Very Best Games

Athletic Games Thinking Games

Guardball

Name of GameGuardball a.k.a. Pin Dodgeball, Team Pinball, and Rollerball
Typeathletic
Age Range6-adult
Number of Players4-50
Playing Environmentsgym, pavement, grass field
Shared Equipment4-12 Nerf soccer balls or equivalent, 8-16 bowling pins or equivalent
Individual Equipmentnone
SummaryThe playing area should be between 60 and 120 feet long, with a width approximately equal to the total number of players times 5 feet.

Divide the players into two teams. Each team occupies half of the playing area, with a center line divider equidistant from the two ends. Five feet inside each end is another line, parallel to the end line. Spread evenly along the full width of the end line are the pins that the team occupying that half must protect. Each team is trying to roll or throw balls through the opposing team to knock down its pins.
RulesNo players may set foot within the five-foot endzone to protect a pin -- only to retrieve a ball once it has gone past the pins or come to a complete stop. Violation of this rule, which includes any player making contact with a moving ball that has not passed the pins and is within this zone, results in loss of a pin.

Players may block a ball anywhere within their half, outside of the endzone, using any part of the body.

Players may not enter the opposing team's half.

If playing indoors, pins knocked down by balls bouncing off the back walls are to be reset.

One team wins by knocking down all of the other team's pins. Once a pin is down, it stays down until the next round.
CommentsCones or plastic bottles can substitute for pins.

Balls should be heavy enough to throw or roll, but light and soft enough not to hurt if they hit someone in the face.

Variations allow players to kick the balls at the other team's pins, either as an all-kick game or one with mixed kicking and throwing.