The Best Sports for Corporate Company Team Building Outings

The Best Sports for Corporate Company Team Building Outings

Sports and competition are healthy. There are a lot of benefits to participating, whether in a fun relaxed environment or a semi-competitive nature. It can help keep you sharp, as many sporting events require a lot of thought and strategy in order to be successful.

For this reason, many companies include sporting events as part of their team building and development programs. There are several options available and not only do the corporations help create a much stronger and effective team for themselves, but they also give their employees something fun to do.

From an employee standpoint, participating in something fun like bowling, for example, is going to have them more excited to participate than say a long presentation and speaking event from some boring corporate trainer.

If you are interested in using sports to help unite and strengthen your team, consider these options. They are fun and do a great job at using competition and strategy to help your team members form bonds, learn to work better together, etc. In the end it’s great for their personal development as well as your business.

Go Karts

Racing go karts is something that most people would really love, and while not for every company, if you are a tech startup or have a large Millennial demographic of employees, then this is a great option.

There are a lot of go kart franchises that operate in major cities. You can either show up randomly and just have fun racing each other or you can level up and rent the track for a private corporate event. This is a great option for large companies. The competition is fierce and you will see people really get into it.

gokarts

Bowling

Bowling is something that everyone loves and most can participate in. You don’t have to be very athletic to have fun and do well. Also, there is likely a bowling alley very close to almost every business. You don’t have to travel far to find one.

A lot of companies will also offer a league option, sponsoring a team for employees to join. This is another good option to help contribute to team building. But a corporate event at a bowling alley is a nice way to reward the team with a day off while giving them the tools to be better while working together. A lot of friendships and bonds will form while bowling. Let the competition and competitiveness kick in!

Billiards

Just like with bowling, you can find a place to play pool almost anywhere. There are dedicated billiard halls and most bowling alleys will have a billiards section as well. You can easily create a tournament style competition and pit team members against each other.

This option really depends on your team. If they are fans of billiards it can be great, but if they haven’t played a lot it might be too frustrating. For smaller teams, it’s a great option because it really brings people close. Games are longer and they will spend a lot of time competing. For larger teams I would suggest bowling over billiards.

billiards

Mini Golf

Who doesn’t love mini golf? Seriously, name one person. It’s impossible. Mini golf is something that is a great option because it will get the golfers in the company excited and motivated to show their putting skills, while even the most unathletic person can participate.

You aren’t excluding anyone with mini golf. Have players team up in groups on 3-5 and then score overall as a company. You can put up prizes for the top positions to really get the competition flowing. This is an event that everyone will be excited for and try hard because it’s a level playing field. Everyone has a legitimate shot at winning.

Shooting

There is something about going to a gun range and shooting targets, for both experienced and new shooters alike. This won’t be for everyone, but it’s definitely an option to consider. There are a lot of indoor ranges popping up and a lot of them offer machine guns and other wild weapon choices.

This is something that most will be very excited to try. It’s amazing how competitive people will get when they start shooting at targets. Some may not like the idea of guns, so you have to really know your team before offering this option.

Kick Ball

Kick ball is something that you can do with essentially no budget. Some of the other options can be quite expensive, so I wanted to make sure to have a couple options for companies that need the benefit but are low on extra funds.

All you need is a kick ball and you can pick one up for less than $10 at any department store’s sporting goods section. Then you just need an artificial cricket pitch, and you can often find plenty of free options at parks. You can use vacant little league fields or just a large field in general and you can then mark up the bases with any object. People love kick ball.

kickball

Poker

Another low cost option (decks of cards are about $3 and you can get chips sets for around $20) that is fun and very competitive. There is a lot of hype these days around the World Series of Poker, so spin off a company poker tournament. It can get very competitive and it’s something different that people will enjoy. You can have prizes for the top finishers to really get people into it. Things like Amazon gift cards or gift cards to local restaurants are great ideas. Or if there isn’t room in the budget for that you can have “paid day off” prizes. Watch how competitive it gets for those.

Cassidy Donahue

Cassidy Donahue is a former D1 Women's Basketball player who now coaches at the High School level. She is a diehard New York Yankees and New York Knicks fan.

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