Volleyball Ring Toss Uses Felt Floor Hockey Pucks Instead of Balls

Because our gymnasium has a tile floor that could be damaged by wooden floor-hockey sticks, we were going to discard a number of felt floor-hockey pucks.

Instead, we decided to experiment with the felt pucks to teach speed and reaction time on the volleyball courts. What we came up with is an adapted game that some younger students actually prefer to that of regular volleyball.

How to Play
The game is played as in regular volleyball but with 12-14 players on each team and a felt floor-hockey puck being used instead of a volleyball.

To start the game, the puck is thrown from the server's backhand side (as would a frisbee) into the other team's court. The opponent catching the puck may not move with it and must toss it back immediately after making the catch.

Dropping the puck, returning it improperly or throwing it into the net or out of bounds result in a point or side-out. Players rotate positions as in regular volleyball.

Variations
1. Use two or three pucks simultaneously, depending on the skill level of the participants. Initiate play by having the server release them one after the other. The first puck on which an error is made is the one that determines point or side-out.

2. Specify the type of catch that must be made: one handed, two-handed, right-handed, left-handed, etc.

Have patience! We experience a number of side-outs at the start of this activity, but after 3-5 minutes of play, students adapt to the flight characteristics of the pucks.

Contributors: Tim McGhie and Lawrence Plue were PE teachers at Bishop Smith Catholic High School in Pembroke, Ontario.

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© 2009, Physical Education Update, www.peUpdate.com

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