The MAJOR FUN AWARDS go to games and people that bring people fun, and to any organization managing to make the world more fun through its own personal contributions, and through the products it has managed to bring to the market.
Though I have written many articles about volleyball, devoted an entire funcast and even a full chapter of Junkyard Sports to volleyball, I have yet to find anywhere outside of my own writings any mention of the perhaps most profound and, dare I say revolutionary contribution to the very nature of volleyball - the Cross-Court Rotation Variation. Not even in the Wikipedia article "Volleyball Variations," or the obversely titled Thinkquest article "Variations of Volleyball," have my Googling eyes sighted anything approaching actual citing.
Perhaps a diagram is necessary. Perhaps two diagrams.
Here, from Wikipedia, the traditional method of rotating:
While in the Cross-Court Rotation Variation the Number One-positioned player in team A (herein illustrated as the Red Team) goes to the Number Six position in team B (the Green Team) while simultaneously the Number One-positioned player in team B moves to the Number Six position in team A, all other players moving down-position according to the traditional rotation rule.
Perhaps the merits of the Cross-Court Rotation Variation are too numerous to enumerate. Perhaps the concept is too subtle or simple to catch the attention of the sport-minded many. But the truth remains: simply by letting players change sides as well as positions we can not only satisfy all the purposes of the official rotation rules, but we can also make the game a lot more fun for anyone who wants to play. Anyone.
But wait, a note of hope from my colleague Roger Greenaway:
"You will find a reference to this variation of volleyball which forms part of the history of Turntable (née Revolver) ending with a climactic reference to Junkyard Sports.
"As you will discover, the cross-court variation was invented (or reinvented) in Scotland around 1990 by a group of playful trainers inspired by Terry Orlick's creative interferences with the rules of competitive games.
"I am not trying to compete for ownership of this non-competitive variation, although I do claim to be the creator of Turntable where the 'cross-court' move enables participants to take part on all sides of a discussion."
Thank you, Roger. No, no competition for ownership is implied. Key is that this concept is out there, in use, and extending beyond volleyball, eve. Hope is restored.
Writing about an event involving Palestinian and Israeli children that was led by the Ultimate Peace initiative - an organization devoted to teaching kids of different cultures to play the sport of Ultimate Frisbee, Al Jazeera reporter Diana Worman notes:
"A sporting initiative like this will always attract its critics, especially at such a sensitive time in such a sensitive place, but the ultimate aim of this week is to allow kids to be kids, and to integrate, and learn with each other and to have fun."
So there they are in Israel, making this incredible thing happen between Palestinian and Israeli children, where they are bridging a cultural chasm, and at the same time being responsible, together, for keeping the game fair - and the big thing, the main thing is that they are having fun together.
Which reminds me about something I learned during Day 2 and 3 in Denmark, at the Lego Idea Conference and a follow-up meeting of Lego designers. I was there to lead participants in my Junkyard Sports Tabletop Olympiad. And, as you know, the game is jam-packed with "teachable moments" about teamwork and creativity, resourcefulness and innovation. And I learned from the participants that what really mattered, every time I played it, had nothing to do with the copiousity of opportunities to gather meaningful insights, and everything to do with how much sheer, all-embracing fun it allowed them to have together.
Someone else send me info on this program last year, and I think is absolutely necessary for so many kids. I get this, "at recess, the kids sit around and play with dirt and grass", go figure its kids who never had any experience with the spirit of play. So many kids in bad areas dont get to a play lot til they get to SCHOOL... so tragic. Someone said "half the kids go at it, but there will always be a group that just stands there". A large advocacy group in Chicago was asked to look at our recess legislation, and wouldn't support it unless it defined recess as unstructured, non- instructional. I think you have to be flexible, it never hurts to have someone out there, a recess coach (MY SCHOOL HAS AN UNOFFICIAL ONE HURRAY), to organize a different area each day, which is so so so helpful. We have a huge field, and if someone wasn't out there to say, today we are going to do "this", the in crowd jock boys would take over the field each and every day to play football. hey, why not co-ed soccer or kickball, or co-ed football. It helped so much, because some of the boys just never even tried to be included, and finally felt comfortable asking to play. Thankfully, my guys were never in that group, but it can be so hard on kids.
So I am totally in favor of having a recess helper, play program. It's not like they can organize all 80 kids anyway. Some kids just need guidance.
She continues:
You are absolutely right about it being too sports oriented, but I think many of these not for profit programs are funded by the big sports clubs, PE orgs, which are overly staffed with coaches. YOUR work, the fun quirky kind of play, is more important, and would be EXACTLY what kids who don't hang with the sports crowd would gravitate to.
You said you're a grandfather!! Your grandkids have got to be the luckiest kids in town. "My grandfather's job is to make fun". My dad, 72, still plays with my kids like he were 10. It is such a riot. He still thinks he's a track running football star. I guess we, me and my brothers were so lucky that he was so fun spirited. So many kids don't have that, or have a father figure at all, just "head of household"-filling moms.
Rocky (my best friend and wife, too) heard this on NPR today - a story titled: "Oakland Group Seeks More Play In School Day." It's about a school program taught by a group called Sports4Kids. They explain:
"Since 1996, Sports4Kids has been transforming chaotic playgrounds riddled with fights and inactivity into structured, healthy environments for play. This workshop is designed to provide adults within school communities the tools and strategies to help them create healthy and playful experiences for all students on their playground."
So, OK, it's still adults teaching kids the games that kids should be teaching adults how to play. But its very newsworthiness demonstrates how such a simple idea can speak to such a profound need. May they succeed beyond their wildest.
"Webbytalents is a new website sharing for films made by or for people with disabilities accross the world. It is also a new kind of platform at the crossroads between a social site and a site media designed to break down barriers for the world's disabled.
"On Webbytalents you’ll be able to share and discover videos from around the world. Nonprofits and organizations, Webbytalents helps you publicize activities and events. It is also a good way to learn about disability from different countries.
"Everyone can participate and become an agent of change for better integration of disability."
Do you have an overactive imagination? (We lost our years ago.) Are existing sports not doing it for you? Then dream up a sport of the future and send it our way! Be brief in your description (under 150 words, please). Include basic rules and why you chose the sport. If we like it, we might just give you a shout out. Oh, and please, no BASEketball!
The site features an inspirational collection of games to get you started. You'll probably notice that almost all of the images are of adults engaged in deep explorations of wackiness. See, for example, Crazy Croquet with its cinder block wickets, Richieball (see the official Richieball site for the full rules,) and the highly evolved, Box Ball-like game of Smack Ball.
The contest has already begun. The entry deadline is August 10.
"a beautifully simple game that can be played by everyone, in any garden where a ball will roll. Hand-made in England the game comes with an easy to wheel trolley and includes 4 hammers, 4 wooden balls, 6 hools [the three way hoops that you shoot through], 6 pins, 4 markers, full instructions, a set of Crolf Laws [only 9 in all], and, of course, a brolly to shade your summer drinks."
Why do I love thee, Crolf? Let me count the ways (I get three):
1. I love thine Hools - thine three-way croquettish golf hole/hoops that seem so much more approachable from so many more directions, and yet so easy to place or displace. 2. I love the Junkyard Sports-likeness of thine silliness - the silliness of the name, the joyous absurdity of trying to play something like lawn croquet in someplace very unlike a flat, well-manicured lawn. 3. I love how thou dost manifest the spirit of playfulness and taketh it beyond the confines of officialdom and tournamentality.
Not that this is the first time there has been something golf/croquet-like. Apparently, there was something Crolfish patented as early as 1925. And Dick Schafer reports on yet another version of Crolf - one that might be called "Snow Crolf" or perhaps "Snolf."
But what and where is Crolf? Well, there's a course in Custer, South Dakota, at the Americas Best Value Inn. A Miniature Crolf course, no less or more, for yet further Crolfish contemplation.
Following golf + archery, you may like to know of this ...
A rarely practiced discipline today, most archers take part in clout archery only for fun.
I kept a lookout for arrows when running round the golf course today - but it was just the usual hazards, golf balls, dogs and runners coming the other way not looking out for runners coming the other way.
I confess to being only an occasional reader of your emails as they are far too distracting!
Clout Archery - competing to shoot as high and as far as possible. Lovely fun. Watching your arrow climb and reach. Reaching with your spirit to guide its flight. Practicing. Dreaming. Competing. Hoping for the higher and further. Lovely fun - especially when you don't really take it seriously. When you and your community of clout archers simply share the delight of the flight.
Archery Golf is in all likelihood the one variation of golf in which players take the term "fore" very, very seriously.
Sorry. It was something I had to share. Here's a slightly more inspiring observation: This has to be one beautiful sport. When you think about golf, and that teeny, tiny ball, and how delightful (and challenging) it can be to watch the ball in flight, you can almost vividly imagine the attraction of watching an arrow as it arcs its way towards an impossibly distant target.
This is the second time I've written about this sport (here's the first). This time, I am pleased to bring you further evidence of the beauty of the sport, by way of a most inspiring site, from a most devoted archer/golfer, Eugenio Ciocca. Ciocca is one of the few people to have designed archery golf courses and probably the only person to develop an Archery Golf System for training, equipping and providing for all the glorious needs of the archery golf enthusiast.
Though combining two different sports to create something new is an almost fool-proof technique for creating what I call a "junkyard sport," it is rare when the technique works so beautifully, and the result is so spectacularly playworthy that it attracts the devotion of someone of Mr. Ciocca's ample talents. Whether you play golf, pursue archery, or just know about the sports, a visit to the Archery Golf System website fun and inspiring.
