Barnyard

The Internet is truly a beautiful thing - an embarrassment of information riches! Sorting through my Twitter connections recently, I came across +PhysEdGames. If you follow my blog or tweets, you know lots of my tennis game ideas are modified children's games. Barnyard is one that is ripe for conversion. The video reminded me of the old Red Rover game from my childhood lo those many years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Barnyard's roots being in a PE class setting, it is a natural for large groups. But I can also see how we can use it in a tennis clinic with a smaller group.

One player is designated the Farmer and is at the net. Across the net at the baseline are all other players. They have been broken into different groups, designated by various farm animal names such as Duck, Cow, Goose, Goat, etc. Coach or Farmer calls out an animal. That animal or a player from that group of animals comes forward. Coach feeds ball; player hits. If he/she gets ball safely by Farmer at net, they earn one point for themselves or their animal group, and back into group they go. However if they miss or if Farmer picks off their ball at the net, they are 'out' and must trot over to far baseline.

What happens here is up to you. You can either task them with catching a ball to free themselves and return to the hitting group, or have them pick up X number of balls and deposit them into the hopper before getting back into hitting group.

First player or group to 7 points wins and is the new Farmer. If it is a group that wins, let them figure out who gets to be the next Farmer.