Beach balls are fun to hit around with your friends on the beach, in the water, and most importantly, with your group of corporate executives, teenagers, and camp kids.

Clothing for Extra Points

Start dressed in light sports wear, then add extra layers of clothing like hoodies and rain wear, to make it more challenging. Each item of clothing (excluding underwear and swimwear) counts as 1 handicap or bonus point. Add the points for the whole team to any score they may achieve.

Democracy Ball

Around 3 to 9 Players in knee deep to waist deep water, starting out in dry clothes, if possible. See who can stay dry the longest. Use one or more balls.

The object of this game is for the group to hit a beach ball in the air as many times as possible, each time scoring a point, without the ball touching the water. We usually follow these rules:

1. A group’s score does not count until everyone has hit the ball once.

2. A player must not hit the ball more than once in a row.

3. Players can only hit the ball with their hands; no kicking. Although the occasional header is generally alright.

4. Players must not “punch” the ball.

   That’s all the rules. The game is fun and gets everyone involved. When players are coming together for the first time and playing this game, we don’t play with rules, we just let the players hit the ball in the air.

   It is an especially useful game when kids have just gotten off the bus, and half of them go to the bathroom, so you have the other half just standing around waiting for the others and either looking bored or tired or both. So, as a group leader you just hit the ball up in the air. And then maybe you get another group leader to hit it back. Then an amazing thing happens, by hitting the ball into the air at least one person from the group will get involved and that in turn will usually have a domino effect on the others. Then when the kids come back from the bathroom, they can just join right in. Then, we usually introduce some of the rules, just so everyone can get involved.

   Challenges

   Now, if you do not follow Rule #1 and #2 this is what will happen: If you have a group of 30 people (especially ones that do not know each other), about 10 of them (usually the taller, more aggressive ones) will circle up in the middle and “hog” the ball. The rest of the group, too shy or too short or generally too unwilling to join the “fun”, will hang around the periphery watching the action, but soon tire of that and eventually disengage from the game. This could be a problem. So how to avoid it? Follow rules #1 and #2.

   Or you could allow it to happen and then present the problem to the group: What rules can the group come up with to get everyone involved? And then you could follow those rules until everyone is participating. Or you could let things fall where they may and use “democracy ball” as a gauge, a reference point, for your games and activities that may follow. So, sometime during the rest of your day, the group leader may say: “OK folks, how did that activity compare to democracy ball as far as getting everyone involved?”

Democracy Ball Relay

This is a variation of the original game. The object is for the group to move themselves into deeper water while keeping it in the air the entire time by hitting it from one to another.

Start and finish line is the water's edge, the far side is defined where the smallest player stands shoulder deep in the water.

We make sure to enforce both rules of the original “Democracy Ball” game. This is a timed event, so we give the group a few different attempts to see if they can complete it faster and faster.