PoweriSers. On the one hand, if you look at their Policy statement, you can not help note how they note:
PoweriSers are safe to use, however we must state that www.powerizerz.com, its affiliates, owner / owners, supplier, or any other organization associated with it will not be held liable for any loss, injury, or death resulting from the use or misuse of PoweriSer / PoweriSers. You are advised to wear protective gear when you use your PoweriSers and you should also be in good health to use them. Use caution and rational judgement when operating the PoweriSers. PoweriSers are not suitable for small children nor are they recommended for children under age 10. Always supervise your children when they use their PoweriSer/PoweriSers. "
On the other, hand, you get a toy that gives you the possibility of whole new ways to play, new games, new sports, new track and field events; you get the opportunity to perform amazing displays of gravity-defying strength and grace, like this:
Digiwall "...looks like a traditional climbing-wall but it’s actually a computer game you climb upon. Every climbing-hold is equipped with a sensor that registers hands and feet. In that way DigiWall can keep track on where on the wall the climber or climbers are. This opens up for a large number of games, exercises and competitions of various kinds. DigiWall is also a musical instrument."
A computer game you can climb on. The integration of sports and technology, leading inexorably to new opportunities for bringing mind and body, self and other, into play.
Shootball "...is a new sport in ubiquitous computing. This game is playing with tangible ball that can control movies displayed in surrounding screens. This game is team sport played between two teams of 3 players each. The object of the game is to score by displaying movies of own team by throwing the ball at surrounding screens."
The confluence of sports and computing has evolutionary potential for both spheres of human activity, for engaging mind and body, for bridging social and geographical boundaries. It is something to watch. Something to encourage. Something to celebrate.
Rock-it-Ball is played with something like a soft tennis ball and plastic sticks with scoops on each end. It's a combination of something like wall ball and, well, dodge ball. Here's the brief:
"Rock-It-Ball is a very versatile sport which can be played in a number of different ways. Each different game can be adjusted to take into account the skill level of the players.
"Getting started is easy – place a tennis ball in either scoop. Throw the ball against a wall, allow it to bounce once and catch it in either scoop. Next, try catching the ball as it comes off the wall and before it bounces.
"Do it again, but now try using an over-arm shot, gently at first and then gradually increasing the power of your shots until you are confident with your throw and catch technique.
"Now you can start playing with a partner – using the Rock-It simply throw the ball to each other and catch it using the Rock-It. Then start adding points!! This is where it becomes really interesting. You score points by striking your opponent with the ball between shoulder and foot. You also score points by catching the ball in the catcher when your opponent fires the ball at you.
"Now team up and play in teams – you can play Combat-Rock-It, Combat-Rock-It-Xtreme, Team-Rock-It, Field Rock-It. Become a Rock-Iteer and download the game sheets free of charge.
"The more you play it the more you will be able to do – make up your own games and tell us about them. "
Fun. Running around, flinging foam balls at each other with your special, two-headed, Rock-It Racket. First dodgeballish sport I've heard of that lessens the pain while increasing the potential blood lust. "Make up your own games." Very fun.
It's called Leet. So, play the video already. See those funny sticks - hollow, with a kind of scoopy end. They're pretty much key to the game. The sticks, and an understanding of Ultimate Frisbee, or maybe Lacrosse and Jai Alai, even, a little.
First, let me tell you about my favorite version, Street Leet. I quote:
Setting Up
Mark the four corners of two rectangular end zones that are equal in size and the desired distance apart (this is up you and obviously depends on the number of players, but anywhere between 20 - 50yds (18 – 46m) is recommended). Mark outer boundaries, agree on the length of the match, and you are ready to go!
A Quick Guide
Usually the game is played four-a-side.
The object of the game is to score more goals that your opponents during the game.
A goal is scored when a player within their opponents’ end zone catches a ball thrown by a team mate.
During the game, once a player has possession of the ball they must come to an immediate stop.
A player in control of the ball may make movements to help them pass or shoot, but must otherwise remain on the spot.
No player may hold the ball for more than five seconds.
If the ball is loose on the ground, players may use their hands to return the ball to their stick.
Any fouls result in a free-throw to the non-offending team from where the foul took place.
As for tournament Leet:
"...Played with a stick and a ball, Leet™ can be played just about anywhere you like: on the beach, in a park, or on almost any traditional sports surface! At the professional level however, the sport is played in the unique, transparent Leet™ arena where two circular goals are raised 5.63yds (5.15m) above the arena floor....Leet™ is played four-a-side, with each team trying to surge past their opponents’ defenses in an effort to score more goals than their competitors."
I like this new sport of Leet. I like the energy, the effort, the belief that has forged this into what it is now. Even if it started out as an idea for a reality show called "The Winning Team." The reality looks better than the show.
As you know, my interest in Improv Everywhere has been high ever since I first heard about their playful public theatrics. Most recently, Improv Everywhere launched a new, shall we say, play, which very well might prove, as they themselves describe it, to be the Best Game Ever.
Start here, with a video of the event. Then read about it. Then ask yourself what it would be like if you had actually been there, been one of the parents, or better yet, one of the kids.
This Best Game Ever is right on the edge of art, theater, and social comment. It wouldn't succeed if not for the playfulness and sensitivity of the Improv Everywhere company - the people who conceived and staged the event. It could have proven insulting to both parents and players, it could have proven upsetting, been perceived as an act of ridicule. But apparently the event stopped short of being ridiculous, just at the point of being almost entirely believable. If not because of the believability of the actor-spectators, then because of the player's willingness to belive. If not by the actuality of the giant scoreboard, then most definitely by the blimp. Why don't we do this for all kids, everywhere - invest great effort and expense, yes, but, for the kids, and parents - to give them one random hour, of sheer, magical, transformational fun. Beyond game and sport. A theater of total participation.
Fantastic fun. The fun of fantasy fulfilled. Ah, delicious.
We begin our exploration of the practice of Aesthletics with an brief critique of one of their sport-arts, StraightJacket Baseball. In the words of Warren Fry, of the Brooklyn Rail "In this softball variant invented by Tom Russotti, founder of Aesthletics, the bases are actually members of the fielding team in arm restrictive garments. The player has a ten-yard circle within which to dodge opposing players trying to make it on base. Other than this, normal softball rules applied. It was decided, after a mid-game argument, that infielders couldn’t block runners as they tried to catch the base. Bases were allowed, however, to wear out opposing players by running in circles. Improvised strategies and sudden rule changes are part of the Aesthletic treatment of the sporting act—which stresses socio-creative dynamics over competitiveness and athletic virtuosity."
Though we may not have heard of Aaesthletics, StraitJacket Softball, and Bosch on Ice, we are more than passing familiar with that other example of Aesthletic socio-creativity, by that, I mean, of course, no less than the now classic sport of Whiffle Hurling.
And then there's Hoop Gardens, yet another manifestation of joyfully athletic irreverence from your local Aesthletician, something that appears to be a basketball game, played on the grass, with three basketball hoops, and, of course, two balls.
I would like, if I may, add my personal side note to all this:
Aesthletics is very much like a joke because the fun it is creating is funny. It is nonetheless to be taken quite seriously in deed, this intermingling of art and sport, this work of socio-creativity.
There was a minute or two in that increasingly amazing movie Mystic Ball (increasingly amazing just in the memory of what you've witnessed: the love, the play, the skill), when you get a glimpse of a few girls playing rope. Take a look. Click on the image if you want to see it bigger.
Looks like they're playing Double Dutch, right? Except, as Greg Hamilton, director of Mystic Ball notes: "The girl in the center (Su Su Hlaing's younger sister) is jumping 3 ropes - her rope she is turning and the two DD ropes. The girls are all kicking the ball lightly to keep it going up and down a few inches above the foot. There are six points of contact with the ball: top of the toes (the one they are using here), inside edge of foot, outside edge of foot, sole, heel, and knee. Chibya, or top of the toes - is the foundation of Chinlone playing and considered the most important technique. These girls are keeping the ball below knee height as they kick it to keep it up. It's very difficult to do in such a controlled and precise way. If they were just balancing the ball on their feet it would be much easier - they could actually take their eyes off their own ball to look at the girl in the center skipping. Whenever you are doing this type of chibya exercise, you have to watch every single kick - no looking away at all. Adjustments in aim and timing have to be made non-stop as long as the ball is up. As you can imagine, this kind of control takes years of practice for hours a day. They can also do some tricks in the center of the ropes - crossing their own rope, turning around, skipping backwards etc. This style of play is also something only women do, you may recall that Su Su says in the film that "men are not patient enough" to do the solo performance style."
OK. Now look at this picture from the same game? Things any clearer?
This is the kind of stuff that gives me chills, that makes me just about want to pray to the spirit of play, if you know what I mean, if there is such a thing. Double Dutch, from 4 corners, while balancing a ball on one foot. And, o, wait. Isn't the girl in the middle also jumping her own rope while she's jumping the two crossed ropes while keeping a ball balanced on her foot? How utterly accomplished is that? How fun, how lovely, how spiritual, how miraculous how the spirit of play has moved these girls to such profound and practiced depth!
Play. Do not doubt its powers. Even when no one wins, everyone wins.
Top Ten Tips for Run-of-the-Mill Players to Enjoy Outstanding Games - from Craig Conley, guest blogger
There's nothing so comfy as mediocrity. Indeed, our culture teaches us both explicitly and implicitly that "okay" is good enough. But when it comes to fun, the middle-of-the-road game players cheat themselves out of something precious. Lackluster players miss out on the special spark that characterizes outstanding game play. We're not talking about the thrill of victory versus the agony of defeat. An outstanding player will have more fun losing a game than an average player will have winning a game. The fact is that mediocre players cannot, by definition, get caught up in the lighthearted spirit of the game.
Following are ten techniques for transforming yourself into an outstanding player of your favorite game.
