Organising a team games day: activities, teams and scoring

A team games day is one of the few group activities where people who barely know each other end up shouting for each other within ten minutes. That's down to the format: fixed teams, short activities, a scoreboard. That same format also makes it easy to set up wrongly. Below you'll find how to choose the activities, how to divide teams, which scoring stays fair, and at what point doing it yourself becomes more work than it's worth.

What exactly is a team games day?

A team games day is a tournament in which teams do different games one after another and earn points for each. The idea comes from television, from the days when villages competed against each other in inflatable suits, and that origin is still there. It's not about the best athlete but about the team that works together most cleverly.

The difference from separate group games lies in the structure. With separate games everyone plays the same game and then moves on. With a team games day all the activities run at the same time, the teams rotate, and everything counts towards one final ranking. That means nobody stands waiting on the sidelines and there's something at stake all afternoon.

That set-up has another advantage that's often overlooked. Because the activities differ in what they demand, each team can be good at something. The colleague who can't run fast wins the precision activity. That's the difference between an afternoon that brings people together and an afternoon where the same four people win everything.

Twenty team games that work in practice

Below are twenty activities, grouped by what they ask of a team. Choose six to eight and make sure you pick something from each group. A team games day that consists only of strength and speed loses half the participants after the second activity.

1. Raft building: each team gets barrels, beams and rope and has to build a raft that carries the whole team across a stretch of cordoned-off water.
2. Obstacle course relay: an inflatable course where the next team member may only start once the previous one has finished, with time counting.
3. Tug of war: the classic activity, played as a round robin so it isn't over after one round.
4. Soap football: football on a tarpaulin with water and soap, where hardly anyone stays on their feet and scoring becomes a side issue.
5. Ladder race: two people carry a third on a ladder or stretcher through a course without them falling off.
6. Bucket relay: carrying water in a leaking cup, measured by how much is in the bucket at the end.
7. Hanging in jeans: how long someone can hang from a pole while wearing jeans, totalled per team.
8. Archery at a target: three arrows per team member, the points are added up, no experience needed.
9. Sack race with obstacles: hopping through a course of cones, where a fall earns a time penalty.
10. Giant skis: four people on two long planks who have to step at the same time to get anywhere.
11. Blindfold course: one team member blindfolded through a course, the rest are only allowed to talk.
12. Tower building: the tallest free-standing tower of crates or blocks within six minutes.
13. Wheelbarrow slalom: a team member in a wheelbarrow through a slalom, with a bucket of water on their lap.
14. Klootschieten (traditional Dutch road bowling): getting the ball over a marked-out course in as few throws as possible, a game from this region.
15. Giant sjoelen: an enlarged sjoelbak (Dutch shuffleboard) where the whole team takes turns sliding.
16. Timed maze: a course the team can only solve together, where one mistake means back to the start.
17. Water balloon toss: stepping further apart each time, the team that keeps theirs intact longest wins.
18. Life-size board game: a format where the team are the pieces themselves and have to plan their turns.
19. Precision throwing: throwing rings or bean bags at targets worth different points, tactics count for more than strength.
20. Puzzle relay: each team member fetches a puzzle piece, and only with all the pieces can the team solve the final task.

Of these twenty, the wet activities are the most popular and at the same time the hardest to plan. They need water, a drain or somewhere it can run away, and dry clothes for afterwards. Do them at the end of the programme, never as the first activity.

Which activities do you choose for which group?

For a group of colleagues with big age differences, choose mostly dexterity and teamwork activities and few that rely on strength. We run this as a standard part of a company outing or a family day. For a group that knows each other well and can handle the physical side, the wet and the heavy activities can be the core. For a family day with children, choose activities where an eight-year-old and a fifty-year-old uncle can be on the same side without it going lopsided.

One rule always applies: at least two activities must be winnable without fitness. Without those two, the result is settled after the third activity and energy visibly drops.

Dividing the teams: the detail that makes the day

Teams of eight to twelve people work best. Smaller, and everyone has to take part in every activity, which becomes a problem with physical games. Larger, and people are left standing on the sidelines, which is exactly what you wanted to avoid with a team games day.

Divide the teams in advance and don't do it on the spot. If people choose themselves, they stand with their own department and the whole exercise is pointless. Mix deliberately by department, by age and by length of service. Put the team list on a sheet at the entrance, and the discussion is over straight away.

Give each team a colour and something to wear: a bib, a bandana, a shirt. It sounds like a detail but it does more than you'd think. People start behaving differently as soon as they visibly belong to a group, and in the photos afterwards you can see straight away what happened.

Scoring that stays fair

Most team games days come unstuck on the scoring. The pattern is always the same: one activity is worth far more points than the rest, or the timing is much more precise for one activity than another, and at the end the result doesn't match what everyone has seen.

