Materials

• One or two dodgeballs. (Preferably the size of a playground ball, but lighter.)
• Tape or rope
• Stopwatch

Preparation

Create a circle using the tape or rope. The size of the circle is flexible, but you want to leave enough room for people to be able to move with relative freedom. I typically do 12-15 feet in diameter.

Divide the group into two equal teams. One team (the defending team) should line up single file outside the circle (set back from the circle a little bit to allow freedom of movement around the outside of the circle.) The other team (the attacking team) should scatter around the circle.

Choose one player from the defending team to be the bodyguard and have them go inside the circle. This player is invincible and cannot be out. One additional member from defending team should go inside the circle. This is the “protectee”.

One helper should run the stopwatch.

Objective

The attacking team should attempt to get out the protectees as quickly as possible while the defending team will want to keep the protectees safe as long as possible. Whichever team has the highest cumulative time of survival wins.

Rules

The Start

The attacking team will start with the ball and the defending team should have their bodyguard and one protectee in the circle.

When “go” is shouted the timekeeper should begin the stopwatch.

Gameplay

Once “go” has been shouted, the attacking team may begin throwing at the protectee in the circle. The throwers can run anywhere around the circle, and pass around the circle to other teammates, but can never go inside the circle, and those that are still “in”, can never go outside the circle. A protectee can get out the following ways.

• Hit by a ball thrown by those outside the circle.
  • The ball must be thrown, not kicked or propelled some other way.
  • The ball cannot hit the someone in the head. (This discourages headshots.)
• Leaves the circle.

Note that if the ball touches the protectee in any way (other than headshots) the protectee is out. They cannot catch the ball. If the ball bounces off the bodyguard or the ground and then touches the protectee they are still out.

Once a protectee is hit, they should immediately exit the circle and the next protectee in line should enter. I generally only allow two seconds for a protectee to enter to avoid delay of game. It is generally to the protectee’s advantage to enter quickly and get behind the bodyguard while the defending team gathers the ball after knocking the previous protectee out since I allow “cherry-picking” at the point of entry.

The End

Once the last protectee is hit, the referee should yell “stop”, and the timekeeper should stop the stopwatch and announce/record the time. Teams then switch positions and prepare for the second half of the round. Gameplay starts over again once everyone is ready.

The team with the longest survival time wins.

Modifications

• Allow the bodyguard to catch balls thrown by those outside of the circle. If a player outside the circle has their ball caught, they are no longer allowed to participate in attacking. (They should still participate as a protectee when roles are reversed.)
• Explicitly allow or disallow the defender from launching the ball from the circle if they catch it. Allowing this increases the length of the game.