New Resource: A Better Dodgeball Tournament
Today, I connected with a youth pastor who’s organizing a dodgeball tournament and I’d previously forgotten some of the things that we’d learned along the way.
Here’s how you can have a better dodgeball tournament…
JUST RELEASED TODAY: Our Dodgeball Tournament Package Available Right Now for Subscribers
Things you should keep in mind:
AVOID THE DODGEBALL TOURNAMENT DRAG
One team just can’t seem to hit the smallest, evasive guy on the other team & there’s nothing worse than having 80-90% of your students watching what is going on from the sidelines. Often they leave or hang out in the hallways & that causes logistical issues.
My suggestion – especially if students have brought friends – is that every team get a few games in rather than a one and out.
Screen Cap of timer from our Member's Area
Here’s how you can play multiple games with multiple teams:
• Make time limited games
You can make the game “last team standing” or “time limit who has the most people left” which ever comes first.
Not only will it make teams play a little more aggressively, but also it will keep sideline teams watching the clock as they know they are on deck.
• Have simultaneous games going on
I don’t think this is necessary if you have a smaller group of students, but if you have 30 & up you need to add courts.
HAVE BOUNDARY MARKERS CLEARLY DEFINED & REFEREES
Students take tournaments probably too seriously, so make the extra effort. We even had our refs wear striped gear.
HAVE AN ANNOUNCER OVER THE LOUD SPEAKER DOING PLAY-BY-PLAY
They can make it funny, entertaining, keep people interested, and direct traffic so that teams will be on deck for their turn
GIVE AWAY A CHAMPIONSHIP
Dodgeball was always a staple in our youth ministries, so it was easy to do a couple of tournaments a year and have tons of kids show up.
A team trophy is an amazing idea. When the team wins first place:
• Have photographers on hand
• Do a presentation ceremony
• Give them the championship trophy – and use this as a reigning champions trophy that can be displayed in your youth facility inside a case with the team picture. Bragging is awesome buildup for your next tournament.
• Give away individual trophies.
Print & Powerpoint Promo Images
Trophies are trophies. They’re exciting whether they mean anything or not. There were no good dodgeball trophies, so we modified a Bowling trophy that was a bobble head. We actually put a mini sweatband on the top of it. Everyone knew it was a bowling ball, but they still thought it was very cool.
Just today, we released a Dodgeball Tournament Package in our Member’s Section.
The package includes:
• 3 Minute, 5 Minute, & 10 Minute Countdown Timers
• Promo Images for Printing
• Promo Powerpoint for plugging the event upfront