1. Seek your game's hidden source of entertainment, its heart of fascination. In Classical times, Greek and Roman games consisted mainly of running, wrestling, jumping, riding, and racing. On the surface, these games were nothing out of the ordinary, yet their players made them the world's most extraordinary entertainments, exciting the enthusiasm and awakening the spirits of the spectators.[1]
To find your game's heart of fascination, observe those moments when players become carried away, when they exclaim joyously, when they leap into the air or rise off their seats as if suddenly weightless. Notice those moments when teams cheer one another, when the thrill of the play dissolves rivalry. When you identify the dynamic at play—the true spirit of the game—you can foster it, prolong it, and take it to Olympic heights.
2. Improve your flexibility and agility (whether muscular or mental). To stretch your gray matter, a Web search for "lateral thinking exercise" will offer puzzles unsolvable by traditional step-by-step logic. To increase your physical flexibility, the "sun salutation" of Yoga is a 12-step series of poses that exercise every muscle and joint of the body. Do a Web search for "sun salutation" to find free pictorial guidance.
3. Use drills to work on weaknesses (whether muscular or mental). If another player is one step ahead of you mentally or one second faster than you physically, that's a winning edge. A single increment of improvement may be all you need for success. Set simple goals and work one step at a time.
4. Better your memory. A good memory is a boon to virtually any game. A Web search for "memory game" will yield hundreds of free online resources for exercising your powers of recollection.
5. Dispel falsehoods that hinder you. Are you convinced that golf isn't a woman's game, or that softball is a young person's game, or that pinball is about making lights blink with a rolling ball? Educate yourself about your game. Read books, explore websites, talk to other players. There's always more to learn.
6. Sharpen your concentration. This is the age of the eleven-second attention span. Being easily distracted is ruinous to game play. Sharpening your concentration takes conscious, prolonged, repeated effort. Keep a journal about your game. Thinking and writing about your game will help to increase your power of concentration.
7. Manage your stress. Stress management techniques will help you improve virtually any game. A Web search for "stress management" will yield hundreds of free online tips and techniques. One marvelous stress reducer is laughter. A Web search for "laughter therapy" will inform you about how laughter reduces stress hormones, boosts immunity, promotes a positive attitude, and engenders a feeling of power.
8. Practice solo. If your game involves two or more people, don't let that fact discourage you from practicing any aspects you can work on by yourself.
9. Embrace change. "Change is necessary to improve your game. You must not be afraid to risk giving up the known for the unknown if you wish to play better."[2]
10. The final tip is too specific to apply to just any game. You already know what it implies, or will soon discover it through your ongoing self-education. Perhaps this tip will require the help of a coach or the advice of a teaching pro. Perhaps it will involve visualization techniques, or the use of a video camera, or familiarization with quantum physics. This final tip may be the ultimate key to your fullest enjoyment of your game.
The Spirit of the Game - from guest blogger Craig Conley
The "Spirit of the Game"
by Craig Conley
Without the spirit of the game, what would the game be? —Nevin H. Gibson, The Encyclopedia of Golf
Arabian folklore tells of a wish-granting genie imprisoned in an oil lamp or bottle. Might players innocently conjure such a spirit in a game of spin-the-bottle? Indeed, every game has a motivating force at the heart of it -- its own sort of soul. Whatever we might call it -- essence, atmosphere, intention, or ethos -- it's that special spark that distinguishes the game from all others. Like a genie of folklore, the Spirit of the Game grants good sports a wish -- the ultimate wish. (We'll get to that in a moment.)
The Spirit of the Game is not necessarily spelled out in the rules. Indeed, "There are situations in which adherence to the so-called letter of the rules can be taken to violate the spirit of the game."[1]
The Spirit of the Game is a distillation of the intent of the rules. It has been called "a self-regulating set of norms without which some games would degenerate into anarchy."[2]
It is a frame of mind, not a commandment carved in stone. It's a point of view, a sense of humor, a strength of character. Novelist Richard Le Gallienne summed it up perfectly: "To be whimsical, therefore, in pursuit of a whim, fanciful in the chase of a fancy, is surely but to maintain the spirit of the game."[3]
Because it is typically undefined, the Spirit of the Game can be abused. Unsportsmanlike conduct (like taunting and intimidation) is one indication of abuse; bringing the game into disrepute is another.[4]
When honored across the board, the Spirit of the Game turns opponents into equals. Most importantly, it engenders fun. While camaraderie is jolly and competition is stimulating, "the real spirit of the game is all about having fun."[5]
Though each game has its own unique Spirit, there are some universal characteristics. The Spirit of the Game is:
Ultimately, the Spirit of the Game "is the only thing in the game which is lasting."[6]
Corporate trainer Julius E. Eitington makes an interesting observation: when players become caught up in the Spirit of the Game, they "become themselves."[7]
What is one's true self, but that of a player on the grand game board of life? Edward Clark Marsh once described being enlivened by the Spirit of the Game: "If it was not for a moment real life, it at least made you wish it were."[8]
Other signs that the Spirit of the Game is present include:
• both sides wish each other good luck • both sides cheer one another (winning or losing is secondary; the game itself is a victory for all [9]) • everyone plays fair (no cheating, no bending of the rules) • players celebrate the game's tradition, safeguard its precedent, and carry on its legacy • players supervise themselves.
Game scientist Andrew Thornton notes that "There is no agreed upon definition of the Spirit of the Game, but there is a pervasive sense that one should play by it. The Spirit of the Game is the Police" inside each player's head.[10]
But we've neglected the quintessential sign that the Spirit of the Game is present. And that's when the ultimate wish is granted: the firing shot that sets play into motion. When the game is afoot, all else is inconsequential!
Fun Facts about the Spirit of the Game:
• In Ultimate Frisbee, where there are no referees and no penalties, the Spirit of the Game is the underlying philosophy. "The Ultimate player will always praise and support successful actions on both teams. It is a normal thing to introduce yourself to the opponent at the beginning of every point and to wish him a good game. And after the game both teams stand in a circle talking about the game and singing a song for the opponent team. So it is a lot more than just a short handshake after a game."[11]
• The Spirit of the Game comes into play "before the game has even begun."[12]
• "Soccer is unique among sports in that the official's job is first and foremost to maintain the spirit of the game as well as the safety of all concerned; this concern outweighs all other laws of the game."[13]
• The Spirit of the Game of soccer has been traced back to the early to mid nineteenth century, when the game developed from its folk roots into its modern form.[14]
• The Spirit of the Game of curling "demands good sportsmanship, kindly feeling, and honourable conduct."[15]
• The Fighting Spirit of the Game of American football is persistently aggressive in nature: "Throughout the history of football, the violent spirit of the game has endured, even as other elements of the game have changed."[16]
• The Spirit of the Game of lacrosse "is a feeling of honor and dignity."[17]
• The Spirit of the Game reminds players that not everything is a matter of life and death, that consequences are temporary, and that results are not critical.[6]
• The Spirit of the Game teaches players to "accept success with grace and failure with restraint."[18]
• The Spirit of the Game of golf is characterized by disciplined conduct, courtesy, and sportsmanship at all times.[19]
[1] Allan C. Hutchinson, It's All in the Game, 2000, p. 195. [2] Lincoln Allison, Amateurism in Sport, 2001, p. 161. [3] The Quest of the Golden Girl, 1897, p. 35. [4] William John Morgan, Ethics in Sport, 2007, p. 126. [5] Richard Carlson, The Don't Sweat Guide to Golf, 2002, p. 205. [6] Division for Girls' and Women's Sports, Sports Programs for College Women, June 21-27, 1969, p. 23. [7] The Winning Trainer, 2001, p. 142. [8] "Anthony Hope's 'Sophy of Kravonia,'" The Bookman, 1907, p. 381. [9] Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring, 2000, p. 124. [10] Belinda Wheaton, ed., Understanding Lifestyle Sport, 2004, p. 187. [11] Jorg Bahl, Ultimate Frisbee, 2007, p. 4. [12] John Byl, Co-Ed Recreational Games, 2002, p. 205. [13] Andy Caruso, Soccer Coaching, 1996, p. 29. [14] Sharon Colwell, "The 'Letter' and the 'Spirit': Football Laws and Refereeing in the Twenty-First Century," The Future of Football, 2000, p. 201. [15] Gary Belsky & Neil Fine, 23 Ways to Get to First Base, 2007, p. 209. [16] William D. Dean, The American Spiritual Culture, 2002, p. 148. [17] Steve Bristol, quoted in Our Game: The Character and Culture of Lacrosse by John M. Yeager, 2005, p. 79. [18] Hubert Vogelsinger, The Challenge of Soccer, 1973, p. 274. [19] United States Golf Association, Golf Rules Illustrated, 2004, p. 4.
About the author:
Craig Conley is an independent scholar and author of One-Letter Words: A Dictionary (HarperCollins) and Magic Words: A Dictionary (Red Wheel). His website is http://www.oneletterwords.com/ His Zen version of Rock-Paper-Scissors can be found at http://www.moonfishocean.com/
When I first wrote about the Myanmar game of Chinlone, I really only had minor intimations of how important that game was to become to me. It wasn't until I watched Greg Hamilton's movie, Mystic Ball, that I understood not only his profound passion for Chinlone, but my passion for The Well-Played Game.
When I wrote The Well-Played Game, I described a pivotal experience I had, during a game of Ping Pong. Later, I found a wonderful story by Bill Russell, in which he describes an experience of genuine transcendence, similar to mine, but in the highly competitive game of professional basketball. But in all these years of teaching, Mystic Ball, the movie, was the first time I've found the Well-Played game expressed so purely, understood so deeply, documented so thoroughly - in a game totally devoted to sharing that particular experience.
