You don’t need a regulation playing field or court to play sports in your own yard. You can play a variety of sports and games in small backyard spaces with makeshift fields or courts. Encourage your kids to stay active by playing backyard sports with them on a regular basis.
Wiffle Ball
Wiffle ball, a small-scale version of baseball, allows you to practice baseball or softball skills in a small space. Wiffle ball requires a plastic wiffle ball bat and a hollow plastic ball. You can set up a wiffle ball playing field in any backyard space, but a 60-foot by 20-foot space offers ideal playing conditions. Use cones or other markers to designate three zones within the playing area. These zones include the single hit area, the double hit area and the triple hit area. Players or teams take turns coming to bat. Players do not run bases, but simply put imaginary runners on base by hitting the ball into the single, double or triple hit zones. Any balls hit beyond the edge of the triple hit zone count as home runs. Players score runs when they hit enough hits to bring their imaginary base runners to home plate. Players earn strikes by hitting foul balls or by swinging at and missing a pitch. If a fielder catches a player’s fly ball, he gets that player out. After a player or team gets three outs, they take a turn in the field. Play a previously determined number of innings, or simply play to a previously determined run total.
Badminton
You can set up a basic badminton court in your backyard. You can use cones or other objects to designate the corners of the court. Though standard badminton courts measure 44 feet long and 17 to 22 feet wide, you can play with any rectangular playing area. The net should measure about 5 feet high. Players or teams hit the shuttlecock, a rubber core with feathers around it, back and forth over the net to keep the rally going. Players win points by hitting the shuttlecock over the net and to the ground on the opponent’s side of the court. A player also wins a point if her opponent hits the ball into the net or out of bounds. You can play the best of three 21-point games or just play to a previously determined point total.
Annie Annie Over
Annie Annie Over offers added suspense to backyard sports like volleyball or catch. Hang a large a sheet from a clothesline well above the highest eye level of the players. Divide the players into two groups and have one team stand on each side of the sheet. One team tosses the ball over the sheet to the other team to start the game. The sheet should block the ball from the other team’s view until the last minute. As one team tosses the ball over, its members must yell “Annie Annie Over!” as a warning to the opposing team. If the opposing team manages to catch the ball before it touches the ground, they must sprint around the sheet in one direction and try to tag players on the opposing team. The opposing team will have no warning of this team’s attempt to tag them. Teams should remain prepared for this possibility after each toss of the ball over the net. When a team sees its opponents running around the sheet to try to tag its players, they must run to the opposite side of the sheet to remain safe. Any players tagged by the opposing team must join that team. If a team fails to catch the ball as it comes over the net, they do not get the opportunity to tag members of the opposing team. Rather, they simply toss the ball back over to the other side, yelling “Annie Annie Over!” Play until one team has accumulated all of the players.
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