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• General Ideas
• Joining In / Bullying
• Choosing Teams
• Sin Bin
• Being Out
• Controlling Physical Games

All the games published on ScoutBase have been submitted by Leaders and Scouts. Most of them are typical Scout Games but as always Leaders should use their own judgement in deciding if a game is appropiate for the children involved and for the surroundings.

Although each game has a suggested section, these are purely a guide but from experience, it is not a good long term idea for Cubs to use games intended for Scouts as this leaves the Scout Section without any new games.

Explorers/Network can normally adapt most games to suit their own needs and some interesting ideas often emerge from just having fun.

Note that the Scout Association wants both it's young people and it's Leaders to remain fit and healthy. It also requires that young people are respected both by their Leaders and their peers.

It is therefore felt inappropriate for Adult Leaders to join in with physical contact games with young people in their charge. It is also sensible not to allow games to degenerate into bouts of physical or verbal bullying which would not be allowed in other activities.

How many times have asked your Beavers/Cubs/Scouts to stand in a line tallest to shortest, and then numbered them off "1-2-1-2...", and considered this to be fair sides?

Or how many time have you selected two "team captains" and let them pick alternate players?

Both these methods always produce "unbalanced" sides and allow the players to predict and therefore influence which team they will be in.

In the first case it is better to number players "1-2-2-1-1-2-2-..." or to vary your numbering system between the two systems so that the players can't predict what you're going to do.

Since Scouts never end up in the right team you can re-enforce the number by getting the Scouts to shout out there number.

In the second case, after the first "captain" has chosen, then let each captain choose two people at a time.

This methods will produce much more balanced (random) and fairer teams.

It does become a bit trickier if you are selecting more than two teams: The simplest way here is to count up through the teams and then back down. e.g. four teams:

1-2-3-4-4-3-2-1-1-.....

This method also has the advantage that the Cubs/Scouts find it much harder to group themselves into teams by standing in a specific place in the line.

The idea of the Sin Bin comes from ice hockey, where players who infringe the rules are made to sit the game out for a defined period

This can be adapted for Scouting games to help maintain orderly play and make sure that the players don't get too carried away

Place three/four chairs against one of the side walls of the hall. When a player infringes the rules they go and sits on the next free chair. If there are no free chairs the person who has been in longest returns to play and the rest of the 'sin binned' players shuffle up a chair. If there are few infingements you can optionally let players out before the sin-bin fills, but be sure to keep an eye on the bin to make sure that no player sits the game out for too long.

An alternative use of the Sin Bin is to remove a key member of a team to even up the sides. Send off that tall Patrol Leader for 60 seconds, reason: Being Too Tall.

Training courses tell us that we should avoid playing games where certain players are 'out' and take no further part in the game. Those who are 'out' have nothing else to do, may cause mischief or even become bored with the whole idea of Scouting.

The problem is that some of the best games require players to be 'out'. If you want to play a game where players become 'out', make sure that they have something else to do. This may be getting ready for the next activity (supervised by another leader) or getting ready for the end of the meeting.

By playing 'out' games at the end of the meeting, those who drop out can get back into uniform and you can even award points for the first colony/six/patrol who's ready.

Don't play 'out' games at the start of the meeting, they don't warm up the 1st Scout who is out.

Some Scouting games include an element of physical aggression. One problem with very physical games is keeping control and ensuring no injuries are incured. There are often several ways of keeping control, here are a few:

• Ensure you have adequate rules at the start of the game
• Introduce new rules if required
• Make sure all physical contact is at or below the shoulders - no neck locks or similar.
• Use the Sin Bin as described above
• Actively control the game, move with the game.
• Use the Sin Bin as described above
• If all else fails stop the game and move on.