Patterns is an applied-improv concentration exercise documented by Val Hohn in Putting Improv to Work. Six to twelve participants stand in a circle and learn three fixed pointing patterns, then try to keep all three running at the same time. The exercise trains attention, clear sending and receiving, and the group's ability to recover when one thread drops.
Structure
Setup
- Put six to twelve people in a circle where everyone can see each other clearly.
- One leader manages the round from beginning to end.
- Do not explain all three layers at once. Build them one at a time.
Pattern One
- The leader starts the first pattern.
- One person points to someone else and says "You."
- That second person immediately points to a third person and repeats the same action.
- The pattern continues until it comes back to the leader.
- Once the route is built, keep practicing it until the group can run it smoothly.
Pattern Two
- Start a second route with a different signal.
- In Hohn's documented version, the second pattern uses the receiver's name.
- Build the full route the same way, then practice it on its own.
- When both routes are stable, run Pattern One and Pattern Two at the same time.
Pattern Three
- Add the third route only after the first two are clear.
- In Hohn's version, the third pattern uses the sender's own name.
- Build the route, practice it on its own, then try all three together.
What The Exercise Is Actually Doing
- It asks each person to track more than one stimulus at once.
- It forces the group to stay in the moment instead of replaying the last mistake.
- It shows very quickly whether players are sending clearly enough for others to receive.
Common Variations
- two patterns instead of three for newer groups
- slower pacing before adding simultaneous play
- restart the dropped pattern from the beginning instead of trying to patch it midstream
When To Stop
- Stop when the group has sustained all active patterns cleanly for a meaningful stretch.
- Stop earlier if the group is spiraling into confusion and no longer knows which route belongs to which signal.
How to Teach It
Objectives
- sharpen concentration under layered demands
- improve eye contact and clear cueing
- build shared responsibility for keeping a group task alive
- practice recovery without panic when a sequence breaks
How To Explain It
Your job is to keep a few simple passing routes alive at the same time. Stay with the signal in front of you, send clearly, and if something drops, reset instead of panicking.
Teaching Notes
- Teach one route at a time. Do not stack complexity before the first route feels easy.
- Keep the signals distinct enough that players can tell them apart immediately.
- Coach players to finish the send, not just begin it. The pattern only moves if the next person actually receives it.
- When someone misses a cue, bring the attention back to the current moment instead of letting the room dwell on the error.
Pressure Points To Coach
- A player sends before making contact with the receiver. Why it matters: the next person does not realize the pattern has been passed.
- The group adds a new route too early. Why it matters: everyone starts guessing instead of responding.
- Players fixate on the last miss. Why it matters: the distraction causes the next miss.
- One pattern becomes more important than the others. Why it matters: the group stops thinking as an ensemble and starts protecting a single thread.
Notes That Appear Directly In Source Material
- Hohn documents three separate patterns: "You," the receiver's name, and the sender's own name.
- Hohn recommends six to twelve participants and a leader who starts and ends each pattern.
- Hohn explicitly coaches players to stay focused on the present moment when the exercise becomes difficult.
In Applied Settings
Patterns translates well to organizational training because it makes divided attention visible. In a work team, people often have to track more than one stream at once: the task in front of them, the person they are responding to, and the wider group activity. This exercise compresses that reality into a simple shared drill.
For a facilitator, the value is not that the group performs the pattern perfectly. The value is that the room can feel exactly what happens when people rush, send unclear signals, stop listening after a mistake, or focus so narrowly on their own part that the wider system breaks. Those are recognizable team behaviors, not just improv problems.
In an organizational debrief, the exercise can point back to handoffs, meeting flow, project coordination, and recovery after small mistakes. The useful conversation is usually about how the team stayed present, how it helped each other recover, and what made communication clear enough to keep several moving parts alive at the same time.
Skills Developed
History
The current archive source base documents Patterns clearly in Val Hohn's Putting Improv to Work (2014), where it appears as a leader-guided circle exercise for six to twelve participants. Beyond that documentation, the present evidence is too noisy to support a stronger origin story. The archive can safely say that Patterns is documented in applied-improv practice, but it cannot yet identify an earlier originator or a broader verified lineage for this specific titled exercise.
Worth Reading
See all books →
The Actor's Book of Improvisation
Sandra Caruso; Paul Clemens
Theatrical Improvisation
Short Form, Long Form, and Sketch-Based Improv
Jeanne Leep
The Art of Chicago Improv
Short Cuts to Long-Form Improvisation
Rob Kozlowski
Mask Improvisation for Actor Training and Performance
the compelling image
Sears A. Eldredge
The Improv Handbook
The Ultimate Guide to Improvising in Comedy, Theatre, and Beyond
Tom Salinsky; Deborah Frances-White
Acting Through Improv
Improv Through Theatresports
Lynda Belt; Rebecca Stockley
Related Exercises
One Two Three Four
One Two Three Four is a rhythmic counting exercise in which pairs of participants count to four between them in an alternating pattern, then progressively replace numbers with physical actions. The exercise layers increasing cognitive complexity onto a simple rhythm, training split attention, physical commitment, and the ability to maintain a pattern while simultaneously transforming it.
Triangles
Triangles is a movement exercise in which each player secretly selects two other people in the space and attempts to maintain an equilateral triangle with them as all players move simultaneously. Because everyone's target pairs are different and unknown to others, the formation shifts continuously with no fixed resolution. The exercise demonstrates how invisible individual choices produce complex collective patterns, and builds sustained spatial awareness and attention to others.
Three Rules
Three Rules is a scene exercise in which the facilitator establishes three specific constraints that performers must maintain throughout their scene. The constraints can be physical (always touching the wall, never letting your hands go below your waist), verbal (never using the letter S, only asking questions), or behavioral (treat your partner as royalty, move as if underwater). The exercise demonstrates that limitations generate rather than restrict creative choices, and trains performers to divide attention between scene work and rule compliance.
Concentration
Concentration is a category of focus-building exercises that challenge participants to maintain sustained attention amid distractions and competing demands. The exercises train participants to stay with a primary task while the environment introduces interruption, noise, or parallel activity. They are used in improv training to develop presence and in applied settings to explore how individuals and groups manage attention under pressure.
Listening Game
Listening Game is a category of applied improv exercises that use game structures -- rules, constraints, competitive elements, or playful formats -- to make the practice of active listening engaging and its requirements concrete. The Listening Game as a distinct entry encompasses the range of structured listening activities used in applied improv that do not fit a single specific technique but share the common feature of making listening the primary and explicitly tested skill of the activity.
Leadership
Leadership is an applied improv exercise that uses structured group movement and voluntary leader emergence to explore how leadership authority is claimed, transferred, and recognized within a group. Participants move through the space or perform actions in which any member of the group may step into a leadership role at any moment, and the group must recognize and follow the shift without verbal announcement. The exercise surfaces the dynamics of organizational leadership through an embodied, real-time demonstration.
How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Patterns. Retrieved September 28, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/exercises/patterns
The Improv Archive. "Patterns." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/exercises/patterns.
The Improv Archive. "Patterns." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/exercises/patterns. Accessed September 28, 2026.
The Improv Archive is a systemically maintained repository. The archive itself acts as the corporate author.