Summer’s a great time for youth group games – the weather’s good so you can play them outdoors, plus it gives you an opportunity to play water games.
This week’s idea is a wet twist on a regular classic – Water Balloon Baseball. Here’s how to play it:
Resources
- Loads of water balloons
- Baseball bat
- Buckets
- Cones
Preparation
Fill up all the water balloons and put them in buckets that are filled with water – this helps prevent them from bursting.
The number of balloons you need will depend on how many young people you have playing – we’d recommend having at least 100 prepared, but for a larger group you’ll need far more.
Set out the cones in the shape of a baseball diamond. If you don’t have cones available, you can use anything else as markers instead.
Teams
Split the youth group into same-sized teams. For smaller groups, two teams is fine. For larger groups, split them into more than two teams, but make sure the total number of teams is an even number so that they each have another team to play against.
If you do play with more than two teams and have enough resources, have several games going on at the same time – that way you don’t have loads of young people standing around getting bored while they wait to play.
Water Balloon Baseball Rules
The first person on a team should line up to bat. The pitcher tosses a water balloon at them and the batter tries to hit it. The batter gets up to three attempts to hit it and burst it – if they miss it all three times, they’re out.
If they hit the balloon and it bursts, they should run to first base. The pitcher is allowed one water balloon to throw at the batter – if they hit them, the batter’s out. If they miss, the batter should try to run from first to second base, with the pitcher getting one more water balloon to try to hit them.
If they miss, the batter continues from second to third base while the pitcher tries hitting them again with one balloon, then from third to home. If the batter manages to get to home plate without having being hit by any of the four water balloons while rounding the bases, they get a home run.
The next member of the team tries doing the same thing – the team keeps going until three players are out, then the other team gets a chance at trying to hit the ‘baseball’. Keep playing until every player has had a chance to bat at least once.
Pitcher
It’s up to you who you choose to have as the pitcher. If you want to make it fair and consistent for each player, you or another volunteer could be the pitcher.
Alternatively, players on the opposing team could take it in turns at pitching.
Fielders
Not necessary!
Question: Are there any other rules or ideas you would add to Water Balloon Baseball? Let us know in the comments below.
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