Our 10 Favourite Summer Pool Games

Tired of the same old, same old? Here are ten of our favourite pool games and activities your family can try this summer!

Obstacle Course

This pool game is a fan favourite in our household because you can customize it to match the abilities of the players and can be played solo or as part of a group. Simply set up a course using some obstacles / objectives in and around your pool. We typically use common pool accessories like in pool floats, dive sticks, pool noodles, hula hoops, and basketball nets to help set up our course.

Once you’ve set up your course you can have your players run the course! For more competitive pool games you can time your players or, if you have two of everything, have them do head-to-head races. For more casual games you can start off with a basic course, then add more steps each time the player completes the course. This will increase the difficulty and keep it challenging, without making it competitive between the players.

Follow The Leader

This game is similar to an obstacle course, but instead of saying what the course will be out loud, the leader shows the players how to do each piece of the course by doing it themselves. The rest of the players try to repeat the same course in the same order.

This pool game can be good for younger players that might not be able to remember a whole course by themselves, or for those that have a great imagination and like to challenge their friends! For longer play sessions, you can keep all the players engaged by having them take turns making the course and leading their friends through it.

Pool Fishing

One of the most popular pool games with our little ones is pool fishing! To set up this pool game simply through a few small floating objects or dive toys in the pool and give your player a small net. Once they’ve got their net in hand, send them out to catch their treasures using their net. For added difficulty, you can throw in dive toys or other heavier objects and challenge your players to catch them in their nets before they hit the bottom of the pool!

Duck Soup

Duck Soup is a classic swimming pool game that’s similar to an egg race. Start by giving each player a rubber duck and lining them on one side of the pool, then count down from 3. At “go!” players race to get their duck to the other side of the pool first. They can do this however they want, as long as they don’t touch the duck with their hands, feet or mouth. The winner is the player who gets their duck to touch the opposite wall of the pool first.

Frozen T-Shirt Race

While this game might sound strange at first, it’s become a fan favourite for players of all ages in our households. To set up this pool game soak two t-shirts in water, then freeze them in separate bags overnight. Once your shirts are frozen, start the game by splitting your players into two teams and count down from 3. At “go!”, each team will attempt to thaw their shirt as quickly as they can. Shirts can be submerged underwater, whacked on cement / decking, breathed on, or whatever else the players can think of to help thaw the shirt out as quick as possible (we’ve made a house rule that the hot tub is off limits).

Each player on the team takes turns tackling their shirt, with new players rotating in every 30 seconds. First team to be able to get their shirt on wins!

Invisible Bottle

This extremely simple pool game is actually harder than it first seems. Invisible bottle takes advantage of the fact that a completely filled clear plastic bottle is almost invisible when placed on the bottom of a pool.

To set up with game, simply find yourself a clear plastic bottle with a clear or white cap and fill it with pool water. Have everyone playing stand on the pool deck, turn their backs to the pool, and close their eyes. Throw the bottle into the water. When the bottle sinks, say “go” and everyone can turn around, jump in and try to find the bottle. The first person to find it and grab it wins!

Bobbers

Bobbers is a great pool game that is inspired by “Whack a Mole”. To set up this game you’ll first need to select one of the players. Give that player a pool noodle, put them in the centre of the pool and have the rest of the players line up on one side of the pool. Those players then try and get from one side of the pool to the other while the player in the centre tries to whack the other players with their pool noodle.

Players can avoid the player with the pool noodle by bobbing under the water, but can’t simply swim underwater past them. Once a player has been hit with the noodle, they’re out. The last one standing wins and takes the pool noodle for the next round!

Relay Race

This game is inspired by olympic relay races and is great exercise for children of all ages! To do this one properly you’ll want two teams of at least 3 players each (the teams should have an even number of players on both).

Both teams start at one side of the pool and have to do one full lap of the pool (to the other side and back) in different ways. Simply tell each player how they should swim (front crawl, underwater, only using their arms, backstroke, etc). The first team to complete the relay wins!

Secret Message

This game can be played by people in and out of the pool. To play you’ll designate a player in the pool as the messenger. That player will go underwater and say a word or short phrase (we recommend keeping it as simple as you can). All the other players will then take turns guessing what the messenger said. Once the word is guessed (or everyone gives up), you make another player the messenger and keep going. To make it easier, you could have all of the words share a common theme like food, celebrities or “things in the backyard”.

Airball

Our last pool game is based on one of our kids favourite indoor games, “keepy-uppy.” To adapt this for the pool we usually use a beach ball. The goal of the game is simple, keep the ball from touching the pool water or the ground. Each player can hit the ball a maximum of 2 times before another player touches it. Count out loud how many times you hit the ball before it hits the ground, then try and beat that score the next time!

Wrapping Up

Pools aren’t only for swimming. From obstacles courses to relay races, there are plenty of great activities for you and your family to enjoy this summer!