Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Gatorball: The Next Big Thing?

So recently I've been teaching gym to the elementary school kids at CCSI on Tuesdays. Last week we played Capture the Flag, which the kids seemed very familiar with, and this week we played soccer for about twenty minutes, then I introduced Japan to a new game, one I had only played once or twice as a freshman in high school, but which struck me then as perhaps the best game I'd ever played.


The game is called Gatorball, and it is most preferably played in a basketball court with two lacrosse or small soccer goals. A soft, soccer-ball sized ball would work best too, a foam ball of some sort. Teams of four to six are best.

Though documentation of Gatorball is scant on the internet, and I can find nothing of it's history, the Rolling River School Division in Canada hosts a very good set of rules, which are worth taking a look at.

So basically it's a mixing of handball, soccer, basketball, and football. This makes it a very physical game, as well as a strategy game.

Obviously, we don't have nearly the proper equipment at CCSI to play by these rules, so we have to modify them considerably. We use a soccer ball, play half-court-style with a single basketball hoop, and use our wooden ball-box as the soccer net. Surprisingly, it works pretty well.

If I were to make a guess, I would say that Gatorball will be an Olympic sport inside of twenty years.

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