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SportaPolis Column - "The New P.E. & Sports Dimension" - # 5 November 2001The column that opens your day by opening your mind
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Dodge Ball vs. Dodge Ball Activities
by To start with the discussion and how to: click here
In the tenth grade, my physical education teacher introduced me to "battleball." The instructor divided the class in half. Each half started at the baseline of the gym with four or five deflated volleyballs at mid-court. She would blow the whistle, we'd run to get the balls and throw them at our opponents to see if we could eliminate them from the game. For the last series, the teacher decided to put only one ball in the middle. When she blew the whistle, I ran as fast as I could to the ball and ran head-on into a senior who outweighed me almost forty pounds. The impact broke my left clavicle, and I spent several weeks of the tennis season serving underhanded. When I graduated from college and started my first teaching/coaching job, I had co-ed classes of anywhere from forty to sixty students which I "team" taught with the experienced boy's basketball coach. Everyday the boys would beg us to let them play "bombardment" (another name for battleball). After several weeks, we conceded. Immediately, all the girls went and sat in the stands, refusing to play. In one class, where there were thirty-five white boys and five African-American boys, to my horror I watched as the white boys teamed up and immediately eliminated the African-American boys. I never allowed the game to be played again and wholeheartedly believe that "battleball" has no place in physical education and that any kind of dodgeball game is inappropriate for the middle school, junior high, or senior high grades. However, as a lead-up game in the elementary grades, I believe that dodgeball activities have some unique contributions to the skill development of children and can be appropriately included in the curriculum.
In 1992 I attended the East Coast Regional Games Conference in Hempstead, NY. It was at this conference that I first heard the arguments for banning all dodgeball activities from physical education. Prior to this conference, I had already been teaching in my elementary physical education methods courses that dodgeball activities should be non-elimination, played with foam balls, and only thrown below the waist. As an adapted physical education itinerate teacher and consultant, I had for many years modified and adapted games for my students with disabilities. When some of the presenters stated that all dodgeball activities should be banned, I asked why, if the aforementioned modifications, rules, and equipment were used? I also mentioned how dodgeball activities increased agility, catching, dodging, accuracy, and strategy. Their answers were that there were other activities that could work on those objectives, that the dodgeball game had at its core human targets, and that there were no adult games in which someone was actually trying to avoid being hit by someone who was trying to hit them with an object. When I gave the example of a tennis player hitting at the right hip pointer of the opponent at the net, one presenter (not a tennis player) stated that that was unethical. I suppose he would have said the same for a basketball player throwing at the legs of a defender as he/she was going out of bounds or a volleyball spiker aiming at the blocker's outside hand. Their arguments for banning dodge ball activities did not convince me, but I went back to my methods classes with a new awareness of a contingency of persons who were convinced of the atrocities of playing dodgeball. Therefore, in all my elementary physical education methods classes since, I have presented both arguments.
After the conference, I talked with many elementary physical education teachers about dodgeball activities, and most believed non-elimination, foam ball, throw-below-the-shoulders dodgeball activities were appropriate. One teacher brought up the point that, if she didn't teach them dodgeball activities, they would play it during their free time anyway and without the safety considerations.
In the April 2001edition of JOPERD, twenty professionals and/or future professionals gave their opinions and arguments for or against dodgeball. These arguments were more or less the same as the ones I have already mentioned. Many of the authors described the rule modifications they made in order to make the game non-elimination, safer, and more fun. For example, circle dodgeball, a non-elimination game where students must hit the person in the middle of the circle with a bounced ball, was mentioned by Steven Murray, an assistant professor from Mesa State College, and using gatorskin balls was brought up by Mark McEachern and Ashley McCrary, physical education teachers from Hamden, CT, and Loudoun County, VA, respectively. Of course, there is no modification for the "human target" argument except that that is the unique characteristic about dodgeball activities that no other lead-up game has. Is it not appropriate for students to learn to intercept and/or avoid being hit by a soft, slower-moving ball where someone is purposefully trying to target them before having a tennis ball, shuttlecock, basketball, or volleyball moving at them at high speeds? Teaching dodgeball activities gives a teacher the opportunity to talk to students about how offensive it is to be hit in the face, and it also gives them a chance to practice that consideration with adult supervision. Yes, there will be some children who will not like or excel in dodgeball activities, just as there will be some who do not like or excel in competitive activities, or fitness activities, or team activities, or racquet activities, or dance activities, etc., but there will be others who will. That's one of the reasons a school should offer a diverse physical education program.
Should there be dodgeball in physical education? In the middle school, junior high, or high school--no. These grades should be focusing on lifetime activities. Adults do not play dodge ball. Should dodgeball be played in the elementary grades? It depends on how you define "dodgeball." Many people associate dodgeball with the only kind they ever played--the traditional game, the "battle ball" or "bombardment" kind where students are eliminated and "pegged" in the head with hard playground balls or volleyballs. How can we justify having students being eliminated and yet tout that we're working on their motor skills and health related fitness, that we're improving their self-esteem and yet allow them to be hit in the face, or that we provide a safe environment and yet allow hard balls to be thrown at bare legs as one of the primary objectives of the game? This game should have no part of a physical education curriculum. This is the "dodgeball" (bombardment, murderball, killerball, poisonball) that's in the "Physical Education Hall of Shame" (Williams; 1992).
However, there are developmentally appropriate dodgeball activities that help elementary school age students develop skills essential for many lifetime activities. Pangrazzi (2001) describes a game called "rollee pollee." In this game, students form a circle and roll balls at their peers in the middle. If you're hit with the rolled ball, you become part of the circle. After a period of time, the students who were originally in the middle become the circle and vice versa. It's a dodgeball activity, but it's not "dodgeball." I just attended a conference and learned a game called "Crazy Kickball." In this game, the ball is diamond shaped and made of foam. The game is played just like regular kickball except you're trying to get the runner out by kicking him/her with the ball. It's a dodgeball activity, but it's not "dodgeball." There are numerous other appropriate dodgeball activities I will not begin to describe, but they are easily identified. Physical educators, in my opinion, should stop playing "traditional" dodgeball. I sincerely hope, however, they do not stop playing non-elimination, throw-below-the-shoulders with safe equipment, dodgeball activities as lead-up games in the elementary grades.
The Crazy Kickball ® Co. Inc., 1227 N. Valley Mills Dr. #231, Waco, TX 76710 McCrary, A., McEachern, M. & Murray, S. (2001). In Issues: Is there a place for dodgeball in physical education? Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance 72 (4): 17-19. Pangrazi, R. P. (2001). Dynamic physical education for elementary school children (13th ed.). Boston: Allyn and Bacon. Williams, N. (1992). The physical education hall of shame. Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance 63 (6): 57-60.
1) Should dodgeball activities be played in physical education? How to participate with the discussion ? - just drop your thoughts to Guy Van Damme: guy.vandamme@skynet.be - he collects your replies. - The author reads your ideas/reactions and if needed will add his feedback. - This all - your reactions and feedback - will be posted again onto the list.
January 2002 - Dr. Debby Mitchell will start with a new article. Have a good discussion, co-ordinator Guy Van Damme |