Summer Connections: The Warrior Olympics

Guest Blogger – Matt Kiesow

This is part of our summary of what we do each summer.

“Warrior Olympics”

Vision:  We created this to help establish a team type atmosphere amongst our groups.  It is done on 2 different days in our afternoon sessions. One day fairly early on in the session (Day 3 or so).  The second day around day 6 or 7.  This helps set the tone for our Team Competition for the session.

Implementation:  You want to come up with events/games that are not your traditional types of activities.  This helps equalize the athlete/ non-athlete playing field.  Each round of each event is worth team points that get added to the cumulative team point total throughout the session.  Usually it is on a scoring of 3 pts (1st Place) 2 pts (2nd Place) 1 pt (3rd Place).  Every member of every team must participate.  We have 8 events, and usually do 4 events each Olympic day.

Events:  Here are the events that we use, but you are only limited by your imagination here.  Remember, it needs to be events that can equalize all members of all teams.

Event 1—Shoe kick—-Participants untie their shoe, and in a kicking motion fling it as far out as possible.  Winner gets 3 points and so on for their team.  You go through all members on the team.  We usually number the participants ahead of time on each team, and then have all the # ones compete against each other, the number two’s compete against each other, etc.

Event 2—Softball Bocce Ball—-We place a cone out in a field and contestants try to throw their softball as close to the cone without hitting it.  Closest to the cone wins, and points are awarded just like the shoe kick.  If a softball hits a cone, that ball is disqualified for that round.  Each round, move the cone so as to vary the throws.  Number teams members like you did for the shoe kick, and all of the same number compete against each other.

Event 3—-Ping Pong Ball/Spoon race—-Teams are put into what they think is their best running order.  The person at the front of the line is given a spoon and a ping pong ball.  On go that front person goes around a cone or obstacle straight away from their team.  The object is to go as fast as you can without knocking the ping pong ball off the spoon.  If the ball falls off, they have to start over.  When they get back to the line after going around the obstacle, the next person has a spoon, and the ball must be passed to them without dropping it.  That person then goes around and obstacle. The same rules apply, and the ball is passed until everyone on the team has gone.  We give the top 3 teams points to get added to their team total

Event 4—-Banana Relay—-  We use our school track for this race.  You will need 4 boys and 4 girls (8 total runners) and a “Banana Eater”.  The baton for this race is obviously a banana.  You stagger your eight runners around the track in what amounts to about 50 meters each.  The first person to run has the banana, and on go, they run passing the banana from person to person.  When runner number 8 finishes their 50 meter segment, they pass the banana to the “Banana Eater”.  The winner of the race is not the fastest team, but the fastest team to get the banana eaten by the “eater”.  Once the “Eater” has finished eating, they must show that the banana is gone, and team points are handed out based on those results.  Again we usually use the top 3 teams for points.

Event 5-—Cumulative Long Jump—From a consistent starting point, we have teams of 8-10 (all teams having the same number) do a standing long jump.  When each groups first person lands, we use chalk to mark where their heels land.  That mark becomes the starting point for the 2nd person on the team.  They jump, heels are marked and so on until everyone on each team has gone.  The teams that jump the farthest, are the teams that get the points (Usually top 3 teams)  We do this in our schools parking lot, and use a parking spot yellow line for our starting spot.

Event 6—-Softball Throw—-We find oversized softballs, and throw for distance.  The oversized ball makes it harder for everyone to throw.  Number each member of the team, and have all number 1’s compete against each other all 2’s compete against each other, and so on.  Everyone participates, and each round you award points to your top distance throwers.

Event 7—-Shoe Relay—-We again use our school’s track for this.  From a common starting point, you will take teams of 8 people and line them up on the track.  All of team 1 lines up in lane 1.  Team 2 in lane 2 etc.  In their straight lines, all members of each team take their shoes off.  The shoes are collected and put into 1 huge mixed up pile about 50 meters away from the start.  On go all the first people for their team run down in socks to find their shoes in the pile.  As soon as they find both shoes and put them on they can run back in their lane to tag the hand of the next person on their team. That person then runs down to find their shoes. When all people on your team have gone, places are awarded (Top 3 Teams) and points handed out accordingly.

Event 8—-Tug-O-War—-We set up a round robin tournament to have a pull off.  Rules are that throughout the course of the tournament, every member of the team has to have gone more than once.  When teams are paired off to pull, the must have an equal number of participants on each team, with the same number of boys to girls on each pulling team.  This ensures equality of teams, but forces them to use strategy as to how they will substitute players each round.  When the round robin is complete, you should be able to see your top 3 teams, and can award team points accordingly.  If their is a tie….pull it off for the points.  We usually save this event for our last event of the 2nd day of the olympics.  It gets intense, and by this time team “BUY-IN” has happened, and the excitement flows freely!