Play tag the line
You’ll need
- Rope
- String
- Cones to mark boundaries or the base (optional)
- Bucket for collecting string (optional)
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
- Find an appropriate, accessible area that has plenty of room and safe hiding spaces, without people leaving the agreed boundaries.
- Check the terrain and make sure the game area is free of hazards, such as steps, dips, slopes or trips. You may need to use something, such as cones or hazard tape, to highlight or block off some hazards.
- Mark out the boundaries for the game. You could mark them out with cones or landmark features, such as walls and hedges.
- Remind everyone to bring a drink and wear sturdy shoes, such as trainers.
- If you’re away from your normal meeting place, make sure parents and carers know exactly where you’ll be, the day, and when and where to drop off and collect everyone. You should have a suitable, well-lit place for drop off and collection, away from any traffic.
- If playing outside, check the weather forecast and sunset time. Make sure everyone knows to come dressed for the weather and activity, being prepared for the weather to change, such as by bringing a jacket, a hat, suncream or a drink. You may want to have a back-up activity or sheltered space available. Make sure that you’ll have sufficient light throughout the activity. It’s best to run this activity on lighter evenings, such as in summer.
- Take a look at our guidance on running wide games and active games safely.
Planning and setting up this game
- Give a safety briefing, explaining where the boundaries and no-go zones, as well as what to do in an emergency and where adults will always be around the site. This should include setting memorable spot where an adult will always stay.
- If playing in a public space, young people should be paired up so no young person is left alone, and they should run or move together.
- Remind people to be respectful, calm and quiet, so you don’t disturb wildlife or others using the space. People should handle wildlife gently, not to pick any flowers or plants, take any litter home, and put things gently back where they were found.
- Explain the emergency signal to stop or return to base, such as a long blast on a whistle, and how long the activity will go on for.
Playing the game
- Gather everyone together and explain that you’ll be playing a game called Tag the Line or Attack the Line.
- Ask everyone to get into two teams. One team will be defending the line, while the other group is attacking.
- To start, The teams will need to set up:
- The defenders will tie a long piece of rope between two trees (without the attackers seeing). The rope should be at chest height and at least 5m in length.
- The attackers will need to find a ‘base’. This can be a cone, a bench, a shelter or something similar. At the base, you’ll need a bucket that contains lots of pieces of string or wool, which are each around 5cm in length.
- When everyone’s ready, the game may begin.
- The attackers need to try to tie or ‘tag’ all their pieces of string onto the rope without getting caught. Each attacker can only carry one piece of string at a time.
- The defending team must catch the attacking players before they get to the line. They can do this by tapping them. A defender can't catch an attacker once they’ve reached the line.
- Once caught, the attacker must hand over their string to the defender. The attacker can then return to the base to collect a new piece of string. The defenders should keep any string they take.
- The game finishes once the teams have run out of string or when a set time is up.
- The winning team is the one who has the most string at the end. For the attackers, this is the amount of string tagged on the line. For the defenders, this is the amount of string collected from those players who were caught.
- Once the game is finished, the teams can swap over roles and play again.
Reflection
This game was all about teamwork and problem-solving. This game needed everyone to work as a team, such as by people distracting the opposite team to help others get to the base.
If you were the attackers, you may have hidden together or told each other where the defenders were. Did you work as a team? How did you communicate with other players?
If you were the defenders, how did you plan to tag people – did you have a strategy? Was it hard to keep track of people or monitor the base?
This game was also about problem-solving. What was the trickiest part of the game? People might think about tying the string to the rope or knowing when to it was safe to run to the base. Did people have to think ahead when they were deciding what to do?
If people were designing their own wide games, how could they help people develop their problem-solving and teamwork skills? What would you change about this game to make it better? How could we make it more creative? What would you do to make this game easier, harder, more challenging or more fun?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
- Active games
The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
- Dark
Provide some light, so the environment isn’t completely dark. Everyone must be able to see others and move around the area safely.
- Contact games and activities
Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.
- To make this game easier you could play in a smaller space or just send people back to the beginning, rather than hand string over to the defenders. You could also attach the string to the rope with pegs or have fewer defenders.
- To make this game harder, you could play in a wider area or have more defenders.
- You can play this game sitting down, either on the floor or sat on chairs in a circle.
- You could let people use items, such as pool noodles, to help tag each other if people may struggle with reaching, the action of tapping or doesn’t like touching other people.
- If anyone has problems with mobility, you could move the base nearer the rope. Some people could be the runners, while others hand out string or pegs at the base.
- Pegs are a good way to fix the strings if people find knots tricky.
- You could let people use items, such as pool noodles, to help tag each other if people may struggle with reaching, the action of tapping or doesn’t like touching other people.
- Take a look at our guidance on active games to see ways you can adapt wide games to make them more accessible and inclusive.
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
If you enjoyed this game, you could play some of our other wide games.
Young people could think of their own variations to this game or create their own wide game.