The simplest solution is a fixed points distribution per activity, regardless of how the activity scores. With six teams the winner gets six points, second place five, down to one point for the last. Each activity then weighs the same, and it makes no difference whether a team wins by half a second or by two minutes. That last point feels unfair to the winner but keeps the whole afternoon exciting.

Keep the running score visible but not too often. Once halfway and once at the end is enough. Tracking it constantly on a big board sounds fun, but makes teams start calculating instead of playing. And make sure one person keeps the scores who isn't otherwise taking part, because a participant who also counts is a discussion you'll have at the end.

Building a team games day in six steps

Step 1: Decide group size and teams

Count the number of participants and divide by ten. That's your number of teams, and so also the minimum number of activities that must run at the same time. With sixty participants that's six teams and six activities. This number determines everything after it, so start here and not with the most fun games.

Step 2: Choose the site and check it on the spot

A grass field of forty by forty metres is enough for six activities. Walk the field once before you commit to anything. Check the ground, where water will run, the distance to a toilet and where you can put down equipment that isn't straight away in the way.

Step 3: Select six activities with different demands

Choose six activities from the list above: two physical, two dexterity and two that are mostly about teamwork or tactics. Put the wet activities last in the rotation. For each activity check how much equipment you need and whether you have it or can borrow it.

Step 4: Make a rotation schedule

Put in a table which team is at which activity at what time. Allow twenty minutes of play plus five minutes for changing over. With six teams and six activities you're done in two and a half hours. Print the schedule and put it up at every activity, because without paper it goes wrong around the third block.

Step 5: Arrange a host for each activity

Every activity needs someone to explain the rules, keep time and note down the score. That can't be someone who's taking part themselves. Allow one host per activity, plus one person who keeps an eye on the whole thing and calls the time. This is usually where organising it yourself falls apart.

Step 6: Finish with the results and something tangible

Gather everyone together at the end, read out the results from last place to first and give the winning team something to take home. It doesn't have to cost anything. A trophy that comes back next year works better than gift vouchers, because it announces the next edition in advance.

Equipment, and what people underestimate

The equipment list is longer than people expect. For each activity you need barriers, something to write the score on, a stopwatch and the game equipment itself. On top of that, for the event as a whole: bibs in team colours, a sound system or at least an air horn, a first aid kit, water for participants, and bin bags.

What is most often forgotten is the time between activities. With six activities you change over five times, and each changeover takes longer than planned in practice because people chat, drink or go to the toilet. Allow five minutes, not three, otherwise you'll overrun by half an hour by the end.

Think about the people who aren't taking part, too. At a family day or a staff outing there's always a group who would rather watch. Put chairs out with a view of at least two activities, otherwise they'll stand in the way all afternoon or leave.

Four mistakes that make a team games day fail

The first is too few activities for the number of teams. If four teams have to rotate around three activities, one team is always waiting. Waiting kills the energy, and it's the most common mistake.

The second is putting everything on physical activities. That excludes part of the group and makes the result predictable. At least a third of the activities should be winnable by playing smart rather than by running fast.

The third is unclear rules. If a host has to explain the game on the spot without having done it themselves, you get arguments about the score. Run through the activities with the hosts beforehand, even if it takes an hour.

The fourth is having no plan for bad weather. A team games day with wet activities at twelve degrees and rain is no fun. Agree in advance when you'll decide, which activities will be dropped, and whether there's an indoor venue. Without a decision point, you'll be dithering on the morning itself while people are already on their way.

What a team games day costs

Organising it yourself costs little money and a lot of time. Borrowing equipment from a club, arranging a field and building the activities yourself can be done for a few hundred euros. If you'd rather have a custom proposal, we'll work out the price for you. Allow ten to fifteen hours of preparation, and at least six people who won't take part on the day.

If we take care of it, a compact team games day starts at €195. A full set-up with six to eight activities, equipment, scoring, presentation and hosting costs between €550 and €1,400, depending on group size and whether wet activities are included. For larger groups the price per person drops quickly, because the set-up stays the same.

What mainly determines the price is the number of activities that have to run at the same time, not the number of participants. Going from sixty to ninety participants costs less than going from four to eight activities, because every extra activity needs both equipment and a host.

What you get from this

A team games day is perfectly doable yourself if you have a site, can borrow equipment and have enough people who want to host rather than take part. That last point is the real hurdle. Most organisers underestimate that a team games day with six activities needs seven people on the sidelines.

It tips at three points. With more than about sixty participants, because then the rotation schedule becomes the main challenge. At an occasion where it really has to be right, such as an anniversary or a family day with external guests. And if you want to take part yourself as the organiser, because a team games day needs someone who stands beside it the whole time.

In those cases you can outsource it. We build bespoke team games days for groups at their venue in Twente and beyond, with our own activities, equipment and hosts. On the page about team games days you'll find out what that involves. If you're looking for a format that needs less space, take a look at group games for a large group or an active company outing.