Outdoor Game (Tips for Success & Safety Tips)

Outdoor Game
Tips for Success

All outdoor games have inherent risks, but there are many things you can do to foster safe play for everyone. Keep in mind these outdoor game tips for success:

1. Before beginning, get a sense of the group you will be playing with (How are they dressed? Kids and adults playing together? Does everyone know each other?)
   
   
2. Plan something for everybody - children, teens, parents and grandparents.
3. Mix it up. Alternate kids games with games for adults. Keeping variety keeps interest.
4. If necessary, stick to a time schedule.
5. With larger groups (especially young children), avoid games requiring more than 10 minutes, because boredom can soon set in. Individual participation games, such as horseshoes and lawn bowling, get more interest if you run them as separate events.
6. "Breaking the ice" is easy when the games start with some well-known members of the group participating in some special event that is devastating to their dignity!
7. Adult mixed-couple games take first place for crowd entertainment, but kids games are a close second.

Outdoor Game Safety Tips

1. Scan the play area before game time, spotting potential hazards (tree stumps, low hanging branches, gopher holes, barb wires, broken glass, etc).
2. Keep age limitations in mind. Young people like to move around, older folks like calmer, social games.
3. Don't plan running or crawling games if the play surface is gravel or very uneven.
4. Do not ask players to run while blind-folded - that's just asking for trouble.
5. Have volunteers posted near any natural hazards in the play area - or use something to mark off the hazards (orange traffic cones, lawn chairs, up-side down buckets, etc).
6. Have the race finish parallel to or away from the crowd (not towards them).