YouthAlpha

You will need:

An empty plastic cup, a sturdy small table or chair that the cup can be placed on, a prize to play for

How it works:

Divide the room equally in half. Get the two groups in two parallel lines of equal numbers, facing each other across the lines. Then get everyone in each line to hold hands. So your room is two, straight, long lines of people, holding hands in their line, with the two lines facing each other. The person on each end of the line will obviously have one hand free.

At one end of the two lines, place the cup upside down on the table/chair seat so that it is equidistant between the free hands of the end people on the line. They are going to try and grab the cup to win – so it has to be fair! At the other end of the two lines have an ‘impartial person’ holding each of the free hands of the two end people.

Clear?

The ‘impartial person’ is going to squeeze the hands of the end people at exactly the same time. As they feel the squeeze they then pass that squeeze on to the next hand they are holding and so on down the line until the end people by the cup will feel the squeeze. As soon as they feel the squeeze then they must grab the cup. First person to grab the cup wins for their team.

To avoid people cheating by watching when the first squeeze takes place, before you start each go get everyone to turn their face away from the ‘impartial person’ starting the squeeze. It also helps to have someone run the game from the cup end, instructing everyone and making sure they are not cheating!

This game is best played doing ‘best of 3 goes’ or ‘best of 5’ to build up the competition! Also boys v girls works very well too!