source: www.youthwork-practice.com | 2000 Games, Devotions, Themes, Ideas and more for Youth Work
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Catching games

Catching and following games can be played outside on a lawn, in a school yard but also in a sports hall or large group room. You do not usually need any materials. This means that the games are quickly prepared and can be used as spontaneous gap fillers.

Helper

There is one catcher. Everyone who is tagged by the catcher becomes his helper. The helper can catch but not tag. This means that he must hold the player captive long enough for the catcher to come along and tag him. This tagged player also becomes a helper.
Always the same

There is one chief catcher. This chief catcher can hop, walk, run and crawl and all of the others must do the same. The players who are caught become catchers as well.
Enjoy immunity

There is one catcher. Each player who the catcher wants to catch can save themselves by doing a headstand or by standing still on one leg for example. In this (agreed) position, the catcher is not allowed to tag. Instead, the catcher must try to tag another victim. The immunity positions can be agreed before the game starts.
Flee for the mountains

There is one catcher. Each player who the catcher wants to catch can save themselves by jumping on the back of another player. The catcher must try to find another victim instead.

Shadow catching

There is one catcher who tries to catch the players by stepping on their shadow. The players who are “tagged” in this way become catchers as well.
Capturing the castle

There are 4 players per team. 3 players hold each others hands and protect the fourth person in the middle between them. A catcher tries to tag the person in the middle, the other 3 try to stop him, by „shielding“. They are not allowed to let go of each others hands.

Horse escape

The players spilt into riding pairs. One pair is chosen as the catcher who then tries to tag the other horses and riders.
Tree tagging

A 10m long piece of rope is tied to a tree. A catcher holds the rope. The other people must try to reach the tree as many times as possible and tag it without the catcher (tree guard, watch dog etc.) managing to tag the players.
Bible knowledge is useful

In this catching game, the players who are tagged by the catcher must stand absolutely still. The tagged player must stay in this frozen position as long as it takes for another player to come and say a phrase from the bible. The frozen player is then free.
The following hunt

Two teams stand in two opposite corners of a playing field. In a clockwise direction, the first runner starts off on his way around the playing field. Once he makes it back to his team, he tags the next player who then starts his round. The aim is for one runner to catch up with the other team’s runner and tag him.
Tagged free

One catcher turns his back to the group, closes his eyes and counts to 100. The rest of the group members hide in the nearby area or terrain. As soon as the catcher has counted to 100 he shouts „ready or not, here I come!“ and starts to look for the group. As soon as he has found someone he runs back to the starting point (e.g. a tree or a house wall), tags the wall and shouts out the person’s name who has been discovered. The person who is found can avoid being tagged out of the game by getting back to the starting point quicker than the catcher. The aim of the catcher is to tag everyone out of the game without giving the players the chance to free themselves. The hiders can also run to the starting point before they are discovered and free themselves. The best time to do this is when the catcher is far enough away from the starting point.
British Bulldog

The game is a little like “Black Man“. However the “black man” does not have to simply tag the players. The “British bulldog” has to lift his opponents up in the air so that their feet are no longer on the ground. The players are then out of the game.
Banned

Everyone stands in a circle. A person in the middle of the circle throws a ball up vertically in the air and calls out the name of a member of the group. This person then catches the ball and shouts “Stop!” At this point, the others stand frozen. The ball catcher may now take 3 large steps towards any player in the circle and try to strike this person with the ball. The chosen player is not allowed to move from the spot but is allowed to divert (duck, turn away,…). If the person is hit, this person has one minus point; otherwise the thrower gets the minus point if he does manage to hit the player. Several rounds can be played.
Dog or cat | True or false

The group is spilt into 2 teams with equal numbers. Bother teams stand opposite each other approx. 5m apart. Behind each team, there is a „safety line“ 20 meters away. A coin is now thrown. If heads is thrown, the dogs chase the cats and if tails is thrown the cats chase the dogs. The players who are tagged before they reach the safety line are out of the game.

Option: instead of being out of the game, the players swap teams.

Option: instead of throwing a coin, a game of paper, scissors, and stone might be played to choose which team chases.

Option: instead of throwing a coin, a story can be told with different claims. If the claim is true, team A chases team B and vice versa.
Animals find their partner

Each member of the group receives a card with an animal name. Everyone is blindfolded. One member of the group is the catcher and has a jingle bell around his neck. Each member of the group must now try to find his partner by making animal sounds typical of the animal on his card before he is caught by the catcher.
Catch the bible
This is a game that we like to play in our church group and is good for repetition of biblical text.
One child is holding a bible and reading from it. All the other children stand approximately 15-20 metres away and are observing carefully in anticipation of hearing a key word. As soon as the person reading from the bible says the word, all the children run away and the person reading has to chase after in a game of tag. The child reading will be ready to start chasing as soon as the word is mentioned. It is important to use an old bible as it will most likely be dropped. If you need a winner, you can stop as soon as someone has been caught. It is also fun just as it is.
Contribution from Arie P. From Austria