Recommended athletic meet events you can enjoy indoors
Sports festivals, typically held in spring or autumn.
When you think of a sports festival, you might picture an outdoor event on a sunny, pleasant day.
However, these days they are often held indoors to suit participants and weather conditions.
This is especially true for corporate sports festivals, where indoor venues are the norm.
In this article, we’ll introduce events that are perfect for indoor sports festivals.
There are plenty of activities that not only adults but also children can enjoy, making them great for family-friendly sports festivals.
We hope you’ll find this helpful!
- [Mini Sports Day] Carefully selected indoor-friendly events that really get everyone excited!
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- [For Kids] Exciting Class-vs-Class Games: Team Competition Activities
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- Dances that elementary school kids can do! Recommended tracks to liven up a school sports day
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- [Sports Day] Entrance songs that will hype the crowd! A comprehensive roundup from classics to the latest hits
- [Blazing] Carefully selected tracks perfect as BGM for cavalry battles at sports festivals!
- [Sports Day] A roundup of popular Japanese songs perfect for mass performances [Athletic Festival]
- Get the Fun Going! Easy Classroom Games You Can Play at School: Recreational Activities for the Whole Class
Recommended Sports Day Events You Can Enjoy Indoors (31–40)
flysheet relay
The “fly sheet relay” is where four people carry a square sheet with a ball on top, working together to transport it.
It sounds easy, but it’s actually quite tricky: if the four corners aren’t kept at the same height while running, the ball will fall off.
When children are participating, try using a larger sheet, and when it’s only adults, use a smaller one to adjust the difficulty for the participants.
If you want to make the event even more exciting, set up obstacles along the course—it really ramps up the fun and is highly recommended!
[Infant] Drive Go-Go
![[Infant] Drive Go-Go](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/rxDh0gjEOCg/sddefault.jpg)
Drive Go-Go is a game where children pull cars made from cardboard and similar materials.
Let parents watch as the children do their best to pull something all the way to the finish line, so they can feel the children’s growth.
Because there’s no complex movement like running or passing a baton, it’s recommended for infant classes.
Teachers prepare the cars in advance using cardboard and construction paper, attach a string to each car, and have the children pull the string to move the car.
If some children start heading in a direction other than the goal, gently take their hand and flexibly guide them together toward the finish line.
Rock-Paper-Scissors Train
For a mini indoor sports day, especially recommended for kids, try the Rock-Paper-Scissors Train.
While the music is playing, everyone moves freely around the room.
When the music stops, they freeze and play rock-paper-scissors with someone nearby.
If you lose, you go to the back of the winner’s line.
As this repeats, the line grows longer like a train.
If you have a large group, it’s also fun to form teams and start as separate trains.
The children’s song “Kamotsu Ressha” (Freight Train) is a classic choice for this game, but feel free to switch up the music to match the season or whatever’s trending at the time.
Bagworm relay
How about incorporating a “bagworm relay,” which looks adorably like a bagworm, into your mini sports day events? It’s called the bagworm relay because participants wear burlap sacks—just like what a bagworm “wears”! You use a large burlap sack, like the kind sold at hardware stores for coffee beans, to cover about half your body.
Since you can’t walk normally, you hop your way toward the finish line.
Jumping big and fast is great, but it also increases the risk of falling, so be careful—yet hurry—doing your best!
circuit play
A circuit play activity that’s fun not only for sports day but also on rainy days.
As children go around tackling obstacles, their excitement is likely to keep rising.
If you set up a course and include several movement patterns—crawling and climbing over it, jumping, and crawling under—it can make it even more enjoyable.
It’s also nice that, as they keep going around, they start wanting to go faster.
For sports day, it’s a good idea to set a goal—such as how many laps to complete—and encourage them by saying things like, “Only a few more laps to go!”
Recommended sports day events you can enjoy indoors (41–50)
dance
The energetic dances at sports day really show how much the kids have grown, don’t they? It’s a good idea to choose familiar, upbeat songs that match the event’s theme.
Keep the choreography simple, age-appropriate, and easy to remember, and avoid making formation changes too complicated.
Coordinating costumes to create a sense of unity can make the event even more exciting.
The children may also discover the joy of expressing themselves through movement to music and the happiness of working together as a team.
parachute ball
Parachute activities using large, colorful fabric are a popular event at sports festivals.
With a parachute, several people hold the cloth and perform moves like creating a dome, a merry-go-round, or fireworks by inflating and shaping it.
Each person uses their whole body to raise and lower the fabric or move it sideways, making teamwork the key.
It’s also recommended to have a representative blow a whistle to give instructions and synchronize timing so everyone can move together.
Parachute play offers a valuable experience of working together to create something as a team, and it may help foster both self-confidence and empathy for others.