Line up and we'll pick teams for dodgeball!
What was once a popular grade school game has made a huge comeback among adults. Not only is dodgeball a good workout, but also throwing a ball hard at someone else relieves a lot of tension.
"It's ridiculously fun. It's high-energy, you don't stop moving. There's sensory overload," Colleen Finn, who founded the Portland, Oregon adult dodgeball league this year, told The Associated Press. In less than two weeks--largely by word of mouth--enough people signed up to play in her new league that eight teams were formed. They play in an elementary school gym.
Finn's only rule: Players must be 21. The reason? She doesn't want anyone to feel left out if the teams go out for beer after the game. "There's always that kid who wasn't picked for a team in the fifth grade," Finn told AP. "This is the perfect chance for redemption."
This is serious stuff. Sure, there are lots of pickup games in fitness centers and school gyms, but there are also real teams with real game schedules and even championship tournaments. Still, the rules tend to be loose. AP explains: Ten players line up on each end of a court with a line of balls between them. The whistle is a signal to grab the balls and hurl them at each other. If you're hit, you're out; the first team without players loses.
Players get their daily requirement of exercise running to catch balls, trying to dodge them, and throwing them at opposing players. Because the players never stop moving, this isn't a game for the out-of-shape. Dr. Linn Goldberg, professor of medicine and head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, told AP that dodgeball injuries are rare, although a player's arm might be sore at the end of a game. "It helps to develop coordination. It's jumping, it's lateral movement, it's throwing. There's a lot of things that enhance fitness. But you typically need to be fit to do it," he said.
This is how serious dodgeball has become: There is now a National Amateur Dodgeball Association that holds seven tournaments a year.
What was once a popular grade school game has made a huge comeback among adults. Not only is dodgeball a good workout, but also throwing a ball hard at someone else relieves a lot of tension.
"It's ridiculously fun. It's high-energy, you don't stop moving. There's sensory overload," Colleen Finn, who founded the Portland, Oregon adult dodgeball league this year, told The Associated Press. In less than two weeks--largely by word of mouth--enough people signed up to play in her new league that eight teams were formed. They play in an elementary school gym.
Finn's only rule: Players must be 21. The reason? She doesn't want anyone to feel left out if the teams go out for beer after the game. "There's always that kid who wasn't picked for a team in the fifth grade," Finn told AP. "This is the perfect chance for redemption."
This is serious stuff. Sure, there are lots of pickup games in fitness centers and school gyms, but there are also real teams with real game schedules and even championship tournaments. Still, the rules tend to be loose. AP explains: Ten players line up on each end of a court with a line of balls between them. The whistle is a signal to grab the balls and hurl them at each other. If you're hit, you're out; the first team without players loses.
Players get their daily requirement of exercise running to catch balls, trying to dodge them, and throwing them at opposing players. Because the players never stop moving, this isn't a game for the out-of-shape. Dr. Linn Goldberg, professor of medicine and head of the division of health promotion and sports medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, told AP that dodgeball injuries are rare, although a player's arm might be sore at the end of a game. "It helps to develop coordination. It's jumping, it's lateral movement, it's throwing. There's a lot of things that enhance fitness. But you typically need to be fit to do it," he said.
This is how serious dodgeball has become: There is now a National Amateur Dodgeball Association that holds seven tournaments a year.
