Find the Free Player

1. Mark a 20 by 20 metre square. Inside: four attackers and three defenders. Around it: five outside players, four of them with a ball. With fewer than twelve, keep one more attacker than defenders and one more outside player than balls; with more, set up a second square.
2. An outside player with a ball passes it in to an attacker.
3. The attackers score a point by passing a ball out to an outside player who has no ball, but never straight back to the one who passed it in. Attackers may pass to each other first.
4. Outside players move along their side to stay open and play a ball back in as soon as they get one, so several balls are moving at once.
5. A defender who wins a ball passes it out to any outside player: a point to the defenders. Swap roles every three minutes, so everyone plays inside and outside.

Every pass in asks the same question: which outside player has no ball right now? The answer keeps changing, because each pass in leaves another outside player empty-handed and each pass out fills one. So the attacker has to look before the ball arrives, at the ball, the defenders, their teammates and the space, and open their body towards the free player. With the ball, the choice is to play it out first time, take a touch away from the defender first, or use the spare attacker inside when the way out is blocked. The defenders, one short, decide which lane to close, and when to leave a player free so they can step into a passing line.