Fun exercise

[cathal]

Last night we had a great fun activity, and I wanted to share it with you. We all got into a (fairly large!) circle with one person in the centre. Two people were given tennis balls and the goal was to lightly strike the person in the centre with the balls. The person dodging the balls was to pay particular attention to where the "enemies" were, and to avoid the tennis balls.

The throwers goal is of course to lightly hit the person in the centre, but they also had to throw quickly enough so the tennis ball would get to someone else in the circle if it missed. That way we kept the tennis balls going (we use no more than 2) in order to keep up momentum.

Rules are that no one can aim for the head, or bounce it off the floor in order to hit high on the body, like the head. Also no one is allowed to throw the tennis ball too hard to cause injury.

Have fun.

[White_Tiger]

What is the object of the person in the center? To avoid being hit?

[GOM]

Another variation, something we do in our dojo, is to get everyone in the centre with the instructor on the outside. The instructor throws a soft ball (maybe the size of a football) in, and when someone gets hit, they come on the outside and help throw the ball. This happens until there is one person left in the centre, and they are the winner.

It is a pretty fun game, and for the kids, we aim at below the knee. We call it 'poison ball'.

[cathal]

I like that idea, I think I'll let my sensei know about it. Thanks

[cathal]

What is the object of the person in the center? To avoid being hit?

Yes.

[atalaya]

at my school we have students line up against a wall and we throw various padded (styrofoam for example) objects. they try to kick/block/punch, et cetera incoming objects. then round two they aren't allowed to touch them so they have to dodge. in round three they close their eyes and (with plenty of room between each person) try to dodge, strike or block incoming objects. it's fun and pretty cool to watch. it helps decrease their response time and increase their reflexes as it improves their hand to eye coordination. (nothing mystic about this one- objects make noise as they're thrown, so does the gi of whoever is throwing it)

[bushido_man96]

These are some great exercises, guys. Thanks a lot!

[KamasandSais]

in our dojo we have this game thats almost the same as yours but we play it with two throwers, one person by the wall, and the rest ball shaggers. we use fifteen tennis balls which makes it challenging and fun.

[cathal]

We've done that as well.