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Description

Ice Breaker game that can be used to learn people's names, includes teamwork, problem solving, and communication

Resources

Tennis ball or similar.

Instructions

Speed Ball
Take one soft ball, tennis ball size, and explain the rules of the game. Each player must touch the ball once and say the person’s name that they are passing the ball to.

Then start by tossing the ball to someone across from you and say their name, the ball then passes around the group with each participant saying a name. The ball must finish with you, and everyone must have only touched the ball once.

After the circuit is complete, explain to the participants that there is a world record* for this game, and ask the group if they want to attempt to break it. Do not tell the participants what the record is, just say that it is amazingly fast. Begin the circuit again, reminding the young people that they must now stick to the same order that the ball was passed in the first round. Ask the participants to point at the person that they passed to, and at the person they received the ball from. Ask them to remember these people. This time use a stopwatch to time the circuit.

Whatever this time is, it won’t be fast enough. (Expect some young people to drop the ball on more than one occasion.)

Ask the participants what they think they can do to improve their time, they will point out the obvious like don’t drop the ball, move closer etc. Whatever their ideas are, implement them into the next attempt.

Again, this attempt will not break the record. Discuss with the group what other things they could do to make the time quicker and explain the rules to them again. Each person must touch the ball and say a person’s name.

Repeat the circuit implementing any ideas that the young people produce and keep timing them.

The eventual hope is that the young people realise that the ball does not need to be thrown to another person, the rules state that each person must touch the ball and say a person’s name. This should result in the session leader holding the ball in the centre of the group, each person holding a finger on the ball and all saying a name at the same time, then the record comes down to how quick you can start and stop your stopwatch.
This can be compared to the other groups in same setting to encourage competition.
*There is no world record for this.

Tags

• ball
• communication
• Icebreaker game
• problem solving game
• speed
• speed ball
• team
• teamwork

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