Hula Hoop Games

In times, when play stations and NVIDIA rule the roost, outdoor games sort of seem obsolete to the younger generation. Despite the high tech entertainment consoles, the fact remains that real time sports are an integral part of growing up. So, to motivate children to breathe some fresh air, take a few ideas from simple hula hoop games. The key to encouraging kids to participate in outdoor activities is to keep them as easy as possible. Hula hoop games can also be used as great team building activities. In a fast paced and overtly competitive world, a few easy takes is not a bad idea to start with! The best part about these games is that the equipment is cheap and extremely easy to use.

Hula Hoop Games for Preschoolers

Hula Skip
This is like an old wine in new bottle. Replace the skipping rope by a hula hoop and jump around the neighborhood. However, to play this, make sure you pick the largest hula hoop. A small hoop will get you stuck in it.

Hula Hokey Pokey
This game is an interesting way of teaching the kids simple things such as left and right. Make your preschooler sing and perform the actions as the song suggests. For instance, put the right hand in the ring when you sing the line 'put your right hand in' from the song. Follow the lyrics and to enjoy the game.


Simon Says
This is also an interesting way of teaching your child simple actions. Use the hula hoop in every action that you ask your child to do. For example, jump inside the ring, jump outside it, spin it from the right, spin it from the left, hold it in the air, keep it on the floor, balance it on your hand and so forth.

Ring-a-Ring O' Rosies
Similar to the second game, you can help your child learn this simple poem with the help of a hula hoop. Act out the poem 'ring around the rosies, a bucket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down!', by going round and falling down with the hula hoop. Such games are a good way of making boring lessons in a classroom fun!

Hula Hoop Games for Children

Contest
Get all the kids together and start a hula hoop contest. The one who can rotate the hoop the longest around any body part, obviously wins! With practice, it can be rotated around the hand, neck and legs too. This helps in toning the body by working the muscles as the ring hula hoops!

Obstacles
You must have seen great many obstacle courses, but nothing compares to the fun a hula hoop obstacle course would add! Create obstacles in your backyard, like 10 meters and 10 spins. Next would be with double rings around your waist. You can change the successive obstacle to 20 spins in hand and neck and so on. Have a time set for completion of the obstacle course and watch the kids run helter-skelter to complete it!


The Hoop Run
This game is fun if you can get onto a slope. Take a hula hoop and push it down the slope. Ask the child to run along with a stick, aligning the hoop with the ground every now and then, preventing it from becoming flat. Mark a finish line, where the child has to stop running. If the ring falls flat before that, then you get half the points. On the other hand, if you reach the finish line with the hula hoop still standing, you are a clear winner of 10 points!

Basket Hoop
To play this game, hang the ring from a branch of a tree. Make the children stand in a line at a distance away from the ring. Turn by turn, children will dribble the ball and try to basket it in the ring. This game is a modification of basketball with hula hoop. If you manage to throw the ball in the ring, you win 5 points, if not then he has to do 15 spins!

Hula Hoop Games for Adults

Musical Hoops
The game follows the same rules as music chairs. Keep the hula hoop rotating around your waist till the music stop. Once the music comes to a halt, drop the ring on the ground and step out. The moment the music begins jump into any hula hoop and begin afresh!

Hoop Dance
A couple begins dancing with just one ring around the waist. As the music progresses keep adding more rings. The couple which dances with the maximum rings and for the longest time obviously wins. Remember that no one can use hands to hold the rings by the waist!


Hoop Dart
Spread hula hoops on a ground and give them points. Mark a starting line and give the players five darts each. Keep the higher point hula hoops farther from the starting line and the lower point hoops closer to the starting point. Line up the participants and ask each one to take a shot at the hoop. Keep a score of each player. The one gets the maximum points out of the five attempts wins the game.

Toss a Hoop
Fill cardboard boxes with goodies place them at a slight elevation. You can use a choir stand to create the required height. Give each participant two hula hoops to try to throw them around the boxes. Let's see how many can hoop the boxes at a height!

Hula Hoop Games for Team Building

Hooked to the Hoop
Make the participants of the group form a large circle with hula hoop rings as the link. The group then has to pass the rings around the circle till they get their hula hoop back without breaking the link. They might have to pass the hoops over and under the bodies without leaving each other.

Hoop For Each Other
This is a good team building game to understand sharing responsibility and burdens. Divide the participants into two teams and hand each team member a hula hoop. Everyone must keep the ring rotating for as long as possible. If the ring drops the player is out of the game. The team which has the final player rotating the ring wins the game. The team players can vary the speed of the rotations.


Hoop Relay
Divide the participants in two groups and line them up to start the relay. Each person has to run a distance of 100 meters, make the hoop go around the waist once, run back and give the ring to the next player. The group which completes this task first, wins the the game.

Tangled Up!
Gather the participants in a circle and make them hold hands right at the center. Let one person wear the hula hoop in the arm. Through the tangle, the players have to pass the ring to one another, until it comes back to the person who first had it. To make the game even more complicated tell the players to not talk at all!

So, these were some of the games that can easily be played with children in your backyard or on the streets. Outdoor games, such as these must be encouraged, for they help children in building character, team spirit and important of all, make new friends!