Keep Away

Equipment: 1 soft foam-type ball for every group of 5-8 players.

How to play: The players form a group of 5-8 people and stand in a circle. One of the players stands in the center of the circle. The circle players attempt to toss the ball around or through the circle without the center player touching it. The player in the center tries to get out of the center of the circle and make another player take his/her place. There are three ways for the center player to get out of the circle:

  1. Tag a circle player who has possession of the ball. The tagged player goes into the center.
  2. Get the ball when it is tossed around the circle. If the center player touches the ball, catches the ball, or knocks it away, the last player on the circle to have touched the ball goes into the center.
  3. Take a circle player’s spot on the circle. If a circle player leaves the circle to chase the ball, the center player can go over and stand in the circle player’s spot and that circle player now goes into the center.

 

Four-Down Football

 

Equipment needed: One foam or rubber football and 4 cones (markers) for every 6-8 players.

How to play: This game can be played 3 v. 3 or 4 v. 4, so divide the players into equal size teams. Place the cones on the ground in a large rectangle (approximately 50’ x 100’). The team with the ball starts on their own goal line (one end of the rectangle). They have four plays to get into the other team’s end zone. One player is the quarterback and says “Ready, Go!” The other team members run down the field attempting to “get open” for a pass from the quarterback. When a successful pass and catch are made, a new quarterback is selected and the offensive team continues with 2nd Down from the spot where the first pass was caught. If the pass is incomplete, it comes back to the same spot where 1st Down was ran and 2nd Down is played. If the offensive team catches a pass in the other team’s end zone it is a touchdown. The other team now starts from their goal line and has four plays to try and score. If the offensive team doesn’t catch a pass in the end zone after four plays, the other team takes over possession of the ball and starts from their goal line. They now have four plays to try and score. The only time a team doesn’t start from its own goal line is if they intercept a pass. In this case, they start from where the pass was intercepted. No one is allowed to advance the ball by running with it. An offensive play is over as soon as the ball is caught or it hits the ground cipro .

Variations:

  • An offensive team can get one first down by completing two successful passes in a row. They are only allowed to get one first down during a possession.
  • Instead of having to start from their own goal line, a defensive team that stops the offensive team from scoring takes over possession of the ball from the spot where the offensive team ran their 4th Down play. If 4th Down happened to be run from the offensive team’s goal line, then the defensive team takes over possession of the ball at mid-field. In other words, they wouldn’t get the ball on the other team’s goal line since it would be much too easy to score from that point.

 

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