Physical Culture & Dodge Ball

[Black Jack]

I had a topic like this a month or so ago but not in the same context with regards to sports and your martial art training.

20th century sport scientists in the now defunct U.S.S.R found that athletes could benefit from participating in sports other than the one in which is their main core. This is no suprise as the same idea was used in 19th century western physical culture in the pursuit of all around general vibrance.

By doing so, you could tap a broader array of physiological and psychological skills. For example, it was common in Moscow and other soviet cities for wrestlers, to play twenty minutes of basketball as part of the warmup for their day-to-day training sessions and that their volleyball players trained in soccer exercises and drills for conditioning. During certain periods of training they knew that other sports can be used to make their athletes, quicker, stronger and more flexible.

The same principle can be used for martial training.

As an example last weekend I joined in a game of dodge ball at my gym, yep dodge ball, except this game was composed of athletes like college football players, this gym has a serious sports performance divison, as one of the owners is a college football coach, and they do all sorts of off the cuff biomotor training for strength, speed, agility, and quickness, which means they called it a sports ball reaction drill, but I am still calling it dodge ball.

The goal of the drill was to improve visual stimuli response and total-body quickness. From a martial standpoint you could see how this also translates to footwork, evasion skills, fast changes in direction, first step quickness, and so on.

Just food for thought so get out their and play some sports ball reaction drills-ummm-I mean dodge ball.

Cheers!

[ewallace]

I thought the clinton administration had made dodge ball illegal because some kids got their feelings hurt after not moving out of the way of a large ball traveling rapidly towards their their head.

[chen zhen]

I can imagine dodgeball being a good warm-up. gets your heart-rate up

[Oso]

Dodge ball is a regular drill in my kids class.
In the beginning it's for everything you said above.
Later I limit them to specific stances and methods of movement they have trained in. They are 'out' if they get hit OR if they don't user proper movement to evade.

I like raquetball as a crosstrainer.

[Black Jack]

ewallace- Ohh man I forgot all about that. LOL!

Dodge ball is banned in a ton of middle and elementary schools. Talk about PC run wild. Man it makes me hate stupid people all the more.

Back to topic-

Think of other sports not as a straight out exercise but from the martial perspective, with basketball you work on transition between skills and cutting angles, with soccer fast change of direction, flexibility in hips and footwork, take a look at sports training and striking mechanics.

Guohuen- Medicine ball rules! Its a field mine of plyometric drills.

Oso- Raquetball is a good one.

[shaolinboxer]

Dodgeball is now ILLEGAL (yes, you heard me right) in NYC public schools. It was decided over much debate that it leads to childen learning that the strong can pick on the weak.

Although I have fond memories of dodgeball, as I surveyed many of the people I know about their experieces, many showed signs of anxeity at the mention of the game.

Personally, I love dodgeball and always have.

But it's food for thought.

[Suntzu]

Dodge ball is banned in a ton of middle and elementary schools. Talk about PC run wild. Man it makes me hate stupid people all the more.

school sucks more than it use to… dodge ball COULD be bad for the self-esteem...yeah all of that self esteem is really gonna come in handy behind the counter of Burger King…

Dodgeball is now ILLEGAL (yes, you heard me right) in NYC public schools. It was decided over much debate that it leads to childen learning that the strong can pick on the weak.

that's bullsh!t… he\\… I was one of the smallest kids in class and dodgeball was one of the great equalizers… I loved taunting the similac kids and watch them get pis$ed b'cuz they couldn't hit me… now when football season came around… I kept my mouth shut...

[Oso]

It was decided over much debate that it leads to childen learning that the strong can pick on the weak.

but that's life and the truth. not saying it's right but it is reality.

I think it's a crime not to prepare children for life after our PC driven educational system.




strictly talking about old grade school games...what about that game where you formed up lines and linked arms and then clotheslined people from the other side as they tried to bust through your line?

that was cool.

illegal now I'm sure.

[ewallace]

Some activities of my youth that have helped in the later years:

- Throwing tennis balls at cars: taught me how to hit a moving target, helped me get used to adreneline rush...boy one pizza guy got really p/o'd and chased me thru a couple neighborhoods.

- Iceball fights (snowball held under a water spout): taught me the need to avoid hard objects attempting to make contact with body.

- Ding dong ditch: taught me that sometimes running is the best way to deal with a potential violent conflict. This applies to the tennis balls at cars exercise too.

- Throwing hershey chocolate syrup bottles at cars: taught me to know who the fu*$ you're dealing with, it just might be a cop at 2 in the morning.

- Smear the queer: Not everybody will like you, and most people just don't like queers. If you choose this path, get used to it.

[Lisa]

Dodgeball's illegal in some places?? Maybe they should just try using different balls. I remember getting hit with the balls we used in elementary school used to sting a bit if they hit your bare skin, but it was never that bad. If a kid got hurt, it was usually from either falling over or running into another kid, which could happen in any sport.

Back to the original topic, my class sometimes plays dodgeball as a warm-up.

[Lisa]

"strictly talking about old grade school games...what about that game where you formed up lines and linked arms and then clotheslined people from the other side as they tried to bust through your line"

Red Rover? People ALWAYS got hurt playing that one at my school. Being the shortest kid in class, I always got hit pretty high and rarely made it through. I hated that game.

[SaMantis]

dodge ball COULD be bad for the self-esteem...

Yeah it can be, in a middle school environment with all the issues of puberty at work, including low self-esteem thx to changing bodies, pimples, etc. Kids are trying to find their place in the pecking order and IMO nothing cements that order, for right or wrong, than the weekly dodgeball game.

Dodgeball, even in a well-supervised environment, is purely weak vs. strong. On paper it looks great, but when you hand a volleyball to a 13-year-old and tell him to go bean someone with it, the exercise shakes down to its lowest common denominator.

And dodgeball in my middle school wasn't supervised at all; the coach tossed a couple volleyballs onto the court, told everyone to pick sides and disappeared into his office for a wee drop. What happened? Negative ****, basically. Picking teams took on sexist, racist and bullying overtones. Weaker kids were stuck on the "nerd" team and just got whomped by the bigger kids.

Dodgeball may improve agility, but its negatives (often compounded by the school environment) far outweigh the benefits. There's little teambuilding, there's little chance to build self-esteem, and the game makes weaklings the object of ridicule (or subject to MORE ridicule than usual). In its basic form, sport is meant to improve the individual physically and mentally, regardless of his or her aptitude for it. Dodgeball is marginal in these areas and it makes a point of picking on weaker players.

I'm not totally slamming the activity -- I played sandlot dodgeball after school with friends and it was fun. But in a negative environment it's a horrible sport.

[ewallace]

The game's not about team unity or self esteem, it's about getting out of the way of a ball that's coming towards your head, and helping others do the same.

[Black Jack]

ewallace- no more true words have been spoken!

People that think dodgeball should be banned are not getting the point. Its about dodging the f@ckin ball. Tough crap if some little kid feels like he is not as fast as some other kid. That's the way of the world. It makes me sick that certain sectors of society believe that life should be a perfect straight line and that nobody is better than anybody else.

[SaMantis]

and helping others do the same.

But that's the problem. You can't really help others get out of the way except to yell "Look out!" And middle schoolers who actually help each other are fairly rare (or they were in my day).

The trouble is, at that age, team-building and self-esteem should be the paramount issues addressed in every part of the school day, including gym. Middle schoolers are painfully aware of "real life" and the fact that the strong pick on the weak, they deal with it in the school corridors and on the street (and sometimes at home).

So a structured physical program, at this age, should emphasize teamwork and teach the strong to help the weak.