The film opens with the following Myanmar proverb: "The spirit of give and take that breeds happiness is the foundation on which the game of Chinlone rests." We are then transported into an astonishingly ornate building, festooned with bare electric bulbs and intricate carvings covered in gold paint. On the inside, we see a kind of theater-in-the-round. On stage, 6 people playing with a rattan ball. Hamilton comments: "Getting to play with this team that I just played with is like playing with Michael Jordan and Baryshnikov and Fred Astaire and Bruce Lee and Muhammed Ali and all the most beautiful movement people and sports people I could ever imagine...It's surely the most fun, beautiful, mystical feeling...This is like my religion and my love and my heart. Chinlone is just all about love and happiness."
The film progresses from scene to scene of beauty, passion, grace and skill. We observe the art of making a Chinlone ball. We see the game played everywhere throughout Myanmar, by men and women, children and elders, on the street, in practice courts, in dedicated arenas. We follow the highest practitioners of the art. Director and author Greg Hamilton explains what he has discovered in the game of Chinlone with a clarity and intensity that characterizes every scene of this remarkable film.
"The most amazing thing about Chinlone, Hamilton comments, "is that it's not competitive. There's no opposing team, no scoring, and no winners or losers. The team tries to keep the ball up as long as possible. But that's not enough. The real goal is to do the most difficult and beautiful moves they can."
"Watching them play was a revelation. What really stuck out was just how playful they were. They weren't arguing or fighting, like always happens in competitive sports. These guys were just having...a good time. It really made me think about how most sports are not playful."
His background is in martial arts. He says: "I used to think of myself as a warrior. But deep down, I never really liked hurting people." In Chinlone, however, he discovered that he could "do something as if my life depended on it, but without having to defeat anyone."
Near the end of the film, he takes us to his favorite Chinlone practice court. He comments: "There's so much beauty inside this circle - the flow of the ball between us, and the 'tic toc' sound the ball makes as we support each other."
I was fortunate enough to get to talk to Greg about this beautiful film, and to get a personal experience of his deep passion for the game. Basically, I just wanted to convey my excitement and gratitude for what he has brought to us - and to me, especially, in his being able to capture and convey what I have devoted my life to teaching. Greg commented: "I didn't really want to be in the film in the first place." He just wanted to show us the game itself. But he was as much a part of the story as the game was, and he couldn't avoid it. What he wanted most to share with us was that: "Something as serious as Chinlone could be so playful." What he most wanted us to perceive was that "above all, Chinlone is a way of loving."
Later, I sent Greg a draft of this post, asking for further comment. Here's part of his reply:
The interaction between the ball and the players and the players with each other is sensuous, I can't think of a better way to put it. In my opinion, and I've asked some of men players about this and they agree - Chinlone it is strangely similar to making love. Because of a certain modesty with the the women in Myanmar, I've not been able to ask women players some of these kind of questions. It's like the essence of what making love is - not the rubbing together of body parts, but the intense, immediate connection and playing together of spirits. It really is play isn't it? This is one of the unique and breathtaking things I've found in Chinlone. And you can do it for hours at time with 1,2,3,4,5, or even more other people! When I see dogs playing and frolicking together - it's making love through play, and that is the feeling I've always wanted my life to be full of. There is always love and the sensual inside real play.
So many things that I didn't say or bring up in the film, for various reasons. One being that I didn't want to come across preachy, and of course there is only so much you can fit into 83 minutes. There are lots and lots of other things to share about Chinlone.
I think Chinlone is a feminine sport. One is nurtured and embraced in this game. It's not about power or dominance. There is a gentleness, an inclusiveness and a loving feeling that is always there – even between the audience and the players. Men and women play together, old folks and young ones play together. At the first Chinlone festival I saw, there was a team that had a 72 year old (in fact it was Wei Za Than, the one with the beautiful wife!) and a 9 year old on the same team - I was blown away!
All of the play in Chinlone is an end in itself. There are no arbitrary rules, just a certain etiquette and a lot of intuition inside the circle. I love that. There is a struggle with gravity, that as skill develops, becomes an elemental dance of pure flow.
So many things that I love about Chinlone - it is so hard that everyone, even the greatest players end up looking foolish fairly often - nothing to do but laugh about it, and 5 or 10 minutes into a game everyone is laughing for sure. You didn't see a lot of this in the film because I focused on the festival plays and because there is an audience, the players are a little more serious than usual. It's a very, very funny game.
Here we are on this giant spinning ball - in orbit. I feel a connection between the way Chinlone is played and the orbiting of planets. I'm still working on this one and trying to find clear ways of talking about it.
The ever-resourceful Neatorama points us to this article describing "10 Strange Football Mods." So I clicked. And I read. OK, so it's not about what I, American that I am, think of as football. It's about what the world thinks of as soccer. But that's neither here nor there. Or both. And, speaking of soccer, it does in fact point us to 10 different, highly soccer-like, but arguably non-soccer games, which is something in which I, as your local Junkmaster, seeker of the sport-variant, have significant and public interest.
What I wasn't prepared for, however, was the very first soccer-like game I read about - a game called "Chinlone" or "Mystic Ball" - a soccer variant that is so beautiful and so beyond soccer that it is the subject of a most lovely-looking movie.
"Chinlone," the movie site explains, "is a combination of sport and dance, a team sport with no opposing team. In essence chinlone is non-competitive, yet it’s as demanding as the most competitive ball games. The focus is not on winning or losing, but how beautifully one plays the game. A team of six players pass the ball back and forth with their feet and knees as they walk around a circle. One player goes into the center to solo, creating a dance of various moves strung together. The soloist is supported by the other players who try to pass the ball back with one kick. When the ball drops to the ground it’s dead, and the play starts again."
"...a team sport with no opposing team." "...the focus is not on winning or losing, but how beautifully one playes the game"! How inspiring, how Well-Played Game-like is that?!
There are nine other soccerish games described, including the afore-described Bossaball, the yet-to-be-sufficiently-delved-into Jorkyball and several many clearly playworthy, probably innovative soccer-like sports. But this chinlone game touched my veritable spirit, engaged my actual faith in what play can lead us into.
A Competitor's Perspective on New Games and Ultimate Frisbee
Joey Grey, my Ultimate Frisbee friend of many years now, sent me this link to an article titled: "The Origins of Ultimate Frisbee's 'Spirit' - Is THIS What You Signed Up For?"
I've not encountered such a deeply researched and passionately negative perspective on New Games and Ultimate Frisbee before. The main argument: that the "Spirit of the Game has nothing to do with good sportsmanship and everything to do with survival of the weakest" is, on the one hand, oddly distorted, and on the other, remarkably perceptive.
Ultimately, if you excuse the expression, this article is a real contribution to the evolution of everything that we tried to do with New Games. He has included some valuable links to scholarly and historic documents about the New Games "movement," and provides us with some major insights about why our ideas are still as revolutionary today as they were 40 years ago.
Perhaps, before you read his article, it might help to understand who the author is, and why:
"Frank Huguenard began playing Frisbee in the late 1960’s and being from a large chaotic family in Indiana, grew up fiercely competitive. By the late seventies, Frank had become fairly proficient with a disc and being athletically inclined, when he heard that there was a Frisbee-centric team sport on the Purdue campus, he immediately took to it and became involved with the sport called Ultimate. Being a square peg stuffed into a round hole (a competitive jock amongst a culture designed specifically to accommodate neither), Frank has spent decades ostensibly miserable in a environment (ironically created to emphasize fun and inclusion) that he consistently experienced as hostile and unaccepting towards him, his out of the box thinking and his unconventional throws & moves."
He correctly concludes: "you can't have a competitive sport based on the kind of ideology that creates a level playing field for the weakest player to have a fair shot at winning." Creating a level playing field for the weakest player to have a fair shot at winning - that's exactly what we did with our New Games, over and over again. We did it by not taking competition seriously. By demonstrating alternatives, by creating opportunities for people to experience "loving competition." Were we, as the author charges, "excluding ultra-competitive personalities from competition?" Why should we? Our culture has produced endless opportunities for ultra-competitive personalities to compete, like, for example, war. What we were creating were alternatives to "win at all costs" competition at a time when there were very, very few, not even skateboarding or bungee jumping.
The author has gone on to create what he considers to be a solution - a truly competitive version of Ultimate Frisbee that he calls Disc Hoops. It's not the kind of game I'd be able to play, or even want to. Me, I'm still creating alternatives of the "anybody can win" type. Not to compete with him, heaven forfend, but because, as he so clearly points out, the need for more and newer games doesn't seem to have diminished at all, at all.
"You need a table, lubricated with washing-up liquid and water, and a disc."
And thus we learn about yet another Junkyard Sport-like event: Tabletop Frisbee-spinning. True in all its dimensions to the nature of sportish events, it involves timing and grace, agility and focus, and has the potential to astound.
Note how the designer keeps to the "assemblage" spirit of Junkyard Golf - not really securing anything to anything or ataching anything - just putting things together.
Not also the devotion, dedication, degree to which this whole silly thing is taken seriously.
In case you missed it, Bill Donahue, in his February 1999 column in MetropolisMag, first reported on the sport of Skunneling - a brand of extreme sport then very much in vogue in Ventura (California). I was as impressed by the sport as by Donahue's reporting. He wrote:
(Greg) Small reaches a weedy culvert and hops in. Then, as a large dog hails him, barking and bashing against a high cyclone fence, he sinks into the ground. He disappears within a tubular storm drain, lies down feet-first on a makeshift long skateboard, and starts to roll. The sound of his wheels roars in the pipe, and ahead of him, way beyond the puny range of his headlamp, there is human noise--the haunting, echoey laughter and shouts of a friend careening along at 20 miles per hour.
Ah, skunneling! The very word--a mutation of "skateboarding in tunnels" and a phonic cousin of the slur "scum"-- captures the ancient punk heritage of America's newest way to shatter your collarbone. Skunneling, which has been flourishing in Ventura for the past couple years, is one more pastime invented by scrappy malcontents determined to milk joy out of concrete.
