A roundup of recommended obstacle ideas for obstacle courses
An obstacle course race is one of the classic events at school sports days.
Various obstacles are set up between the start and the finish, and it’s a race where competitors aim for first place while overcoming them.
What obstacles you include greatly affects both the difficulty and the excitement of the event.
In this article, we’ll introduce a variety of obstacle ideas you’ll want to incorporate into your obstacle course race.
We’ve included plenty of obstacles that require not only speed, but also dexterity and luck.
Use these ideas as a reference to create an obstacle course race everyone can enjoy!
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Recommended Obstacle Ideas for Obstacle Races (21–30)
Put the ball IN the bucket on your back!
Let me introduce a great obstacle relay activity: “Bounce the ball into the bucket on your back!” This is played in pairs—one person wears a bucket on their back, and the other bounces a ball so it’s caught in the bucket.
Because the bucket is behind the player, it’s hard to pick up, so good coordination between the two is essential.
It’s thrilling to watch, and its novelty is sure to draw attention.
Work together to match your timing while also adjusting how hard you bounce the ball.
One rotation on a trampoline
This obstacle involves bouncing in place on a trampoline while gradually rotating your body; once you complete a full turn, you can step off and start running.
It tests both the stability of your trampoline jumps and your ability to smoothly change your body’s orientation while bouncing.
If you lose balance and put a foot down outside, you must redo the rotation, so the key is to advance while keeping stability in mind.
It’s also important to determine, for each person, how much twist allows you to maintain a stable posture and where that line lies.
Minomushi Dash
Have you heard of the bagworm race? It’s a popular staple at sports days: participants get into a burlap sack that comes up to about their waist and hop their way toward the finish line.
Let’s incorporate this as one section of an obstacle course.
The trick is to get the hang of it and hop efficiently, which is the key to moving quickly—so it’s fun because the outcome isn’t decided purely by running speed.
If you rush too much, you might take a tumble, so you can expect surprisingly heated competition.
bubble ball
We recommend incorporating bubble balls into obstacle relays.
They offer many advantages, such as high safety and minimal storage space.
There are various ways to use them—jumping on the bubble ball, carrying the ball with two people, or getting inside a tube-shaped bubble ball and pushing against each other—so feel free to get creative.
Bubble soccer and bubble sumo, which were devised to maintain social distancing during the COVID period, also seem to be options, so check them out if you’re interested.
When using bubble balls, it’s best to remove glasses and accessories, as they can cause damage or injury.
Foot acupressure mat
There’s a rumor that people with health issues find acupressure mats too painful to step on.
How about an acupressure mat race where you have to walk over a floor covered with them? It’s too easy with shoes, so make sure to try it in socks.
You can buy acupressure mats online or at 100-yen shops, connect them, and create your own custom course.
It might turn into a low-key event since it’s so painful that there’s not much speed, but that very tension—something you don’t get in regular competitions—could make it irresistibly fun.
ball toss (traditional Japanese beanbag/ball-throwing game)
This idea incorporates ball-tossing—usually seen as a standalone event—into an obstacle race to focus on ball control.
Because it’s part of a race, rather than the usual format of getting as many balls in as possible within a time limit, we recommend a pattern where you quickly put in a set number of balls.
The rush to get balls in faster than your opponent makes control more difficult.
Even when you’re tempted to rush, you’re being tested on your ability to judge where to throw the ball so it will go in.
can stacking
As the name suggests, can stacking is a game where you stack empty cans as high as you can.
When incorporating it into an obstacle course, set clear rules in advance, such as “Clear the stage when you’ve stacked X cans.” If participants stack the number specified in the rules, they clear the task and can proceed; if the stack collapses partway through, they must, of course, start over.
It’s best to decide how many cans to stack based on participants’ ages and the allotted time.
This is an obstacle idea that can be enjoyed by everyone from small children to adults by adjusting the rules.