Swimming Pool Games

When I was in middle school my next door neighbor and I would play "Marco Polo" in his pool while the adults chatted away, sitting close by.

At other times I would watch my relatives play "Chicken" in the water involving players trying to push other players into the water as they sat on someone's shoulders in the pool.

Swimming pool games seem to be pretty popular, from water volleyball to racing and everything else that the imagination will conceive of.

You can do diving games and retrieve items at the bottom of the pool like keys and other objects or swim through hoops that other swimmers hold up.

I also remember a game of "Sharks" which is like tag only in the water. Some players are named the sharks and they go after another set of swimmers. As each one is caught they sit at the edge of the pool or on the side of the water.

Water polo is best played in the shallow end unless your group is made of strong swimmers.

With races and competitions in the water use common sense and make sure weak swimmers use the side of the pool with shallow water.

Water Statues is an aquatic form of the old game of Statues. One of the players is chosen as the statue and situates himself at the end of the pool. Others are situated at the other end. The last person in the game or the first person to tag the judge is the winner of the game and becomes the judge.

Swimming is not supposed to be just an exercise, but fun too.

You can buy a water trampoline to put in the pool and take turns jumping on it with your friends or if you want to spend a lot of money buy a tetherball kit that players can play with in the pool.

Or arrange a scavenger hunt in the water by hiding items such as blocks and other choices around the pool for players to find.

You can also set up a badminton net in the pool for a game of the old sport.

At poolstore.com you can buy a floating ping pong table.

You can turn your pool into a gushing tidal wave with this fun game:

1. Get together as many small rubber rafts, boogie boards, kickboards, and similar pool toys as you can find.

2. Gather some swimmers in the shallow end.

3. Give each swimmer a pool toy.

4. Have the players push against their pool toys at the same time.

5. Continue to make waves with everyone working in unison.

6. Jump onto the pool toys and ride the waves.

Tip: This game tends to splash a lot of water out of the pool.