Sweepers: Brooms, Tennis Balls and Gates

Homemade hockey: each student dribbles a tennis ball with a broom through cone gates spread around the schoolyard. It warms everyone up and shows you can play hockey without special equipment.

How to play

1. Hand out brooms and balls. Grip: bristles down on the ground, hands a hand-span apart on the handle (2 min).
2. Free dribbling around the yard, pushing the ball with the bristles, first walking, then jogging (2 min).
3. Gate challenge: about fifteen two-cone gates are set out. In one minute, each player counts how many gates they go through with the ball under control, without using the same gate twice in a row (3 min).
4. In pairs: one passes the ball through a gate and the partner receives it on the other side; then they find another free gate (3 min).
5. Shoulder and trunk mobility holding the broom overhead with both hands, standing in place with no ball (2 min).

Rules

• Bristles stay on the ground while a ball is in play.
• If a gate is busy, wait or find another one.
• Nobody sweeps someone else's ball.
• The broom only goes overhead during the final mobility work, standing still with space around you.

Variations

Adaptations

• Wheelchair users: use a short-handled broom and widen the gates in their area.
• Blind or low-vision students: use a ball with a bell or a plastic bag tied to the tennis ball, and dribble alongside a sighted guide.
• Students lacking confidence: start by pushing a large ball, which is easier to move with a broom.

Learning goals

• Warm up through dribbling at different speeds.
• Control a ball with a homemade implement.
• Appreciate reused equipment as a way to play sport.

Equipment for a class of 25

• brooms: 30
• tennis balls: 30
• cones: 30

Teacher tip

Ask students the lesson before to bring an old broom from home, and check that no handle is splintered. The typical mistake is hitting with the broom handle instead of pushing with the bristles.

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