Mind the Robbers

1. Mark a 20 by 20 metre square with four small safe zones inside it, about 2 metres across, one in each quarter. For 12 players: nine dribblers with a ball each and three robbers in bibs without one. Keep about one robber for every three dribblers; with more than 16 players, run two squares.
2. Dribblers keep their ball moving inside the square. Robbers try to win a ball.
3. A dribbler with the ball in a safe zone cannot be robbed, but only one dribbler fits in a zone, for five seconds at most: they count out loud. When another dribbler comes in, the one inside has to leave.
4. Robbers may not wait next to a safe zone.
5. A robber who wins a ball keeps it and dribbles on; the player who lost it takes the bib and becomes a robber. Play rounds of 3 minutes with a short break between them.

The safe zone is a rest, not a hiding place. A dribbler with a robber closing in decides whether to go for a zone now or to beat the robber in the open, and which zone: a free one further away, or a near one where going in pushes a teammate back out. Inside, the count is running and anyone may arrive, so the look starts the moment they get in: where the robbers are, and which side to leave by. Coming out without looking is how the ball gets lost. The robbers cannot stand guard at a zone, so they choose a dribbler in the open, or read which zone is about to empty and arrive just as the player leaves.