a = ['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j']

['a','f']
['b','g']
['c','h']
['d','i']
['e','j']

['a','d','g']
['b','e','h']
['c','f','i']

['j']

def distribute(seq):
    n = len(seq)//2  #Will work in both Python 2 and 3
    return [list(x) for x in zip(seq[:n], seq[n:])]

print distribute(['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j'])
#[['a', 'f'], ['b', 'g'], ['c', 'h'], ['d', 'i'], ['e', 'j']]

In [5]: a = ['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j']

In [6]: [[a[i], a[len(a)//2+i]] for i in range(len(a)//2)]
Out[6]: [['a', 'f'], ['b', 'g'], ['c', 'h'], ['d', 'i'], ['e', 'j']]

In [7]: zip(a[:len(a)//2], a[len(a)//2:])
Out[7]: [('a', 'f'), ('b', 'g'), ('c', 'h'), ('d', 'i'), ('e', 'j')]

In [8]: map(list, zip(a[:len(a)//2], a[len(a)//2:]))
Out[8]: [['a', 'f'], ['b', 'g'], ['c', 'h'], ['d', 'i'], ['e', 'j']]