Cats and Crabs
Who doesn’t love a good game of quadrupedal tag?
Cats and Crabs is an exhausting but fun game for warming up large groups through quadrupedal movement. In this game of survival, players (cats) will try to avoid being caught by their evil rivals (crabs). If caught, the cat is magically turned into a crab and joins the hunt for cats!
The Cat and The Crab are each assigned a unique movement pattern, and over the course of several rounds all of the players will have a chance to move through a wide range of quadrupedal and conditioning movements.
This game surprisingly has a mild social risk component among newcomers to movement, as crawling is has a tendency to be uncomfortable/awkward for many people. C&C is best to come after players have already learned some basic quadrupedal, or with a group who is familiar with each other. Check out resources as the bottom of the How to Play tab for a link!
Objective
Be the last cat surviving.
Setting up
People
4 or more participants
All ages
Space
Both open spaces and spaces with obstacles can be used.
Equipment
None required
Set-up
Set the boundaries of space–either a circle drawn in chalk or four points. Should be relatively restricted. Too big and the game will be to difficult to complete.
Players all get into standard quadrupedal (cat) position.
1 player for every 8 players is chosen as ‘crab‘
Everyone spreads out.
How to Play
On GO, everyone begins crawling around.
You MUST remain moving the whole time.
Every time a CRAB touches or tags a CAT, the cat turns into a crab (because science.) Now there are 2 Crabs, and both are working together to make more cats into crabs
End Game
The game ends when there is one CAT left standing (who then becomes the first crab of the next game) OR when ‘time runs out’.
We recommend guaging group energy. Sometimes if a round has dragged on for a while, and people are dropping their butts and sitting/watching, its good to call it. …or give a penalty.