Introduction

This is the Discovery-age doorway into the core condition behind the base drill: keeping the ball close while keeping the head up. The base drill asks a 10-year-old to alternate feet through a dense cone field and respond to gate calls. A 6-year-old needs the same seed planted as a story. The ball is a boat. The cones are rocks. The child sails the boat through the rocky sea, and when the caller shouts "Storm! To the harbour!", the boat must reach the harbour gate before the storm arrives.

The game engineers the behaviour. Steering around rocks demands the eyes come up. Reaching the harbour demands the child knows where it is — which means they looked. No adult ever has to say "head up." The sea does the coaching.

Setup

              Harbour (2 markers, ~1.5 m apart)
                      |    |
        •         •        •        •
             •        •         •
        •         •        •            ← the rocky sea
             •        •
                  •
   [Child + boat enters here]      [Caller stands here]

Mark a roughly 7 m × 7 m play area (corners can be jumpers; exact size is unimportant).
Scatter 8–10 rocks inside — spread out, generous gaps. A child dribbling slowly should always have an easy way through. Dense enough to steer around, never a maze.
Place one harbour gate (~1.5 m wide) at the midpoint of one side. Make it unmistakable — the brightest markers, a toy lighthouse, anything with a name.
The caller stands outside the area with sightlines to the child and the harbour.
Move 2–3 rocks between rounds so the sea is never the same twice.

Description

One round (60–90 seconds):

The child sails — dribbles freely through the rocky sea, steering the boat around the rocks. Touching a rock means the boat "scraped" — the caller narrates ("Ooh, barnacles!") and the game continues. No penalty, no restart.
The caller narrates the sea: calm waters, curious dolphins, a passing whale — whatever keeps the story alive while the child collects touches.
At an unpredictable moment, the caller shouts "Storm! To the harbour!" The child sails the boat through the harbour gate — ball first, child after.
Safe in the harbour: celebrate the landing. Then the storm passes, the boat sails back out, and the sea continues.
2–3 storm calls per round. Round ends with a story break — the caller becomes a sea monster to escape, the child names a fish they saw — anything silly.

Structure:

3–4 rounds with breaks between. Total 5–8 minutes.
Magic-foot rounds: one round where only the left foot can steer the boat, one where only the right can. Framed as sea magic, never as correction.
End before boredom. Stop while the child still wants one more round — so they ask for the sea again tomorrow.

End condition per storm: boat through the harbour = safe landing. A messy landing or a knocked harbour marker = "big waves in the harbour today!" and the game continues. There is no failing this game.

Progressions

Level 1 — Baseline. As described. One harbour, generous rock spacing, loud storm calls.
Level 2 — Two harbours. A second harbour on another side, each with a name or colour ("Lighthouse harbour!" / "Dolphin harbour!"). The storm call now names one — the child must hold two locations in their head while sailing.
Level 3 — Quiet storm. The caller stops shouting and only shows the storm — arms waving like wind, pointing at a harbour. Now the eyes are the only channel; the ears can't rescue a child who didn't look.
Level 4 — Drifting rocks. Between storms, the caller wanders into the sea and slowly moves one rock to a new spot, in plain sight. The child learns the sea changes — the earliest seed of adapting to a moving game.
Level 5 — The fuel rule. The boat needs both engines: the child alternates feet freely, but the caller watches for one foot doing all the work and declares that engine "out of fuel" for ten seconds. The base drill's alternating-foot rule, wearing a costume.

Coach guidance

Look for

The head coming up during open sailing — even brief glances between touches are the win at this age.
The child knowing where the harbour is when the storm call comes — turning toward it without searching means the look already happened.
Either foot steering without the child reorganising their whole body to avoid one foot.
Laughing. If the child is not enjoying the sea, change the story before you change anything technical.

Cues (story cues, not football cues)

"Captain — rocks ahead! Can you see them all?"
"Where's the harbour hiding? Keep one eye on it — storms come fast!"
"Magic left foot waters — only the left foot can steer here!"

Praise (process, in their language)

"You knew exactly where the harbour was — that's what real captains do, they always check."
"You steered around every rock with your eyes up — brilliant sailing."
"Brave left foot!"

Don't fix yet

Touch quality. At 5–8 the touch refines through volume and play, not correction.
Rock scrapes. Contact with rocks is calibration, and the narration absorbs it.
Ball-watching in early rounds. The storm call pulls the eyes up over time; let the game do it.
Anything beyond keeping the sea alive. Lectures, long queues, and 60-minute drill blocks are the anti-patterns at this band — all of them are forms of fixing too much.

Watch points

Slows or freezes when the storm is called. Keep the calls playful and the harbour close. "Quick, captain — the storm is coming! Sail, sail, sail!"
Head stays down throughout. Use the harbour to pull the eyes up. "Without looking — point to the harbour! Where is it?"
One foot does all the steering. Bring in a magic-foot round. "This water only lets the other foot steer — try it!"
The child stops enjoying it. Change the story, not the technique — add a dolphin, a treasure, a silly monster. If the giggling is gone, end the round.
Crashing into every rock on purpose for fun. Let a little of it ride, then reframe. "The good captains slip past the rocks — can you sail right around this one?"