can put the ball inbetween in their feet and pop it up to themselves. The can lift it up off their toe into the air and catch it, lift with their toe and bounce it off the wall in the air and catch it, lift with their toe in the air to any teammate (including those on the sideline) and they can throw it to them. It makes the game more interesting and the kids figure out how to get the ball into their hands.
Let's Play!
We do 4 mini teams: blue, green, red, and yellow and teams wear football belts. I love Team Shake for sorting kids into teams. Blue and green teams are working together and red and yellow teams are working together. I will write up Blue/Green and Red/Yellow on the whiteboard to keep up with the points. The two teams set up like the layout above. On the whistle, the timer starts and the kids take off moving all over the playing area trying to score points.
Scoring:
1 point- Football score- carrying the ball with hands and running it in the end zone. There are kids who do this all game long. They are just kinda playing as a solo kid.
2 points- Football score- receiver catches the ball in the end zone that is thrown by a teammate that is in the game, or teammate that is on the side line waiting to play. The thrower must be behind the half court line when they throw the ball to the end zone. If not, points don't count. We have some kids who team up with their friends and you see them the whole game throwing to each other!
3 points- Soccer score- kicking the ball at the goal. I have kids who are very soccer strong and they will just score the 3 pointers all game long. It's up to coaches if goal keepers are allowed. I usually don't because I don't want kids just standing around. If I do, they can be a goalie for ONE ROUND and that is it.
After a score, the ball can not be scored on by the same team right away. The other team is allowed to take possession. Our kids know to leave the ball in the scoring area and their opponent will go get the ball.
Changing Offense/Defense Possession
We usually have around 6 gator balls in the game so there is a lot going on! If a child is playing soccer, the only way to stop them is to kick the ball away from them like a regular soccer game.
If a child is carrying the ball football style the only way to stop them is to pull their football belt and they immediately turn that ball over to the other team.
Roles When Playing
A kid could play offense and try to score points, they could play defense and try to knock away throws in the endzone or pull belts of those running with a ball, goalies if coaches allow. Most of the time, I have a couple of kids who want to stand around and talk, and that is not going to happen. Go pull a belt, go steal a ball, just go!
Separate the kids into their 4 teams using Team Shake. Easy peasy!!
The kids don't know that I can secretly rank them by abilities and that I ask the app to separate the stronger kids so the teams are evenly matched. Hehehe.......
I’ll set up a tabata timer (I love Gym Boss) on my TV. I usually do 1:30 or 2:00 rounds and then give myself 15 seconds to right the tally points on the whiteboard for my group and my colleague's group. The kids who were walking and talking around the cones on the side lines will switch and get ready to play.
When a child is not playing it's a chance to walk and talk, get a drink or water, or go to the restroom.
Close game with the Red/Yellow team narrowly winning!!