Crazy Soccer
The team plays football inside inflatable spheres.
What it looks like
A video says in thirty seconds what a page explains in a thousand words: how loud it gets, how much laughing there is, what the legs are doing.
What it is
People play football inside large inflatable spheres that wrap around the whole upper body. You run, you kick, you collide and you go over constantly.
It’s played outdoors, in teams of five or more. The sport was invented in Norway by Henrik Elvestad and Johan Golden.
When it makes sense to choose it
It works well with young groups and with anyone who wants to burn off some energy. It’s the most physical and the loudest format we have, and it leaves no room for anyone who wants to stand and watch.
It works well with people who don’t play sport either, because the sphere cancels out the advantage of anyone who actually plays football: nobody controls the ball the way they’d like to.
It works less well if you’re after something reflective, or if the group has physical limitations. You’re on your feet, you run and you fall.
How it actually works
The first few plays are a disaster for everybody equally. The sphere covers your arms and shifts your centre of gravity, so running in a straight line is already an achievement and kicking while running is something else again.
From there the teams work out quickly that the game doesn’t reward the ball players: it rewards whoever agrees on who goes for the ball and who covers. It’s a lesson that lands in five minutes without anyone having to explain it.
Falling is part of the game. The spheres protect the torso and the head, and getting hurt is difficult: it’s why the tackles become the most entertaining part rather than the riskiest.
Three questions
Do you need to be fit?
No. The sphere slows everybody down and the game moves in bursts, so stamina counts for little. You need to be on your feet and willing to end up on the ground.
Do people get hurt?
It’s very hard to. The spheres wrap the torso and the head and absorb the impacts, and that protection is why the sport exists in this form.
Where is it played?
Outdoors, on a pitch or a wide stretch of grass. You need an even surface, because the falls are constant.
When what surfaces deserves an afterwards
An activity surfaces a great deal about how a team communicates, decides and works together, and sometimes what surfaces deserves more time, more depth and a method. That is where a Team Coaching path can begin: a different road, to be taken only if it is needed, to turn what the day made visible into a new way of working together.
Discover Team Coaching →
Let’s talk about your next team building
You don’t need to have picked a format yet. Tell us what you want your team to take home, how many of you there are and where you’ll be, and we’ll do the rest: within 24 hours you get a considered proposal for your case, with the formats that hold up against your numbers, and what each one leaves the team the day after.
Prefer to talk? +971 50 795 9666 · info @ teambuildingincentive.ae