Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: f9d2ce398997a9aec6dbb29bb2f534f065bd0d9b9feefdbe9cfce77545c15faf

# Ball Sliding

Small teams move a rolling ball along a track made of handheld pipe halves or gutters without touching the ball or letting it drop. Team members continuously hustle to the front of the line to extend the track until the ball reaches an end container.

**Time:** 25 minutes. Participatory Methods suggests 20 to 40 minutes; UWT structures 25 minutes to allow briefing, practice, full attempts, and debrief.
**People:** 8 to 24. Parallel teams of 4 to 6 participants (for example, two teams of 4 at group_min 8; four teams of 6 at group_max 24; for counts like 9 to 11, form unequal teams such as 4 and 5, or 5 and 6)

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Test and observe team coordination, pacing, and real-time adjustment under physical constraints.
**Use it when:** Use in an open room or outdoor area when a team needs an active physical exercise to examine handoffs, spoken communication, and rapid repositioning.
**Skip it when:** Skip when the space is cramped, when participants cannot engage in rapid movement, or when quiet analytical focus is needed instead of physical action.

## Materials and tools

- 1 halved plastic tube, gutter section, or halved sturdy mailing tube (30 to 50 cm long) per participant
- 1 small ball (table tennis ball, wooden craft ball, or foam ball) per team of 4 to 6
- 1 receptacle (small bucket, cardboard box, or plastic bin) per team to serve as the finish goal
- 1 roll of floor tape to mark starting lines and finish zones
- 1 countdown timer for the facilitator

## Before participants arrive

1. Clear an unobstructed course of 6 to 10 meters for each team in a large open room or flat outdoor area.
2. Mark a starting line and a finish point on the floor with tape for each lane.
3. Place an end receptacle at each finish point.
4. Bundle one channel section per expected participant and one ball per lane at each starting line.

## Say this to open

Your team's objective is to transport a ball from the start line into your finish bucket using only your channel sections. No hands or bodies may touch the ball once it rolls. You cannot walk while holding the ball in your chute. You can only move your feet to run forward to the front of the line after the ball leaves your channel. If the ball drops, touches a person, or rolls backward off the chute, pick it up and restart from your starting line. Take your channels and join your lane.

## How to run it

### 1. Brief and examine rules (4 minutes)

Deliver the opening script. Demonstrate one legal pass between two channels: tilting the chute so the ball rolls into a partner chute, and showing that the first person waits until the ball completely exits before stepping out to rejoin the front of the line. Check for understanding.

### 2. Strategy and practice trial (6 minutes)

Form teams of 4 to 6 participants at their marked lanes. For counts that do not divide evenly, form balanced teams of 4 and 5 or 5 and 6, or invite a participant to take the official course judge role. Give teams six minutes to inspect their channels, agree on a sequence, test chute angles, and practice moving the ball over a short test distance. Call out time warnings at three minutes and one minute.

### 3. Full course attempt (10 minutes)

Have all teams reset at their starting line. Start the timer. Teams transport the ball across the full designated distance into their end container. If the ball touches the floor or a hand, the team resets to the starting line. Once a team completes the run, they may try once more to beat their previous completion time, or pause and observe other lanes.

### 4. Debrief and team review (5 minutes)

Gather the whole group around one course. Ask two to three debrief questions. Take four to five quick comments from across the teams on communication patterns and motion strategies.


## Debrief questions

- What specific verbal cues or silent signals helped your team coordinate handoffs?
- When the ball rolled too fast or threatened to fall, what immediate adjustments stabilized the line?
- Where did friction happen between focusing on personal footing and tracking the incoming ball?

**Finished output:** Completion of the ball transport challenge into the target container and documented tactical observations about team coordination.

## Remote

This physical mechanic requires physical materials and shared physical space. Do not attempt to replicate it via generic digital whiteboards. If operating remotely, substitute an online pipeline activity such as a timed cooperative text-relay or a digital chain puzzle.

## Hybrid

Hybrid delivery is not recommended for this physical coordination activity. If a hybrid setting is unavoidable, run the physical race strictly with in-person participants while remote participants serve as course observers, timekeepers, and video analysts who provide strategic feedback between attempts.

## Access and participation choices

- Participants with limited mobility or balance concerns can serve as stationary anchor conduits at the start or finish, ball launchers, or official timekeepers and line judges.
- Participants may pass on physical sprinting or handoff tasks at any time without explanation by switching to the lane coach or scoring role.

## If the session gets stuck

**Participants run while the ball is still rolling in their chute, causing collisions.**

Pause the round immediately. Re-state the core rule: your feet stay planted while the ball touches your chute; you may only move after the ball has completely crossed onto your teammate's chute.

**The ball moves too fast and flies off the ends repeatedly, frustrating the team.**

Advise the team to reduce the tilt angle of their chutes to near-horizontal, creating a gentle slope rather than a steep drop.


## Terms used here

- Channel: A handheld semi-circular pipe, gutter piece, or halved cardboard tube used to cradle and roll the ball.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in the Participatory Methods dynamic directory under the title Ball Sliding. Earlier traditional origin is unverified in supplied evidence.

Retained the defining physical mechanic of transporting a rolling ball across an open distance using hand-held channel segments where people leapfrog to extend the track, as recorded in Participatory Methods. UWT set the minimum group size to 8 to support parallel teams of 4 to 6, added explicit allocation rules for intervening odd numbers, defined precise lane dimensions (6 to 10 meters) and foul/reset rules, and established a 25-minute schedule while omitting unsupported historical attribution.

[Participatory Methods](https://participatorymethods.com/activities/ball-sliding/)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/ball-sliding/