Lovely.
In case you didn't quite understand how anyone can skateboard in a storm drain, this source elucidates:
"It's a form of either laying with your back on the skateboard and pushing with your feet or by lying down on the board and using your hands to pull yourself through the drains."
Clive Thompson of Wired writes about an MFA grad student at Rutgers, Tom Russotti, who invented a game he eventually called "Whiffle Hurling" - apparently a version of the Irish game of hurling played with whiffle bats and ball.
In addition to the apparent playworthiness of this game, what struck me was Thompson's perspective on the whole thing, as a games columnist for Wired. He writes:
"After all, we live in a golden age of play. The video-game industry is bristling with innovation: You've got haptic controllers on the Wii, titles like Eye of Judgment merging card-games with computers, and the increasingly strange economic activity in online worlds. Our culture is clearly hungry for new forms of play.
"Yet how many new major physical sports have you played in recent years? Zero, I'll bet. The pantheon of major team-sports -- football, basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey -- hasn't significantly altered in decades.
"So Russotti decided to expand the field a bit. By creating a new sport, he decided, he could level the playing field between athletes. When you join a pickup game of basketball or football, it's always slightly marred by the fact that some of the players will be totally experienced -- making it slightly more dull for the less-expert folks. A new sport wouldn't have that problem."
We, of course, are aware that people are continually inventing new sports as reported so faithfully in the Junkyard Sports News. But Tompson, typical of so many of those who have come to define games as things that happen on a computer, saw Russotti's accomplishment as groundbreaking. Well, for Thompson, and Russotti, it is true enough, groundbreaking enough. And perhaps the same will be true for those computer game players who read this article. I hope so. I hope they pay special attention to Russotti's comment:
"Essentially, were figuring out how to play. And this is, counter intuitively, a big part of what makes a new game so great: You get to explore the intriguing and unpredictable ways that the rules interact."
Yup. That's what it's all about, the fun of new game and sports and Web 2.0 even. Not just the newness, but more the getting to invent them together.
If you've already read about the game of Washers, and you happened to come across the story about Laundry Balls, you should most definitely be reading the very article you are reading now, because this is yet another throwing, backyard-type game you can make out of junk, or buy commercially, and propogate great fun.
Or, you might consider the immediate satisfaction gained from purchasing this ready-made version, called Top Toss, which has the added benefit of a less-than-traditional trapezoidal design for that "I really deserved that score" feeling.
Or, perhaps you might consider reading the Wikipedia article to find out all about the rules and origins and stuff.
You might even consider something like the "Spin-It " version of the game, which, as you can so clearly see from the thoughtfully attached illustration, has 4 different goals (each a different color), on a wheel-like apparatus which turns as soon as a bolo attaches itself, thus, giving rise to a different goal of a different color and scoring value, or not, depending on how many bolos therefrom append.
There's a Swedish game called Kubb , which is quite similar to the Karelian game of Kyykka and clearly connected to the Russo-Canadian game of Bunnock, which was originally played with the ankle bones of horses. There's also the Finnish game of Molkky, which is a relatively close relative, but different. Which brings us to Woodchuck - a faithful reproduction of the Swedish original, but played with 4 Woodchucks instead of 5, and 5 throwing batons instead of 6.
Since Woodchuck is moderately priced and readily available here in the US through Simply Fun, let's talk Woodchuck.
Woodchucks are made of wood, which, from the Kubb-perspective, is quite traditional. You can play on a lawn, or in the sand, or any nice flat area, 12-feet wide and 25-feet deep. Four Woodchucks are placed at one end of the playing field, spaced evenly apart, in a line. The other 4 are placed at the other end. The King Woodchuck is placed exactly in the middle of the field.
There are two teams, which, for the sake of clarity (which, even though the game is quite simple, will soon prove most valuable), let's call one team the Beavers and the other the Otters.
Teams don't have to have the same number of players. You could have 6 Beavers and only 4 Otters. Or even just 1 Otter if things turn out that way.
Let's say the Beavers go first. They throw their Throwing Batons, one at a time, underhanded, end-over-end, at the Otters' Woodchucks. It's like throwing horseshoes, the idea being to knock over all of the Otter's Woodchucks while being extremely careful not to knock over the King Woodchuck. And let's further say that the Beavers managed to hit 3 of the Otter's 4 Woodchucks.
Now it's the Otters' turn. Remember, they only have one standing Woodchuck. Oddly enough, before they can throw any of their Throwing Batons at the Beavers' Woodchucks, they first have to throw each of their fallen Woodchucks into the Beaver's half of the playing field. Then they stand each of those Field Woodchucks on their ends. Then they use their Throwing Batons to try to knock over their Field Woodchucks. And then, and only then, can they aim for the Beavers' Woodchucks. Know what I mean?
What makes this all so difficult to understand is that the game breaks a central convention of most sports. The Woodchucks are more obstacles than targets, and the obstacles get moved around as the game progresses. There is only one actual target - the King Woodchuck.
Anyhow, once a team has managed to knock over all the Woodchucks on the other team's side, then they can go for the King.
Clearly, from a Junkyard Sports perspective, this game can be played with almost anything that you can stand up and knock over. And you can use tennis balls or tuna cans as easily as you can use Throwing Batons. In fact, the article on Kyykka points out that students frequently make their own sets using:
80 empty 500ml beer cans (330ml soft drink cans work as well)
Sand
Duct tape
Plastic/aluminium piping
And one more thing that makes it especially worthy of our collective consideration, found in the Wikipedia article, is the observation that "sportsmanship and a sense of fair play...is a trademark of this unique game."
Searching, as I am oft wont to do, for evidence of newly, or relatively newly invented sports, I found my cursor resting contemplatively on the word "Trugo."
According to this vividly explanatory video, the idea is to use a large mallet to whack a wheel-shaped something (which makes one think that a perhaps more descriptive name might be "whack-a-wheel") a great distance (90 feet) so that it rolls across a quite narrowly defined goal.
Invented, so the story goes, by railway workers in the 1920s, the mallet-bearing player stands with his or her back to the goal, and whacks the wheel between his or her legs. A goal keeper stands behind the goal with a net, to scoop up the wheel. As a mature-bodied person myself, I can only admire the wisdom of incorporating a long-handled, backbend-preventing wheel-scooper into the official equipment of the game.
According to the video, the name of the game, Trugo, came from the expression a goalkeeper might use when a shot is successful: "true go." Get it? Trugo. True go. Unless you're playing the women's game, which is called Gotru. Go figure.
The game, invented by railway workers in Newport, Australia, was played with railway-working mallets and a "carraige buffer." The 90 feet was the length of a railway carriage. A most junkyard-like invention, embracing in spirit and practice the found-object tradition of all Junkyard Sports.
Trugo, which is rapidly becoming an historical artifact, remains basically unchanged from the original invention. We, on the other hand, who have no such need for remaining loyal to tradition, find in Trugo the inspiration for the invention of a veritable myriad of new wheel-and-mallet sports. Or perhaps toiletpaper-roll-and-foot sports.
Montague Blister, in his playful weblog "Strange Games," recently wrote about "Main Gasing," the game/sport/ritual of top-spinning as practiced in Malaysia. In his article, he writes that "Teams, consisting of up to 40 people (throwers, makers, catchers), set their tops spinning at the same time and it is the longest spin that wins. A good length spin is a staggering one and a half hours. An excellent spin lasts an almost unbelievable 2 hours long."
Two hours long!? A single spin of a single top?! This immediately set me Googling. It seemed to me that any body of people, watching a top spin for two hours, has got to achieve a state of significantly deep fun.
I eventually clicked my way to this video showing a top of proportions significant enough to redefine my entire understanding of tops and the spinning thereof.
I also found an excellent article, of almost anthropological clarity, in which Eric Hansen describes a Main Gasing event. The article, called "White Bean vs Tiger Cub," notes the rituals, the socializing, the trade, and the celebration of community surrounding the event. I was especially moved by the Hansen's description of the players themselves. "The art of top-spinning," he explains, (is) "part dance, part discus throw, requires physical strength as well as finesse. With a reasonable amount of practice, most people can get one of these tops to spin, but real skill comes only after years of experience. Thus, though competitors vary in age, a tukang gasing, or 'master of the top,' is usually middle-aged, and when one of them prepares to throw, people fall silent to watch the performance."
To read about a thing we know as a toy, elevated to a work of art and display of mastery, is to find oneself on the border of understanding the mystery of deep fun.
According to the website, Cooperative Sports are: "New ways of 'playing' our favorite ball games with a gentle twist, resulting in lots of healthy action and exercise, and a big dose of fun and friendship (like how sand lot games and practice used to/can be). Competition is eliminated (we really don’t have to compete in order to excel or to have fun), and the games have been modified, emphasizing: participation, success, action, safety, fun, re-creation, friendship, challenge, diversity, player driven, in the moment, no competition." What the author calls "The 12 Key Elements of 'True Play.'"
Many examples are given, including cooperative versions of softball, kickball, soccer, hockey, basketball, volleyball, tennis, etc. Whether you agree with the premise or not, you have to be touched by the promise - alternative versions of competitive sports that emphasize fun and friendship. The author, Dick Bozung, is passionate and creative enough to make you want to at least try to play a different way, and that's an achievement worthy of or collective notice, and applause.
eXtreme Croquet is still croquet, except it's played in very uncroquet-like environments, with special mallets (strong enough to reach the eXtremities of the course), special wickets (large, strong, and the center wickets have both a high and low tier), and recommended balls (wood except in the winter, where plastic is preferred). Suggested eXtreme environments include: fields, parks, woods, and, eXtremest of all, drainage basins.
