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Did you play Dodge Ball in school ?


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I did.  And felt is was something, anyone could be good at.  Did not have to drive the lane. Did not have to dunk. Did not have to sink the free throw or jump shot. And so many other "Sporting things."  I loved playing, and loved when our coach allowed us to play it.

NOW....there is a controversy:

Researchers say dodgeball is ‘legalized bullying’ | TribLIVE.com

Never felt that way. Always felt DB was a way I could compete.

How about you.  HSN ?

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I did play dodgeball and a similar game called guard the castle and enjoyed both. In my opinion, it is up to the PE teacher to keep it policed and clean. They are the adults and should know if a kid is being targeted.

I would like to see these people do an article on the no pads, full contact, full speed street hockey games we played on our gym floor in high school. It was voluntary but no one sat out.  Just high school boys roughing each other up. They did shut it down after a few injuries occurred but was fun while it lasted. 

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1 minute ago, mrflynn03 said:

I did play dodgeball and a similar game called guard the castle and enjoyed both. In my opinion, it is up to the PE teacher to keep it policed and clean. They are the adults and should know if a kid is being targeted.

I would like to see these people do an article on the no pads, full contact, full speed street hockey games we played on our gym floor in high school. It was voluntary but no one sat out.  Just high school boys roughing each other up. 

Yes. When I said coach, it was our PE teacher, who also was either a BB or FB coach.  And yes, they stayed in the gym to supervise.

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Just now, milehiiu said:

Yes. When I said coach, it was our PE teacher, who also was either a BB or FB coach.  And yes, they stayed in the gym to supervise.

My PE teachers also coached on some level.  

And these types of games were voluntary, there was usually an alternative or just observing.  Also, teammates took care of each other. If someone was being targeted there were friends that would back you up. No one likes a rubber ball to the face. Especially a bully. 

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Of course played it and 'taught' it for 5 years.  

There has always been controversy around it.  It least for the last 20 years to my knowledge.  Used to play with rubber kickball, then volleyball, now they make a really soft and lightweight dodgeball.  

I would let kids walk if they didn't want to play.   It was usually free Friday.   

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6 minutes ago, Steubenhoosier said:

Played dodgeball, box ball ( or four square) and tetherball (could’ve beat Napoleon Dynamite). Played some kickball too.

Dodgeball let highly hormonal boys get their aggressions out in an activity that was strangely sanctioned by the PE teachers 😙

Any of them are better than one particular month when I was in Junior High...square dancing.  Ugh

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Yes, and it was everyone's favorite day of the week. Games were surprisingly self policing: unintentional head shot, you went out vs the person who got hit, intentional head shot, done for the day. And maybe we were more competitive, but it was always the least athletic guys left in at the end. The athletic ones targeted each other first.

You always wanted to find a ball that was slightly deflated (insert Tom Brady joke here). That way you could get a better grip and if you could plant your feet, even get a little curve on it.

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I was in grade school in the late 70's. we played indoors in the gym when the weather was bad.  We used deflated playground type kickballs.  When i was in 6th grade the male teachers played with us and targeted the boys only.  They did not hold back.  My friend broke his arm catching a fall after a teacher hit him in the ankles while jumping to try to avoid the ball.  Would have been a lawsuit in todays world.

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29 minutes ago, Dr. Jones said:

I was in grade school in the late 70's. we played indoors in the gym when the weather was bad.  We used deflated playground type kickballs.  When i was in 6th grade the male teachers played with us and targeted the boys only.  They did not hold back.  My friend broke his arm catching a fall after a teacher hit him in the ankles while jumping to try to avoid the ball.  Would have been a lawsuit in todays world.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Dodge ball for me was not  regularly ,  scheduled. Rather it was played indoors in the gym, when the weather was too bad outside for the PE teacher to let us outside.  In that respect, it was a special treat, that we hoped bad weather for. Growing up in NWI, anyone knows of where I speak.

And I have a memory as you do.  Of a classmate who got hit by a ball. With so much force that it knocked him under the stands on the side of the gym.  Still have a picture of that event in my mind today.  He was not hurt.  But it took him a long time to extricate himself from under the seats.  Memories are made of this.  LOL

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We played some in school, but not that often.  We played dB a lot at Boy Scouts though. Oddly enough, I remember dodgeball being something where the bullies couldn’t get to me.  I was a rather scrawny kid, a prime target for bullies. Whenever we played dodgeball though, I could hold my own. I could catch the ball really well, so when they tried to target me I would catch the ball and put them out.

On the subject of bullies though...  have an older brother and we used to fight a lot.  I learned at a young age that getting punched in the face sucked, but it wasn’t the end of the world. When the bullies started to mess with me in school I never wanted to fight, I didn’t want to get in trouble, but walking away always made it worse.  Eventually I always ended up fighting with them. Nobody ever won, but I always got enough licks in that they didn’t bother me again.

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