Invent your own athletics event
You’ll need
- Sports equipment (cones, ropes, balls)
- Pens
- Paper
Before you begin
- Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Take a look at our guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
- Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
- Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help if you’re short on helpers.
Planning and setting up this activity
- You’ll need something to conduct sports-related research with either a phone, tablet, iPad, a relevant book, newspaper etc. (You don’t necessarily need to have one each).
- You could do this activity over two sessions if needed, or if people want to research and prepare independently.
Athletics is a collection of sporting events across several disciplines, including running, jumping and throwing events. It consists of three main areas:
- track events
- field events
- combined events
The running events include sprints, middle and long-distance events and hurdling. Jumping events include the long jump, high jump, triple jump and pole vault, while the throwing events include the discus throw, hammer throw, javelin throw and shot put. There are also combined events, such as the decathlon for men, which consists of ten events, and the heptathlon for women, which consists of seven events.
Athletics is often associated with the Olympics. However, it is not just for elite athletes. Each week athletes also compete at national, county, school or club level events which can be held indoors or outdoors. Athletics events are very specialised and often do not require a full combination of fitness components, therefore offering something for everyone.
Athletic events usually:
- focus on individual performance, such as your time, distance, or height.
- are measurable and fair, so everyone is judged by the same rules.
- can be repeated and compared, whether it’s today, next week, or at the Olympics!
(Source: BBC Bitesize, 2025)
Success in athletics is not judged on points or goals, but rather on times and distance.
Track events: these races are started with an electronic pistol which is only sounded again on a false start. In races that are very close, officials use a digital line-scan camera across the finish line to give them a photo finish picture. The clock stops when an athlete has passed through the finish line.
Jumping events: these events are measured from the front edge of the take-off board to the first mark made in the sand by the athlete. The distance is always measured to the nearest centimetre and athletes will always be given a minimum of three jumps.
Throwing events: these events are measured from the front edge of the throwing line to the first mark made in the ground by the implement. The distance is always measured to the nearest centimetre and athletes will always be given a minimum of three attempts.
(Source: BBC Bitesize, 2025)
Athletics has a set of rules for competition and a series of official notification periods for proposed changes to them. UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics in the United Kingdom. Its responsibilities include overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics officials. The UK Athletics Rules for Competition are published every two years. UK Athletics governs the rules for competition for the following disciplines:
- track and field competition
- road running competition
- cross country running
- fell and hill running
- race walking
- trail running
(Source: BBC Bitesize, 2025)
An athletics competition requires a large number of volunteers each day. These include:
- Starter: this person starts all track events
- Starter's Marshals: these people line up competitors in correct order ready for starting
- Timekeepers: these volunteers provide official times for all track competitors
- Place Judges: these helpers ensure the correct order of positions are given
- Field Event Judges: these judges measure, record and let athletes know when it is safe to compete
- Relay Judges: these make sure runners at change-overs are in the correct lane and within the change-over box
(Source: BBC Bitesize, 2025)
Running this activity
- Everyone should get into groups.
- Give each group pens and paper. Each group should think of as many athletics events as they can and note them down. When everyone’s finished, ask each group what they’ve come up with. You could also see what everyone’s favourite athletics event is.
- After everyone’s shared their answers, you may wish to explain what athletics are. You can use the information on this page about athletics events, officials, scoring and rules.
- Tell everyone that they’re not just taking part in athletics in this session, but, in their groups, they’re inventing a new Athletics event.
- Tell them they’ll need to plan, design and test their own athletics event. It needs to be safe and possible to do in a meeting space. The goal is to be creative and come up with something new, fun, silly or different.
- Give the groups time to create their event. To help them, use these questions as prompts:
- What’s the aim of the event?
- Is it for individuals, teams, or both?
- What space and equipment does it need?
- What are the rules?
- How do you win or score points?
- How will it be judged or refereed?
- Are there any penalties or challenges?
- How will you make sure it’s safe? Encourage the group to think about potential risks and come up with their own safety rules or a simple risk assessment.
- How accessible is it? Could everyone take part, or would it need adjustments for different abilities?
- Once they’ve planned their event, each group should set up their event.
- Each group should test their event first. They may need to adjust their event based on how well it works or how safe and fair it feels in practice.
- When everyone’s happy with their new event, groups will take turns running their activities for others to do. You can run the events one at a time or set up multiple events if space allows. Make sure everyone gets to try every event and give feedback.
- Once all the events are complete, gather everyone together and reflect on how things went, such as how easy it was to understand, any difficulties or challenges, or anything that needed simplifying or improving.
- You could host a sports day for another section with your new events.
Reflection
This activity was all about being creative and having fun with sports by designing your own event. You thought about the rules, how it would work, and what made it unique. What did you need to think about? How did you come up with your ideas? How did you make sure everyone in your group got to share their ideas? Did you work well as a team?
Then, you tested it out and experienced it in action. Trying it out helped you find out what worked and what didn’t — that’s all part of the process! How did your event go? What went well and what could've gone better? Is there anything you’d change next time? Did people enjoy your sport? What would you change next time?
Safety
All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.
You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.
- Visits away from your meeting place
Complete a thorough risk assessment and include hazards, such as roads, woodland, plants, animals, and bodies of water (for example, rivers, ponds, lakes, and seas). You’ll probably need more adult helpers than usual. Your risk assessment should include how many adults you need. The young people to adult ratios are a minimum requirement. When you do your risk assessment, you might decide that you need more adults than the ratio specifies. Think about extra equipment that you may need to take with you, such as high visibility clothing, a first aid kit, water, and waterproofs. Throughout the activity, watch out for changes in the weather and do regular headcounts.
- Poles and long objects
Be careful when moving poles or long items. Take care if the ends are sharp. Have appropriate supervision for this activity.
- Outdoor activities
You must have permission to use the location. Always check the weather forecast, and inform parents and carers of any change in venue.
- Contact games and activities
Make sure everyone understands what contact is acceptable, and monitor contact throughout the activity.
- Active games
The game area should be free of hazards. Explain the rules of the game clearly and have a clear way to communicate that the game must stop when needed. Take a look at our guidance on running active games safely.
- Heavy and awkward objects
Never lift or move heavy or awkward items alone. Ask for help or, if possible, break them down into smaller parts.
- To make this activity easier, you could give each group one skill (running, jumping, or throwing) to focus on, instead of combining them all.
Make it accessible
All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.