"The first true example of eXtreme croquet appeared in the 1920's, when Herbert Swope, publisher of the New York World, built a new course on his Sands Point, Long Island estate. The course was so large that players had to shout to one another. It had sand traps, bunkers, rough, and Long Island Sound waiting in the distance.
"In the United States, eXtreme croquet took a step forward in the late 1970's with the development of "Guerilla Croquet", invented by collegiate champion Hans Peterson and his partners at Croquet Magazine, Bob Alman and Michael Orgill. Another entry into the eXtreme category came from Nevada's Black Rock Desert, where trucks with oversize tires smash six-foot balls through giant hoops.
Finger Jousting"...is a sport where two consenting players square off in an attempt to prod their opponent with their lancing (right) index finger before the opposing player can. The competitors must keep their right hands locked in an arm wrestling fashion and not use their legs or latent (left) arm in an offensive manner. The competitors are known as jousters, and the act of touching the other person’s body with the index finger is known as lancing. A player can lance anywhere except the lancing (right) arm."
Finger Jousting? Could it be just a jest, this jousting-with-the-finger concept? A jest? Surely, you joke. How could anything as challenging and artful and demanding of physical prowess and as contest-worthy to lead to the establishment of the World Finger Jousting Federation be taken as anything but or else? Verily, one could, having perused and pondered the patently Pseudo History of Finger Jousting, conclude that it is little more than a laughable lark, a prank, a juvenile josh. And yet, at heart, there is a clear smackage of something fun and physically sportlike and worthy of patently public approbation.
They call it "Feather Bowling." And, contrary to the conclusion to which you've probably already leaped, there is no bowling of feathers. Rather, there's bowling of something looking remarkably like wooden cheese rounds. Considering that the game comes to us from Belgium, the cheese-round-likeness of the balls is all but self-explanatory.
The feather? That's the thing stuck into the ground near the end of the alley. The goal? To roll your wooden cheese round so that it stops as close as possible to the feather, in a bocce- or horseshoe-like manner.
The alley. Ah, the alley. Not flat, as you might assume from previous bowling experiences. But concave. Curved, don't you know, so that it becomes quite possible to roll your wooden cheese rounds up and down and around in a most remarkably strategic manner.
FreezeTagBasketball (invented by Phil Anker & David Fisher)
"You see, FreezeTagBasketball (invented by Phil Anker & Dave Fisher) combines basketball and freeze tag. Each team has an 'IT.' The IT can tag people on the opposing team to freeze them, or tag people on ITs own team to unfreeze them. Everybody becomes unfrozen when a point is made. The ITs can make points and everything else everyone else does. The rest of the game is played just like basketball."
"But," you ask, "won't people just stay away from the ITs? Why not give the ITs the ball and let them make points?"
"Certainly," the designers respond, "ITs have an offensive advantage, but don't let that fool you. ITs can freeze each other, and once frozen cannot unfreeze themselves. So if an IT is given the ball, other players might stay away, but the opposing IT would go for the freeze. If your team's IT is frozen, you can see how you would have an obvious disadvantage. The opposing IT could freeze your entire team, and unfreeze all of the opposing players. Bad news for you."
FreezeTagBasketball is what I, Bernie DeKoven, author of Junkyard Sports (as soon to be seen in Family Fun Magazine), registrar of the registered trademark Junkyard Sports®, host of Junkyard Sports, the Blog, call a Junkyard Sport - even though it doesn't (but certainly could) involve the using of junk. What it does involve is the putting together of a sport and a game in such an ingenious way as to create a new sport. A new, fun sport. A new, fun sport good enough to be played very, very hard; and new enough to be really fun, and stay really fun, for anyone who really wants to play.
My Junkmasterly blessings on you, Phil Anker and David Fisher. Play on!
QuadBall is a sport based on the theories of a brilliant and devoted physical educator named Muska Mosston. Dr. Mosston is the author of the Slanty Line theory that I describe with such enthusiasm in my article on Fun and Flow.
I quote from the site:
"Observing a boy shooting hoops, Muska noticed the consistency where the ball hit the front of the goal rim. He walked over to the goal and pulled on it until it slanted down about 20°. The boy’s next three shots went right through the goal. Muska realized that slanting the goal 20° significantly increased a shorter student’s chances of making the goal.
"QuadBall is based on that 'Slanted Rim' theory developed by the late Dr. Muska Mosston. It's designed to create an environment prone to 'inclusion,' where every child has an opportunity for skill development through experimentation."
Years ago, when I was writing for Games magazine, I proposed that we do an article on what I called "Two Balls Tied Together." We actually got as far as doing a photo session for the article, but, ultimately, it got killed. I suppose because of the semi-salacious significance of what I was calling the game. And perhaps also because the game didn't seem to be "real." Nobody we knew of was actually playing it. Even though it was clearly fun. And most definitely playworthy. There weren't any Two-Balls-Tied-Together Leagues or clubs, even.
Recently, maybe 20 years later, I heard from a company called Yazoo. These Yazoos were in fact marketing their own patented version of something remarkably similar to TBTT (Two Balls...etc.). Coming to me as it did in this enlightened age of the Internet, I gleefully Googled for evidence of this game elsewhere. And behold, it was, in truth, a game called Double Ball, played by our Native American brothers o so many years ago, as further explicated here.
There's something to be learned here about the nature of new sports, and timing, and naming, and patents and stuff.
Croqkick is one of my favorite games in this extensive collection of "Giant Games" from Lettuce Make Thyme. One of. There's also Giant Ludo to consider as well as, of course, a similarly giant game of Snakes and Ladders. The thing is, when games get giant, the fun gets bigger. Why? Because: 1) more of you is involved (body, mind, relationships), 2) you can't take the game seriously. Which means that despite your most competitive urges, the focus remains firmly on the sheer, unmitigated silliness of it all, and 3) you don't have to learn anything in order to play - because you already know the game writ small.
Croqkick is an obvious, and elegant example of all of the above. So, there are no mallets. So, as your P.E. teacher might say, the game helps develop soccer skills. And if you're in the UK or within cheap shipping distance, you can buy the game here, as well - "6 x giant metal hoops, 4 colored footballs, and a wooden winning post. All packed in a canvas carry bag."
This whole giant backyard game thing seems to be a European phenomenon. Lettuce Make Thyme is in Canada. One step closer for Amerikind.
Last week, I wrote about the Camp wiki, extolling its promise as a much-needed, collaboratively developed repository of camp-worthy games and activities. The theory behind all this wikification is that, given a community of like-minded fun-seekers (or fun-minded like-seekers), it should be possible to develop an extensive, ever-growing repository of gamish knowledge, that only becomes more valuable as more people contribute.
This week, it is with at least equally profound pleasure that I inform you that Streetplay, one of the few sites devoted to the inner-city street games of the 40s, 50s and 60s, has launched its very own Streetplay Wiki, a.k.a. SPwiki. Now, you, too can exhume and immortalize your rapidly fading memories of those ad hoc, informal, unofficial, homemade neighborhood games that you played on the streets and sidewalks and front steps and back yards of your childhood.
Today's sending, apparently from the Oaqui (him, her or them)selves(f) - ostensibly about a game of Oaqui Pong, which, according to the Oaqui, is the progenitor of all games pongish, contains a curious comment. And I quote:
"Then, when we arrive at the idea of the Serve, well, Table Tennis, bound as it to its OneBalledness, begins as a game in which one player has to Serve to the other, trying, can you imagine, not only to get the ball over the net and hit the other side of the table, but to make the other player MISS! It's beyond odd, when you think about it, that a game would arise in which one player, in the name of SERVING, would try to make the other player lose! These are the consequences of UniBallistic thinking: SERVING each other by trying to make each other LOSE!
Which, of course, leads inevitably to the way they keep score. Here, Table Tennis, merely because of its MonoSpherical premise, makes the oddest of all leaps. Where as you, being sensitized to the Oaay of the Oaqui, would think BOTH players would LOSE a point every time the ball goes out of play, well, need I/we say more?"
I need, apparently, to say it again in today's FunCast, fortuitously titled: "Oaqui Pong."
Asphip includes both the Asphip Looper and the Wandering Disks. Both are attempts to introduce objects with different physical properties into traditional ball sports.
Asphip Looper is something like giant tops - you know, those tops that you whip to keep spinning like the kind of tops you'd find a century or millennium ago, only they're special tops, that spin on their bottoms or, actually, tops. And instead of whips you use specially padded bats, and you play on something like a very large, one-sided shuffleboard. Just watch this video and will be both clear and vivid.
The Looper, of course, travels best on the specially smoothed surfaces of an Asphip Court. And, once you have an Asphip Court, you might as well also have a set of Wandering Disks and play a combination of shuffleboard and tic tac toe with pucks on wheels. Pucks on wheels!
It makes you think. What other wonderfully mechanical things do we have that we could have fun with, get involved with, get completely, physically engaged with, make sports out of? New kinds of balls and pucks with new properties that invite play. Not that easy. Not that small of an accomplishment, this Asphip thing. Something actually new. Something to get interested in, very, very interested in.
Apparently, Ringo is like volleyball, played with a ring. The inventor, Wlodzimier Stryzewski, was, at the time, captain of "the Polish épée fencing team for the Academic World Championships 1959 in Turin." He explains: "in my childhood I and a small friend played catch with a tyre which had come off a pram, which we would throw over the tops of horse-drawn carriages driven a long the main road of Sochaczew, my home town. Oh yes! The field can symbolize my body. The tyre – is my sword. There shall be no time limit between the catching and the throwing, so I never know when my opponent will begin his attack and in which direction, as in any fighting game."
I read on: "First, you have to throw the ring from the spot where you caught it, second – when throwing at least one foot must touch the ground. You may only leap when catching, never when throwing. Otherwise the defending party would have no chance at all and the entire game would be senseless. But why? – He demanded. Because it’s my game and my rules – I said."
