It’s TETHERBALL time!

by

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I shall let you in on my dirty little secret.

A secret which becomes pretty readily apparent if you spend any time with me on ANY athletic endeavor.

I’m completely, wholly and utterly uncoordinated.

There’s a reason I LOVE THE IRON as there’s never a ball or birdie or ANYTHING flying at my face & requiring me to lob it back.

I shall let you in on another dirty little secret.

As much as I’m all YAY YAY RAH RAH!! WE PLAYout NOT WORKOUT!! GO TEAM MISFIT-FUN!! I’m a consistent no when it comes to playing tether-ball.

A consistent fear based, smacked in face by BALL afraid no.

Until one fateful morning when I made the calculated error of instigating another surprise YES-DAY.

None to my surprise, the Tornado immediately asked if Id play tether-ball and I was compelled to embrace my ball-in-face fears and say YES.

And, as with all things PLAYout and Tornado, I learned more than a few things along the way.

  • Tether-ball game is over when a player wraps ball around pole & theres no mo’ rope to wrap. Or, if you play with my child, the game is over as soon as it starts because she swats maniacally at the ball until all rope-slack disappears (silver lining? I barely had to hit the ball).
  • Players cant touch pole/rope during game, no throwing the ball,, touching ball with anything but hands/forearms is *illegal.* Translation: the Tornado plays by different rules. There was no pole touching (due to my shouts of CAREFUL!! TETANUS SHOT!! Im sure) but homegirl threw, slammed, whacked, played DIRRTY and HURLED.
  • Tether-ball works the core, balance, reaction time, and bob & weave muscles. Id viewed tether-ball as not just a purveyor of SMACKED-FACE, but a waste of my playground PLAYout time. I was incorrect. My balance & reaction time was challenged in the same way as juggling! My CORE? Sore the next morning from dodging, bobbing and waving from the Tornado’s crazy smacks. Which leads me to…
  • Few fears are truly irrational as evidenced in the clip below. She’s grown up the child of a vlogger. The video was her idea—the final few seconds were not.

 

To my OAKtown-dismay that’s where our tether-ball story abruptly ends.

The good news is I learned to embrace my fears and enjoy the tether-ball.

The bad news is when we returned to our playground to play the *very next day* this is what we found:

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all pole. no ball.

Sadly you’ll have to imagine my fancy look-at-me pose with our *real* peel’y rusty tether-ball pole.

Sadly, you’re just getting this:

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  • When was the last time you played TETHERBALL?
  • The last time you were smacked in the face by a swiftly moving round object?

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Comments

  3. Oh my goodness …. I remember distinctly being in the stomach with a tetherball and having the wind knocked out of me when I was in grade school haha.

    Side note – my brother-in-law hit me in the face when I was about the Tornado’s age with a soccer ball haha.

  4. The twins and I used to play a lot at the pool over the summers.
    I don’t think there is one near us now.
    I’m TERRIBLE.

  6. this has happened to me soooo many times. we had a tether ball pole in my back yard. My brothers would swing it so fast and it would slap me every time… yet i still went back. LOL!

  7. I used to play that ALL the time as a kid. Loved that game! I bought an at home version when my kids were little and it just wasn’t the same… I’m not even sure they have that at playgrounds around here.

  9. I was traumatized by tether-ball in grade school! Not because I was afraid, but because I was always the smallest kid in my class (I tower in comparison now at 5 ft 1 lol) and the bigger kids always wanted to play against me! I was also always picked last for just about every team in phys ed, but that’s for another therapy session! Though the me vs. tether-ball crowd thing always amused me, because I was a great athlete even as a child, but because of my size I was at a disadvantage with activities like tether-ball. I could climb the rope to the gymnasium ceiling by the age of 6, but when it came to tether-ball I was never a winner so, I dunno, if I were to see a pole without the ball it might make my day. It would also make me think of the “Festivus” episode of Seinfeld… haha!

  10. I haven’t played tether all in years. Maybe since I was a kid. I think I was pretty good at it, but my adult fears would probably pop up if I tried it now.

  12. Tetherball i didn’t mind so much in school, it was the very athletic girls who would smack you in the face on purpose with a basketball to get you replaced in the game because you weren’t good at it that bothered me.

    And since i play ball with the kids i babysit, my lack of coordination gets laughs and bonks in the head a lot, which is fine. It keeps them happy.

  13. Growing up, we lived next door to two other girls who were the same age difference as me and my sister, but one year behind. For example, one fateful summer, we were ages 8,9,10, and 11 respectively. They had a tetherball setup in their yard, and we would all get so FIERCELY competitive with it, that their mom would limit all of our tetherball time until we could all “play nice” together, haha. I LOVED that game! Such amazing memories!

  14. Ouch! We have two neighbors who each have one by their garages…the kids have loved it for years. Our favorite vacation spot in the Adirondacks also has a huge one on a big, log pole. It’s very popular! I say you get one for the new place in the ATX.

  15. Love this! In high school I worked a few times a week at an after school daycare program and played tether-ball ALL THE TIME! It’s definitely a good workout for kids and adults!

  21. I remember playing tether ball as a kid and the game could get quite intense. I haven’t seen a tether ball pole around for awhile. After viewing the video you can definitely see the benefits to your core!

  22. Even though I completely suck at tetherball, I LOVE playing it. I usually end up laughing so hard that I can hardly stand. My boys always think I’m a total idiot – winning!!!! I usually end up hitting myself with the ball which just makes me laugh harder.

  24. I ALWAYS avoided tetherball when I was in grade school because… I did not like balls flying in my face. Oh have the times have changed…….. BAHHH HA HA HA HA AH AH!

  27. It is a long time since I played tetherball. But I went swinging — on a swing…no other ideas folks! I am in my mid 60’s and think that rules that are now banning playground equipment in so many school years is ridiculous. Sure we got injured on that stuff. But my grandson broke his wrist on plain old grass. Changed directions to fast, lost his balance and fell – so should we ban grass.

    My childhood favorite. The Maypole!!!

  29. Tetherball was MY FAVE as a camper when I was a kid. Now it’s fun to see my children playing it at their camp!

  30. When was the last time I played tetherball? That got me to thinking and feeling pretty old at the same time. I’d say it’s been about 30 years.

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