Ghostbusters

WHY USE IT

This is a fun warm-up game to get young players moving, and working on agility, balance, coordination and speed (ABCs), along with opportunities to develop ball control, shielding the ball and 1v1 skills.

Set-up

Mark out an area relative to the age, ability and number of players. Within that area, mark out a small box. 

Designate two or three players as ‘ghosts’, another two or three as ‘ghostbusters’ and the rest as ‘people’. Each of the people need a ball.

HOW TO play

The people dribble around in the area. If the ghosts get a touch on a ball belonging to one of the people, that person is tagged and must wait for a ghostbuster to free them. This is done by touching them.

The ghostbusters can also tag the ghosts, by touching them, which forces them back into their box for a 10-second timeout and allows more people to be freed.

progressions & aDAPTATIONS

• You can start the game without balls. If one of the people is caught by a ghost, you can add challenges, such as star jumps, squats, planks or balance on one leg.

• When playing with balls, additional challenges could include toe-taps or keepy-ups, or, instead of a 10-second timeout for ghosts, they could collect a spare ball and complete one of these challenges before rejoining the game.

   

• You can also differentiate for varying abilities. For example, if a ghost is catching a lot of people, give them more seconds in the timeout box, or a harder ball challenge. 

   

• Ghosts or ghostbusters can have the extra challenge of having to dribble a ball, or you can add more ghosts to increase the difficulty.

COACHING POINTS

• Keep head up to see where the ghosts are.

   

• Keep the ball close, using different parts of the foot to move it.

   

• Use your body to shield the ball from the ghosts, keeping the ball as far from them as possible, using a strong arm to hold ghosts off.