Stryzewski has made it his game ever since, and has brought to it a vision and passion that borders on pure zeal.
"Ringo is a very simple game," he writes, "even though challenging, a fighting sport combining maximum effort of the soul and body with all the natural human movement: run, turnover, jump, catch, throw, bend. To be a Ringo champion you need forecast ability of the chess player, tactic and reflection of a fencer, with power of a boxer, flexibility of a ballet dancer, jumping ability of a volleyball player, speed of a sprinter, and precision of an archer, intellectual link with partners like a bridge player, space imagination as a pilot and endurance of a marathon runner. With a focus to make Ringo an Olympic sport America Ringo Association will be bringing closer the dream of the families around the world to participate in the Olympic games participating in the family category where parents with their children will play other families of the world in the spirit of friendship and peace."
Hanet Ball? According to this press clip, Hanet Ball, invented by Fritz J. Valdeus, is played:
"...with two circular goals called 'pengoals' on opposite ends of a court, teams compete with seven players on each side, including a goalkeeper who stands inside the goal, which looks like a playpen. The remaining players use a pint-sized ball that must be bounce-passed to a teammate and players shoot at the opponent's pengoal from outside a circle surrounding the pengoal area.
"Anybody that can bounce-pass a ball and catch it can play Hanet Ball," Valdeus, 30, said. "That's how basic it is. But there's a lot more things involved than just a bounce pass. There's more than 40 different ways to pass the ball, but they all require a bounce."
The movement looks similar to movements in basketball. Players are allowed to hold the ball for five seconds or four steps. Fouls can result in two free shots at the pengoal, similar to a penalty kick in soccer or free throw in basketball. Games are divided into four 13-minute quarters.
This was about the clearest description of the sport itself that I could find. And yes, it seems to be very, very much in the same spirit as that of the just-previously-blogged sport of Socci.
But before we rush to judgment about which is what, I'd like to direct your attention to the passion that fuels the invention of a new sport, as revealed on a sidebar in the front page of the Hanet Ball Website:
Welcome to HANET BALL - The sport that brighten even light into your path. I, Fritz J. Valdeus personally welcome you on HANET BALL online, the sport that every one in Palm Beach & Broward County are talking about. The sport that excites and alternates the ways you exercise.
"The sport that brighten even light into your path." Whatever that means, it reveals a lot more than a it reveals something of the passion, the reach of the vision, the genuine nobility of the spirit that envisioned it into being. It's far more than someone trying to sell new sports equipment. It's someone trying to bring something new into the world - sports for fun, sports that more people can play, sports that are created to celebrate the human body, spirit and community.
Exertion Interfaces. Think about it. Exertion, as in exerting, as in exercise. Interfaces. Interfaces implies something between, something connecting. Ah. Just like it says:
Exertion Interfaces are a new kind of interfaces that facilitate what can be described as "Sports over a Distance." These interfaces make you tired and sweaty, but also support you in bringing you closer to old friends and help you making new ones. So instead of creating technology that helps you being more productive and work more efficient, this design supports you in making more friends and fights boredom. Welcome to a new future of technology that is fun!
TsegBall (pronounced seg-ball) "is a combination of basketball, volleyball, handball, rugby and hopscotch." Again we see how new sports can be built from old. Again we find a sport that is designed to be "non contact." And again, we see that along with all this renewal, we are being given sports that reduce "the amount of injury prevalent in most contact sports while removing the physical intimidation factor on the court. Second, TsegBall's design allows for co-educational teams. By removing the violence aspect, men and women are able to play together on the same team--a feature not common in many of today's more popular sports."
Here's more from the site: "team sport designed for use in schools, recreation and fitness centers, rehabilitation clinics and even the military. The game is easy to play and allows men and women to compete on the same team. Because it is a co-ed sport, the rules are designed to prevent any bodily contact. Men and women can enjoy the game together without the risk of injury prevalent in most contact sports. The game emphasizes good strategy rather than physical prowess and generates a lot of creativity. There is no jumping and players can only use their hands, so they've got to rely on quick thinking and fast reflexes in order to win."
Socci "is an individual fitness activity, social game, and a competitive sport ...combining elements of soccer, basketball, and hackysack." A sport after my own junkyard-inspired heart - creating by combining some of the must fun parts of other sports. Like soccer and hackysack, Socci is played without using hands. Like basketball, no physical
The Socci goal is perhaps the most innovative aspect of the sport. It is low, round, and free-standing - so a goal can be scored from all sides. This makes defending the goal much more challenging, and more interesting for players and audience alike. The inventor sees Socci as "the ultimate soccer training game." I see it as a new sport. Better than soccer, because it is faster paced. The goals are closer together, so players have to shift from offense to defense suddenly and often. There is more opportunity to score, and more opportunities for fun. Though I'm certain a good Socci player masters many soccer-related skills, the value of Socci is not in its soccer- or hackysack-likeness, but in the fun.
Need more evidence? See especially the first two recommended alternate games:
"Trash Socci - If you're dying to play Socci, a trash can will do. Just count one point for hitting the "can" and two for putting it in.
"Circle Socci - Even if you can't get a can, just draw a circle. Count one point for rolling into the circle and two for dropping it into the circle."
This 24-page, illustrated and PDF'd booklet describes how to make and play Featherball. Yes, yes, it's a shuttlecock, all right, familiar to all those who've ever played or wondered about badminton. Yet badminton itself is only one of a vast, international panoplay of shuttlecockish pastimes. there's "Funderbirds," for example, a non-competitive game, similar to the perhaps far more familiar game of Peteca (which you, of course, might know better as Indiaca), only played without a net or court, like the bimillenially-played, Southeast Asian game of Chapteh but not like Jianzi, except no one is eliminated.
It is but one of many instructively playful resources awaiting those who download from it from Teamwork and Teamplay available to the connected many through the expertise, good will and generosity of Jim Cain, Ph.D.
funscouting by Roger Greenaway, author of the provocative and appropriately playful piece Reviewing for Fun.
Beach Tennis? But, of course. Kinda like beach volleyball, because it's played on beach volleyball court. Even more like badminton, except you play it with tennis racquets and ball. Apparently, Beach Tennis started in Latin America and vicinity. Like on the lovely but, currently unfortunate island of questioned-repute, Aruba.
If you're over 16 (apparently, something untoward happens when you reach level 5 that makes it inappropriate for the younger set), you can even play it online (uses arrow keys and space bar).
One visit to the Beach Tennis websites, especially the highly polished Beach Tennis USA site, makes you realize how seriously some people are taking this patently junkyardly sport - serious enough to do what is necessary to earn a write-up in USA Today.
Which leaves us with this question: what makes a junkyard-like sport get transformed into a "serious" one? Clearly, Beach Tennis was born out of a spirit of playfulness - the same kind of rule transforming playfulness that gave birth to Baggyball. What makes Beach Tennis a "real" sport, and Baggyball remain Junkyard?
My guess: it's all about how much it gets played. Which is all about how much fun it is for how many people. Until, finally, it gets to be all about money. And that's about all.
More questions? Read the Toccer Times, a weblog that chronicles the development of the game and even more important, the spirit and energy of Ron Bronson, Jr., its inventor, wherein Ron explains:
"I love hockey, because at any given time the puck could be down the ice and two players could combine for a one-timer or one players will break away for a goal.
I love football, because of the physical play and the awesome feeling of scoring a touchdown - or intercepting a player and running it back for a score.
I love baseball, because chicks dig the longball.
I love basketball, because the skill it takes to make no-look passes or the confidence that your shot halfway down the court is going in, keeps us tuning it for more.
I love soccer, because nothing is more awesome than seeing a player get stuffed on an awesome save by the keeper.
I love lacrosse, because its physical - yet requires amazing skill to control the ball and to score.
I love tennis, because of hard serves and the years it takes to learn how to place the ball right where you want it to go.
But most of all, I love TOCCER because it COMBINES ALL OF THEM but has a style and a feeling of its own."
The rules? Well, they're evolving, as is probably everybody who gets to play the game. Here's part of the most recent version: "The ball can be dribbled on the racquet or kicked. Generally, players are not allowed to pick up the ball out of the air. Instead, they may only pick the ball up when it is dead or they make the ball dead by placing their racquet on top of the ball while it is on the ground to make it dead. The exceptions to this rule are players known as the rover and sweeper. Each team has one of these players apiece. Sweepers are defensive specialists, who may use their hands at will - but may not carry the ball for more than three seconds at a time. Sweepers are also prohibited from crossing the line that divides the field down the middle. (Called the mid line) Rovers are subject to the same rules, except they are not restricted to just the defensive end of the field."
However it evolves - how complex or elegant the rules become - as long as there are sports to be combined, and rules to be invented, and its inventor is around to share his energy and delight, Toccer is a unique invitation to play and grace, and a vivid manifestation of the art of junkyard sportscraft, and all therein implied.
Though I wrote about the soccer variant called "Panna" a few months ago, it wasn't until I came across this site that I understood not only Nike's interest in the game, but also their influence over it.
Allow me to quote:
"Panna is Surinamese/Amsterdam slang for playing the ball through the legs of your opponent. If you make one, you're a hero. If you get one, you're a zero. Pannas reign supreme in the streets of Holland where the only thing better than winning is making your opponent look foolish. In Amsterdam respect comes from reputation. Haven't got one? Better not show up. Reps are made by humbling the big names and showing off the big moves. Reps take time to build, but just one Panna can make it all disappear."
