Hall of Shame Games and Dodgeball

I believe that some games that are listed in the Hall of Shame should not be played in a physical education classroom. Some of the games that should not be allowed to be played would be duck duck goose, musical chairs, red rover and Simon says. Most of those games include a lot of only one person moving around at a time and the others simply standing around doing nothing but waiting until its their turn. I feel like they should be in the Hall of Shame because they do not promote a lot of physical fitness. I believe however that dodgeball with a few modifications should be an acceptable game that can be played in a physical education classroom and not considered a Hall of Shame game. I have to say that I loved to play dodgeball when growing up. Even though I loved to play dodgeball a lot of my classmates did not. I see that the game does not traditional peek everyones interest. As a physical educator though I want to be able to teach my students the proper techniques that would come in handy for the game, like how to throw and catch a ball. By teaching them these skills they would hopefully be more receptive to trying to participate more in the game. Overall my goal is to be able to adapt a game like dodgeball to suite the needs of all my students.

I think that if dodgeball had a few modifications that it could be a game that would be acceptable to play. Dodgeball does allow the students to improve their throwing, catching, running skills. It even allows for students to work on their teamwork skills.  I think that dodgeball can be improved. It shouldn't be a game that consists of getting your ball caught or getting hit and going over to the sideline and then standing around and waiting for the next game to begin. A few ways that you could change the traditional dodgeball would be if your ball was caught you could go over to the sideline and have another game to play over on another court. Or instead of waiting on the sideline the student that had gotten out could jump rope or play rock paper scissors with the other students that are waiting to get back into the game. Some activity that has them moving and using their brains would be preferable. You could make the modification that if the person that caught your ball gets out, then you go back in. Another thing that you could do to add to the game would be to have the students that are still in the game throw balls into hula hoops scattered all across the floor in certain areas and have them aim for those instead of the other students. If the student gets the ball in the hoop they can bring another player back onto their team. This simple modification allows for students that are not strong throwers to be able to aim at something other than another student that will catch their ball. Which that will give the student more confidence hopefully and have them enjoy the game more and have more participation as well. There are so many more ways that you can modify the game to make it better for all, you just have to be willing to think about it and research ways to modify the game.

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I realize that bodgeball does have the potential to be a dangerous game, but doesn't any physical contact sport have the potential to be dangerous too? You can get hurt playing soccer, basketball, hockey, track and field and football but all these sports are still played. Anytime you are physical you have the chance of injury but I think that improving ones physical health outweighs the fear of a possible injury. A way to reduce the chance of injury in dodgeball would be to play with Nerf balls instead of the traditional red rubber balls. The biggest thing that you as a physical educator could do to reduce the risk of injury is to teach the students the proper way to throw a ball and the proper way to catch a ball. Overall I think that some games should not be played in a physical education classroom but dodgeball should not be considered one of those games.