Current Events > ITT: weird games I played in elementary school PE

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Slaughter: This game was played on gym mats. There would be two teams, one on each end of the mats, with a "goal" they had to defend (a box). Everyone had to stay on their knees. In the middle was a half-deflated rubber ball. Still recognizably a ball, but you could grab onto it with one hand and grip it properly.

The goal of the game was to score points by getting the ball into the other team's goal. And aside from staying on your knees at all times, there were basically no other rules >_> people would grab each other, punch each other, etc. I don't remember any biting, hair pulling, or other stuff like that but I don't know if there were any explicit rules against it or if we kept things clean by ourselves.
If someone tapped out, you had to pause the game and let them get up and recover. So there was that at least. And our PE teacher was a big dude who would pull you off if you didn't respect the rule.

I fucking loved Slaughter day. Now apparently the game has been banned, but there really was nothing like it.

I will type up more games as I feel like it.

I remember this one from somewhere called "Funball" that was basically a cross between Rugby and Netball, and almost every game term had "fun" shoehorned into the name. It wasn't awful but was not particularly fun either.

I can't recall what it was called but I remember a game where we'd sit on this little plastic thing with wheels and push yourself around with your feet. And then basically play soccer.

Does Four Square count?

a-c-a-b posted...

I can't recall what it was called but I remember a game where we'd sit on this little plastic thing with wheels and push yourself around with your feet. And then basically play soccer.

We played Snake in the Grass on those things.

There were so many regional variants of Four Square even just between the local elementary schools. Of course best version allowed you to move anywhere inside your Square or in your outer boundary, worst made you stand on the lines. Which of course the stupid recess adults enforced at the school I transferred to.

Played a game called "Yards".

1. 11 vs 11, played on a soccer field
2. Played with a tennis ball
3. Players must be positioned on their own side of the field
4. Teams take turns throwing the ball towards the opposition's goal. Goal = 1 point. Ball must reach a certain height.
5. If opposition catches the ball before it touches the ground, they can run it back like an interception in football, and they can get as close to the goal as possible (the only exception to Rule 3). The other team must tackle or tag the player running it back to end the play. Laterals are legal.
6. Once tackled, they should be in great field position to throw the ball towards the net. Good opportunity to score.
7. Penalties exist, although I can't recall them. 5 yard penalty, 10 yard penalty, erc.

a-c-a-b posted...

I can't recall what it was called but I remember a game where we'd sit on this little plastic thing with wheels and push yourself around with your feet. And then basically play soccer.

I remember those things. We used them, and a bunch of other items, to play this one game in Gym class sometimes where you had to get from one side of the gym to the other without any part of your body connecting with the floor. I don't remember what we called the game.

We had those little butt scooters (it was just a flat square with 4 wheels that you sat on) and we would play soccer on them. Someone always ran over their own fingers though and started crying so it got banned eventually.

Remember the parachute and the beach ball? we called it making popcorn

Then I remember my elementary school PE class had a record that played out workout routine. It had some dude that would always start the workout with "READY?" "Stand Erect" then would start the routine.

k1zzl3_82 posted...

It had some dude that would always start the workout with "READY?" "Stand Erect" then would start the routine.

Heh. Heh heh.

"Erect".

Beach volleyball was always fun too.

It was usually with a regular size beach ball but there were a few times where we got to play it with one of those huge ones.

Sock wars: This was basically dodgeball, with some changes. The first change: instead of balls, the gym was strewn with a ton of socks. Easily a hundred. They were tied in knots to give them enough heft to throw. Then there were the buster socks. These were stuffed with a bunch of socks and tied shut so they had force behind them. Each side had a gym mat barricade for people to hide behind and you were supposed to use the buster socks to try and knock down the barricade (you weren't allowed to put it back up again). If you were good, you could coordinate the buster throw with other people to concentrate your firepower.

