The beauty of a rather large red ball hurling towards you and making that slapping sound is truly an interesting sport to partake in. Today I'd like to explore the wide world of the art of Dodge Ball. There are different types of balls and am going to go over Dodge Ball to widen your appreciation of spherical things that can smack you whilst playing things. I will be probably making "Balls" a series so am going to cover today, the origins and history of the........ DODGE BALL! I also will cover the evolution and innovations that have made these balls a part of our human experience. There are not a ton of Womyn writers so I am going to go out on a limb and write about sports balls because getting hit in the face with balls really hurts!
Does anyone remember in Gym class the fun of Dodge Ball? Getting pegged hard by the biggest kids was always a joy and of course we'd aim back at parts that got us in trouble. I was a very thin but athletically built girl so even though I was small my aim was on point and still pretty much is if I have to do some epic throws with "Special Snowflake"....our Pup! According to Wikipedia, Rebounderz and other sites, the ball of dodge originated in Africa a few hundred years back although am guessing the concept is much older. Whilst researching this a list of questions just pop up and an anon source stated the cross cultural origins of Dodge Ball! Now this is whack....
Here's a sassy and uncouth quote from the internet via random Google question..."Ancient Dodgeball was played by opium-addicted Chinamen, who threw severed human heads at each other.The heads were mostly harvested from white people, who were disgusting and an anarchronism anyway. ... Modern Dodgeball was invented by Augustus Hagerson in Africa in 1832." Politically Incorrect info from Anon Internet Person, also the Mayans/Aztecs were into playing forms of football with human severed heads. I'm just throwing that last part in there for your entertainment and enlightenment.
Dodge Ball in Africa was a big deal although it was seemingly NOT with human heads but with heavy object like rocks or such. That is good since it seems this concept of pegging people with things seemed to use a lot of human body parts. I for one am glad we've all come a long way to use these red bouncy rubber balls to take our existential angst our with!
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Your support is appreciated and help me become an even betterer Womyn's writer by commenting below with your thoughts about Dodge Ball. I am going to focus on other sports as well....thinking this one soon!
All images courtesy of Giphy
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