If you like planning fun and energetic youth group games, this week we have a great game idea for you – Balloon Hockey.
Here’s how to play it:
Resources
- Regular balloons (only a few needed)
- Long balloons (one for each youth with a few spare)
- Cones
Preparation
- Blow up all the balloons
- Arrange the cones to make two goals at either end. If you don’t have any cones, you can use any other kind of markers to make the goals.
Location
As you’ll be playing with balloons, this is a game that’s best played indoors.
If the air’s still on the day you play this though, you could always play it outdoors. Even if it’s a bit windy, you could still play it outdoors and it’ll just be a little harder for the young people to play.
Teams
Split the youth into two teams. If you have a very large youth group and have enough playing space, set up two playing areas and split them into four teams.
Balloon Hockey Rules
Give each young person one of the long balloons and put one of the regular sized balloons in the middle. Get each team to allocate one of their players as a goalkeeper.
The rules for balloon hockey are then simple – each team has to try to score goals by hitting the regular sized balloon into the opposition’s goal, using only the long balloons to hit it. Players therefore aren’t allowed to deliberately touch the ‘puck’ balloon with any part of their body.
Tips
- If this game ends up being a bit too frantic with everyone piling in to hit the balloon puck, create zones on the floor using masking tape. Allocate a player from each team to each zone – they’re not allowed to step outside that zone, although they are allowed to reach into a neighboring zone with their long balloon to try to help a teammate. If a player does step into someone else’s zone, have them sit out for x amount of seconds – the amount of time will depend on how long you’re playing for.
- Have a few spare long balloons and split them evenly between each team. If a team uses all their spares, any further players that have a burst balloon have to sit out for the rest of the game. If this is due to another player deliberately bursting their balloon though, the player that burst it should have to hand over their balloon and sit out instead.
- If you aren’t able to get hold of any long balloons locally, you can buy them here. Alternatively, consider using pool noodles from the dollar store cut in half.
Winners
The winning team will either be the team that scores a pre-specified number of goals first, or who scores the most goals by the end of the game time.
Question: What others ways can you think of to play balloon hockey? Let us know in the comments below.
You can also connect with us by:
- Signing up to receive our posts via email
- Following us on Twitter
- Liking us on Facebook
- Signing up to our RSS feed
Image courtesy of Clydeorama, Flickr