Each team also had a "Jedi" armed with a hockey stick. If someone got hit by a sock, they had to lie down, but if the Jedi touched you with the hockey stick, you could get back up. Naturally the Jedi was a prime target for socks because if they went down they lost their Jedi powers. But it was hard to hit them because they could block socks with the hockey stick and would often be shielded by the other players. There was a backup Jedi for each team too, who would inherit the stick when the first one went down, but if the backup went down you were out of luck.

It wasn't a school thing but I remember playing freeze wars.

I grew up close to a park where there was always baseball games going on and there was a concession stand where they'd sell jumbo freezes. people used to litter them all over the ground and we'd pick them up and fill them with sand and then beat the shit out of each other with them.

Good times.

a-c-a-b posted...

It wasn't a school thing but I remember playing freeze wars.

I grew up close to a park where there was always baseball games going on and there was a concession stand where they'd sell jumbo freezes. people used to litter them all over the ground and we'd pick them up and fill them with sand and then beat the shit out of each other with them.

Good times.

That's the kind of shit I'm talking about. My friends and I used to beat each other with sticks at recess.

Anyway, new game time!

Espionage: This was essentially capture the flag at base, but the differences completely changed the game (not for the better imo). It was played across the entire campus with 40-person teams and there were no flag areas. Instead you got to hide your flags. One flag was a paint can and people marked their team allegiance with paint. So the idea was that if you found the other team's paint can, you could re-up the paint, pretend to be on the other team, and potentially keep from being tagged/convince someone to show you where the other flags were.
In practice, nobody tagged anyone because there was no point - the game was so slow paced people would just wander back anyway. There was a lot of aimless hunting and occasionally something would be found. And nobody was ever fooled by the paint changes because by the time the can was found, you knew who wasn't on your team. Fun idea, but needed a lot of ironing out in practice. This was definitely the most boring PE game.

Bump for now, still got a few games to write up

We played a game called matball. It was basically kickball but instead of singular bases there were 5'x8' mats and you could have as many people on one at one time as possible. And you had to run them twice, after 3rd you had to run back across to 1st then circle them again before going for home. You could get people out by nailing them with the ball, which was easy to do if a group of 8 people took off from a mat at one time. Catching the ball when it was kicked wasn't an out.

Smear the Q***r day in gym class was always fun and at least 2 people always got a minor injury from it. Made for some intense times when you're the one that caught the football and had about 20 classmates charging at you at full speed while trying to avoid them all and score. And yes that's what the gym teacher called it back in the day, even crazier to think about when the teacher would use that word constantly but if we said it even once it was straight to the principal's office.

Rally: Ok, this one wasn't actually part of PE, but it's weird enough to get a mention. There was a big rope swing on campus that you swung on from a stump.

The players would line up behind the stump. First in line would swing, land on the other side (behind a "safe" line) and then run to get to the back of the line. The next person would have to catch the rope on the way back, swing, and keep it going. Fail to reach the safe zone on your turn and you're out. The line shrinks and it becomes harder to run back to make it to your turn, eventually it becomes an all-out sprint just for a chance to make it.

Also, while you're swinging, anything you do to the rope before you land is fair game. There were techniques to send it back at an angle, or whip it back incredibly hard, or have it kinda stall out in the middle. The next player would have to just jump for it or be out. Often this resulted in eating dirt.

Hanging from that rope so often gave me really toned arms as an early teen lol

a-c-a-b posted...

I can't recall what it was called but I remember a game where we'd sit on this little plastic thing with wheels and push yourself around with your feet. And then basically play soccer.

Yeah, we did that one.

We had one called "fishy fishy cross my ocean." it was pretty much just a game of tag where you had to cross one side of the gym to the other. The shark would tag people and then they'd become coral that stayed in place, but could tag people if they came close. It was actually pretty fun.

Rough housing, which was basically just getting on top of the playground podium thingy and trying to beat the shit out of each other until you're the last one on it. Also slapass Friday which is what you'd expect but I never did it..

Bump for now