Smash Ball Warm-Up Game

I like to use this game if I am working with a group of goalkeepers, but this is a great smash ball warm-up game to be used also with players! For the game, you can use (recycle) the inner part of an old handball ball (which you planned to throw away anyways). Instead of throwing it away, you can can make an interesting warm-up game for your team!

You can use this game with junior players, or with a senior team, it’s equally effective and fun in both cases.

The Rules of the Game

The rules of this game are pretty simple:

• make two teams that will play this game against each other
• players can’t dribble, hold or carry the ball at any point (so normal handball throws and passes are not allowed, it’s allowed only to smash the ball with a hand)
• they should hit/smash the ball with their hand (you can agree on a different rule here, but I don’t let them kick the ball with feet, because that would end up in someone’s foot colliding with someone’s fingers)
• players can hit/smash the ball to fly in the air, or they can bounce it towards the floor
• players can smash the ball from up, from down, from the sides, from any direction
• there is no goalkeeper positioned in front of the goal, but whoever happens to be in front of the goal in the moment when the ball is coming towards the goal – that person can save the shot (you can agree on that if the person who is saving the goal in the moment, is allowed to save the ball with feet or legs)
• due to the irregular shape and softness of the ball – it is difficult to predict the direction where the ball will go, which makes this game very fun
• the goal of the game is to score to opponent’s goal
• having fun 🙂

You can add different variations of “tasks” during the game – you can have players do different kinds of things after you give an audio signal (a whistle). Or you can combine two different tasks that they need to do depending on that if you will whistle once or two times.

You can be as creative as you want and make this warm-up game even more interesting, dynamic, and fun!

Here are a few other warm-up game ideas that you can use for your team:

• 7 Warm Up Games for Handball by Handball Inspires
• 3 Catching Games for Warm Up by Handball Inspires
• Specific Handball Warm Up Flow by Handball Inspires
• Warming up Games and Small Games by Branislav Pokrajac and EHF

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