Mission Impossible - A (7-9)-12

In this popular activity, students must navigate as fast as they can, with control, through an obstacle course that is set up throughout the gymnasium and connected by various lines on the gym floor. The obstacle course can be made up of benches, Hula-Hoops, chairs, tables, nets, scooters, and pylons.

This activity provides a wonderful opportunity to use gymnastics equipment such as the box horse, beams, ropes or a pommel horse. Equipment such as floor hockey and team handball nets provides a particularly difficult challenge to try to navigate over, under, or around. Place mats under any apparatus where a student is off of the ground (e.g., walking across a bench).

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The course should challenge students to climb, pull their body weight onto equipment, and increase their flexibility as they try to navigate and stretch to move over, under, around and through the course.

How to Play

Students cannot wear jewellery or watches. Divide the group into even teams: Guardians and Adventurers. Adventurers are trying the course. The Guardians try to catch the Adventurers when they make a mistake and eliminate them from the course. Once an Adventurer has been "caught" they must return to the start of the course and begin again.

There are several ways to eliminate an Adventurer:

• they are not allowed to make noise at any time (e.g., talking, laughing, giggling, stomping). This may be the hardest rule to enforce.
  
• Students cannot touch metal at any time. (This includes the bolts that attach the beam to the base or the bench to the base, or the floor hockey frame!)
  
• Students must stay on a designated line when travelling along the gym floor. (This includes when they have to crawl under an object!)
  
• The goal is for an Adventurer to make it through the course and reach enemy camp without being eliminated.

Pitfalls:

• Guardians also must be very quiet to hear the noise the Adventurers make as well as to fully concentrate or a time penalty may be given to their team; e.g., subtract 1 minute from their allotted time.
  
• They must spread out all over the course. Targeting of one or two objects/stations is not allowed.
  
• Respect the game. They are not allowed to push people into making a mistake. A time deduction may be given as a penalty.
• If a Guardian finds an Adventurer breaking any rules, they quietly tell the Adventurer what he/she did wrong. The Adventurers must then quietly go back to the start of the course.
  
• Guardians must stay off the course and avoid any actions which may distract an Adventurer. Guardians are allowed to follow an Adventurer through the course, but must avoid the lines or equipment so as not to impede an Adventurer’s movement.
• Guardians must know the rules, be honest, fair and certain about their actions.
  

Adventurers:

• Once an Adventurer has been caught, he/she must return in control to the start without any argument. If there is any argument from an Adventurer, a time deduction penalty may be awarded.
  
• The Adventurers may use teamwork to master obstacles.

Penalties:

You may apply penalties by taking away time or awarding extra time to a group; e.g., if the group of Guardians were blocking the way, pushing people into making mistakes and talking too loud – award an extra 2 minutes to the Adventurers.

General:

A change-over should take place about every 10 minutes when the roles of the two groups change. If you use a buzzer score clock, the students should sit down, change in a controlled manner and wait for a signal to start. The change-over should occur without any noise or running!

Students can work together on certain tasks if they cannot do them individually.

Students can create stations. Students then demonstrate the tasks to their peers and ensure that safe practices are followed.

When an Adventurer from the first group reaches the end of the course successfully, they are given a bonus of carrying "nitro" (a medicine ball in a mesh bag). Nitro cannot ever be put down. If it is left unattended, it will explode and the entire group of Adventurers must start again. The Adventurers now have to work as a team to ensure that the nitro is passed from one end of the course to the other.

Increase level of difficulty:

Change course after 3-4 classes to make it tougher.

These are clues that you have reached the outcomes ...

Students use excellent body control to navigate through the course.

Few students are losing balance on the equipment.

Students indicate how tired their muscles are after completing the course.

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