The site itself is pure virtual cool. Cool music. Cool Flash animations. Cool navigation. There are biographies of ruling street players and film clips and games and even a downloadable Panna screensaver. But nowhere is there a reference to the fun of the game, to the creativity and joy, to the player's appreciation for each other's skills. I was there. In Holland. I watched. What I saw, in addition to sometimes astonishing displays of skill, was laughter and recognition and genuine respect for excellence, no matter where it came from. I guess that aspect of the Panna experience isn't macho enough to justify buying $200 sneakers.
tIn his article, "The Bankshot Conception of Universal Design," Dr. Reeve Brenner says some things about sports and differently-abled people that explain a lot of the passion behind the Junkyard Sports idea. It's written in support of an other "equipment-based" solution called "Bankshot."
Tennis is exclusionary and conducing to separate-but-equal at its most extreme. It is possible for wheelchair athletes to play against each other on that court. It is possible for able-bodied people to play against each other on that court. But even able-bodied people can not all play tennis on the same level. A tennis player must find the very small sliver of the population with whom to play. The wheelchair athlete cannot play with the able-bodied except artificially in organized pre-arranged circumstances – but never spontaneously.
It's the same vision of "sports for everybody" that I was describing when I wrote "Extra Special Olympics." Bankshot is a working, challenging, cross-ability solution that combines miniature golf with a series of basketball and/or tennis and maybe even pitching goals.
Bankshot basketball is a new game of skill and challenge that is often described as a "mini golf, but with a basketball." Players of all ages and abilities, even disabled participants, proceed through a course of angled, curved and non-conventionally configured brightly colored backboards, banking shots off the Bankboards(TM) and through the rims... Bankshot is non-aggressive and entirely inclusionary.
A Bankshot course consists of a varying number of stations-depending upon the size of the court-each with a uniquely shaped Bankboard. Each Bankshot requires a different banked shot to score. Some shots demand carroms off two backboards, some are ricochets and one diabolically maddening shot has three backboards and two rims. Players use a scorecard to track their score as they shoot increasingly difficult shots at each of the stations.
This reenactment of the "Mezoamerican Ballgame" - also known as "Juego de Pelota" - shows people using only their hips to hit the ball! I wouldn't've believed it possible until I saw it actual re-en-action. What remarkable skill! What a profoundly skill-demanding principle for a hip-based junkly soccer game! What a good reason to wear many, many layers of underpants!
The clip came to us courtesy of the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Mint Museum of Art. It is on a site meant for children, which probably explains why it's so fun. It doesn't explain, however, why it is also fun for the adult-labeled amongst us. My guess is that one of the designers had a remarkable understanding of kids and adults and the transcendence of fun.
So we have two noteworthy moments here: one, the fascinating re-creation of an ancient, culture-shaping sport, and two, a paradigm for the design of educational experiences on the Internet.
PickleBall is described as "a combination of Ping-Pong, tennis, and badminton." Invented in 1965 by U.S. Congressman Joel Pritchard, William Bell, and Barney McCallum, who wanted to create a "sport for the entire family." Apparently, they've succeeded. According to their website, PickleBall is played "...in thousands of school P.E. programs, parks and recreation centers, correctional facilities, camps, YMCA's and retirement communities."
Like the game of Tchoukball, PickleBall is designed to keep everyone in play. There's a no-volley zone close to the net to prevent overcompetitive players from smashing their way to one-sidedness. The serve is underhanded, and the ball must bounce once before being returned. As stated on the site: "Pickleball is a game of shot placement and patience, not brute power or strength." Once the ball has hit the ground on both sides of the net, the volley can continue as in badminton, with the ball constantly in the air. In fact, the size of the PickleBall court is the same as that of badminton - which, in further fact, is yet another game designed to keep more people in play.
Official PickleBall paddles are similar to those used in the playworthy game of Paddleball. Official PickleBall balls look remarkably like the much beloved Wiffle Ball.
The smaller court combined with the slower action of the Wiffle Ball significantly reduce the amount of running required, making the game more attractive to people who play for fun and family togetherness. If I had my say, I'd eliminate competition all together and play an "everlasting" variation where the only goal is to volley forever.
Yesterday's story on the Therapeutic Value of Play included a photograph of kids and Quoits. Which leads me today to asking the eternal question.
Here's what I learned from a site called "The Quoit Pits:"
Quoits are similar to Horseshoes only in that they are both pitched from behind one pin placed in the ground, and toward a second pin some distance away. The major differences:
- Quoit pins are set very low, inside wooden boxes buried in the ground and filled with moist clay, rather than in the dirt or sand usually used with Horseshoes. - Distance to the pin is almost halved: 21 feet for quoits in comparison to 40 feet for horseshoes. - Quoits are doughnut-shaped rings made of brass, bronze, or steel, compared to an open, U-shaped horseshoe. - To "ring" a quoit around the pin, you have to toss it onto the pin rather than sliding into it as you would a horseshoe. - Since the surface you are throwing at is soft and tacky like putty, the quoits generally stick where they land. There is very little sliding, rolling, or bouncing, as is common when pitching Horseshoes.
Subtle, but clearly significant differences, don't you think? Demanding less strength, but more accuracy.
This article on "Quoits - History and Useful Information" cites Peter Brown, President of the National Quoits Association: "...the Greeks passed on Quoits, a weapon of war, to the Romans who also brought the game to Britain and that the origins may go back even further to the Minoan empire c.2000B.C. where the boy king of Knossos apparently used the discus/quoit to cull escaping slaves. Horseshoe pitching in this case came about as a poor-man's version of Quoits using left-over horseshoes instead of the real thing." Quoits, therefore, being the game of kinds, whilst horseshoes, which we, in our peasant-like ways, consider to be the "real" game, a mere poor man's version.
Regardless of the history, or even the distinctions between Quoits and Horseshoes, the fact that it is still played today is testimony to how powerful a good game can be - outlasting time and culture, race and language, nation and nationality.
Apparently, once you get rid of all that putting nonsense, the notion that golf balls need to roll clearly becomes obsolete. As we all know, it's not the putt, but the flog after which golf is conversely named. Hence, the invention the oval golf ball and birth of New Zealand GolfCross. A small step for golf, you say. Yes, but a giant step for golfkind.
Burton Silver of New Zealand has taken the flogging part of golf to the next level, inventing not only a new kind of golf ball and a new kind of non-hole-in-the-air and what might very well prove to be whole new game.
It turns out that an oval golf ball is reportedly far more condusive to both not-rolling, and more controllable flogging. According to the official NewZealand GolfCross site, the ovality of the ball allows you to:
1. Hit the ball straight every time. 2. Perform controlled slices and hooks with ease. 3. Adjust the degree of fade or draw you require. 4. Generate backspin — even with a wood or out of the rough. 5. Apply top spin to achieve long low running shots and, 6. if you really want to show off, do double curves and play tunes.
Says Mr. Silver:
“It seems strange and sad to me that we don’t do more to encourage a spirit of innovation in sport. Because inventing new activities and getting people to participate in them is so exciting and stimulating for all concerned. It always leads to new discoveries about our physical and mental capabilities and skills, and it presents us with new challenges, which is surely what sport should be about.
“It’s my belief that the creation of the new in sport is as important as the celebration of the old. That actively experimenting with sport and staging new events challenges human ingenuity and reinvigorates the human spirit and I’d love to think that GolfCross® may in some way act as a kind of catalyst in encouraging us to explore all the other new sporting challenges that are just waiting to be discovered out there.”
As you know from reading my precedent-breaking article Of Schmerltzes, Sockballs and Pantyhose , I have, for many years now, been advocating the development and exploration of the play value of what one could only call "Two Balls Tied Together." I originally described this concept to Games Magazine many years ago when I was contributingeditor. We even had a photo shoot. But, alas, it was deemed too unproven for the Games-reading masses.
And today I discover that there is an actual Native American precedent for this very same initiative, apparently called "Double Ball"
I quote, in smirkful glee, from Stuart Culin's description:
The peculiar ball employed for this game is composed of two small stuffed pouches connected by a band, or two billets of wood about five inches long, made like thick pegs with heads and ornamented on all sides with carvings; a leather thong five to eight inches long is attached at each end to the neck of each of the two billets...
Properties.—One double-ball; as many sticks as players; red and yellow head-bands, equal in number, for the two sides of players.
Directions.—The double-ball should be made in camp in the following manner: A strip of leather or of strong, closely woven brown cloth from fifteen to twenty inches long. For six inches from both ends the strip should be about seven inches wide; the portion of the strip between these wide ends should be about three inches wide...Two wickets, made by crotched poles about five and a half to six feet high, having a bar fastened across the top, are placed in line with each other, one at the East, the other at the West, and as far apart as the limits of the camp grounds will permit. A red streamer to be tied to the eastern wicket and a yellow streamer to the western wicket.
Clearly it is the great spirit of my Native American brethern speaking through me. Let it not once again fall on the deaf ears of the white eyes.
Writing about an event involving Palestinian and Israeli children that was led by the 
A Handheld Skating and Snowboarding Sail
Crolf
Archery Golf
PoweriSers
Digiwall
Shootball
Rock-it-Ball
The "Spirit of the Game"
Chinlone
video
eXtreme Croquet
Finger Jousting
QuadBall
Croqkick
Asphip
The Looper, of course, travels best on the specially smoothed surfaces of an Asphip Court. And, once you have an Asphip Court, you might as well also have a set of Wandering Disks and play a combination of shuffleboard and tic tac toe with pucks on wheels. Pucks on wheels!
Apparently
"First, you have to throw the ring from the spot where you caught it, second – when throwing at least one foot must touch the ground. You may only leap when catching, never when throwing. Otherwise the defending party would have no chance at all and the entire game would be senseless. But why? – He demanded. Because it’s my game and my rules – I said."
Hanet Ball? According to this 
Exertion Interfaces
TsegBall
Socci
Beach Tennis
t
This reenactment
Official PickleBall paddles are similar to those used in the playworthy game of 
and what might very well prove to be whole new game. 
