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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Hopscotch, Four Square, Dodgeall



After yesterday’s post that once again stretched the definition of sport by talking about tetherball I thought I’d really push the limit and talk about other elementary school recess sports. Yup, I’m going there. Stay with me, this will be fun!

So I searched the web and found this gem on YouTube that explains how to play hopscotch. What did we ever do before the web? In addition, I found that a school in Canada has a hopscotch tournament in the spring. Nice.

Even more fun was this video explaining the rules of four square. I recall that there was also a two square version in my elementary school and we would also get bored of this and play handball with those giant rubber balls as well. Ah, memories.

Okay dodgeball – forget about it! I don’t think they actually let elementary school kids play this any more - at least not the way our rules were. We used to play it quite brutally from what I remember. There would be one person that threw the ball and the rest of us would stand against the wall. The ball thrower would fling the ball as hard as they could at us. It was always a bit sad since the slowest or least athletic kids would be picked off first. I always hated when a strong boy would throw the ball. Kids were getting hit quite hard. My reflexes became quite fast because of this game. The last one standing was the winner and the next ball thrower. If you have the urge to play this game, there are plenty of leagues and groups all over the country.

Elementary school recess sports were great, weren’t they? The bars, kickball, volleyball…

What was your favorite elementary school recess sport?

5 comments:

Lindsay said...

You know, I would LOVE to play dodgeball now. Although I don't think I'd be any good at it. I totally get freaked out when someone throws a ball at my face! But we totally played that in elementary school! Ha. I miss elementary gym class and all the fun games we used to play. Did you play capture the flag or was that a Midwest game?

Lindsay said...

P.S. I think I could make a pretty good kickball player if they ever started a league.

Apryl DeLancey said...

We did play capture the flag - Pacific Ocean style so I bet out game was a bit different than yours.

I bet you would make a great kickballer too! If we lived close to each other we could be the catalysts to start a league! It would be a lot of fun to play again.

Lindsay said...

That would be fun!

And it would also be fun to start a Dodgeball league. After that movie came out a few years ago, I am surprised more people didn't start local dodgeball competitions. Probably because no one wanted to sponsor something like that! Ha.

Apryl DeLancey said...

Yeah, I think that whole risk of injury thing turns everyone off!