Dribbling - Exercise:

Catch the Thief

Playing catch is always popular

Looking for an exciting game of catch that you can use for kids' training sessions? Look no further. There is also a fantasy story to motivate the kids.

A. Learning goals

Movement coordination, dribbling

B. Fantasy

Thieves=Kids
Police officer=Catcher

C. Story

People keep breaking into our clubhouse. But the police have a good idea of what’s going on, and they’re hot on the heels of the thieves. One police officer gets a big chance to catch the thieves. Will he make it?

D. Organisation

The playing field is marked out with cone markers and a sufficient number of balls is laid out ready. If your group is a large one, have lots of smaller groups play at the same time on several different practice fields.

E. Description

The children are all given numbers, and they each go to a marked-out section of the field of their choice. The catcher, who is positioned in the middle of the playing field, calls out two numbers. The children whose numbers were called then switch sides, and are not allowed to be touched by the catcher when doing so. If a child is caught, he or she becomes the catcher and the former catcher takes up a position in one of the marked-out sections. If both children are touched by the catcher, the one which is touched last becomes the catcher.

F. Variations

  • Each child at the edge of the field has a ball. The kids dribble when changing places.
  • The children have to spin around once when they are running across the field.
  • The children running across the field have to touch hands twice before they take up their new positions.

G. Tips

  • Set up more playing fields if you have a large group of kids.
  • Call out the numbers loudly and clearly.
Dribbling exercise catch the thief