Dodgeball Dilemma: From Ferocious Fun to Safer Sports in Education (repost)

As a PE teacher with a front-row seat to the chaos of dodgeball, I've witnessed firsthand the way it can spiral from fun to ferocious. Flashes of head injuries and the sting of exclusion still resonate with me, as well as the echo of my wife's childhood fears regarding the game. On Super SizedPhysed, we're tackling the enduring controversy of dodgeball in schools, questioning its place in our education system. Join me for a candid discussion on the consequences I've observed, why I ultimately removed dodgeball from my curriculum, and the safer, more inclusive alternatives like castle ball and Wreck-It Ralph that I've come to appreciate.

This episode is more than a walk down memory lane; it's a call to arms for my fellow educators to uphold the integrity of our profession. As we dissect the critical role of teaching sports with professionalism, I invite you to bring your thoughts to the table—whether they align with mine or not. We'll explore how to provide quality instruction that goes beyond the trivial and ensures we are seen as an indispensable part of the educational journey. Together, let's elevate our practice and reaffirm our value in shaping the future of education. Tune in for a thought-provoking conversation that might just inspire you to rethink your stance on the dodgeball debate.

Take care,

Dave

P.S. This episode is reposted with AI to hopefully get the word out to others who are on the fence. I am teaching PE again (thank The Lord!), and dodgeball isn't even a question.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello and welcome to the Super Size Fizzed podcast. My name is Dave and I want to talk about dodgeball one last time. I really don't want to talk about dodgeball, but I feel like it's always, always, always online. It's always online. There's always somebody posting something about dodgeball and then there's 50 people saying, yeah, you're right, and there's other 50 people saying, no, you're wrong, and it gets really heated and ugly, and so I'm going to give my five cents, maybe 10 cents after this. Here we go, all right. So honestly, I don't want to talk about dodgeball. It's just, oh my gosh, I see it online all the time and 99% of the time I stay out of the debate because I don't want to get sucked in. I don't. So I just want to leave it here on my podcast. Now.

Speaker 1: 1:09

We did just talk about dodgeball as a whole group panel on a recent episode of around the Horn, health and Fizzed. So check that out for more information or for, I guess, different opinions on it. So I'm just going to tell you my experience with dodgeball and we'll leave it there. It's just my experience. Now I taught about nine and a half years of PE and I'm still determined to go back. So this isn't the end, but right now I am teaching US history and I am really enjoyed actually, but the dodgeball thing just it's like it never ends. It never ends. So I'm just going to tell you what I observe playing dodgeball. Now someone's going to say, well, that's not my experience. Okay, I understand. Or some people say, well, I teach in Scotland and it's different over there. Well, I don't. Just because it's outlawed by shape at the United States Council doesn't mean it's like safe in Scotland or Ireland or whatever New Zealand. And just because it's outlawed somewhere doesn't mean it's safe somewhere else. Do you use different? Do you use even softer dodgeballs? How does that work? So here's what I'm going to say.

Speaker 1: 2:19

First of all, I played dodgeball with my classes my first two years teaching PE, because I didn't know there was even a debate. This is 2011-2013, 2014. Around that time I wasn't on Twitter and Voxer and all that stuff. I guess I probably was, but I wasn't on Voxer. I know that and I didn't know there's much of a debate. I just kind of followed my and it wasn't outlawed in Florida and that's why I teach. It wasn't. It was kind of frowned upon, I guess, but it wasn't outlawed. And there's still people in my district that play dodgeball like all the time, which I can't believe, but that just whatever. So for me, I told you I'm going to talk about me. I'm going to talk about me and my situation.

Speaker 1: 3:10

So, first of all, we played dodgeball, like I said, for a couple of years. We put variations on it. Yes, kids got hit in the head. Yes, kids got hurt. You can't guarantee me those gator skin balls are going to go straight. There's no way those things and especially outside with the wind and even with no wind, those things always go straight. So you can't tell me that if you don't aim for their head, they won't get hit in the head. Or no kids have ever gotten hurt. Well, I bet kids get hurt. And to possibly tell a parent, well, they got hit in the head playing dodgeball, hit in the face. I don't want to deal with that Now again, here's what I saw when we played.

Speaker 1: 3:48

I saw lots and lots and lots of cheating. Oh, someone would say that hit you. No, it didn't. Yes, it did. No, it didn't. And then solving that is a whole big problem. And then the kids, not only cheating and lying, but also the poor sportsmanship, all targeting one kid, or just targeting kids you don't like or the weaker kids. I had kids hiding behind the because we played outside, hiding behind the basketball poles on the opposite side in the background, just so it wouldn't get hit, and that's when I knew I had to change it.

Speaker 1: 4:25

The other thing that changed me, by the way, is and I didn't mention this, say this I love dodgeball as a kid and we played with those ones in the movie dodgeball like those red rubber, hard, big, as big as like almost basketballs dodgeballs, and I was really good at it. I loved it. But when I had a conversation with my wife, this kind of blew me away. She just said she was afraid of the dodgeballs when she was a kid. She was afraid of getting hit and I was blown away by that. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I didn't realize there was another side to it. I thought everybody loved dodgeball. I really did. I thought everybody loved it, but I saw it. I saw it in my students, I saw it in what my wife said or heard it.

Speaker 1: 5:03

And then when I went to shape Florida yes, shape Florida, so not trying to follow the national standards here, people there was a thing. I'm not going to say the exact name of it because I don't want to get in my super in trouble, but there was a Frisbee. Actually it was built as a dodgeball alternative and it was basically Frisbee dodgeball, that's all it was. And I saw adults doing the same thing. Somebody got hit and I was like no, I didn't get hit, or they were cheating. They were yelling and screaming and they weren't quite taunting, but it was everything I saw in kids, I saw in adults and I just knew that I'm done with this.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Now I do play. I'm not a snob, I do play, or I did play the castle ball. We play a thing called Wreck-It Ralph where we built the pyramids of buckets and they tried to knock them over and there would be guards. We played a lot of Prairie Dog Pick-Off, which is from Joey Fythe's presentation I saw on his website when there's a pin and a hoop and they have to throw and try to knock the pin down and they join teams and all this stuff. So I do alternatives to it, but we don't ever target the people. That's the difference. We don't target people and it shape clearly says dodgeball is not appropriate practice and that's really it. I don't know else to say Now you could say, well, saying no to anything is just that's being closed-minded.

Speaker 1: 6:29

Or I know my students, but then why don't we just play tackle football? Why not? I know my students, they can handle it Not really, but I'm just saying that could be the why don't we just do? There's a lot of things you could say. Well, I know my students and they would never get hurt and they would never there's no bullying. But that's not following the standards and it's not following good practice. And what are you really learning? There's many, many, many throwing and catching and dodging type games, or at least movement type games, where you can throw and catch on the run, things like that. It's just not worth it. It's not the right thing and it's kind of lazy teaching. If I'm being really honest, it's just lazy. There you go, don't teach dodgeball. You're being lazy, done Bye.

Speaker 1: 7:14

But I do care about all of you and I want you to have a great day, or whenever you listen to this. I really do, you're awesome and I appreciate you listening in. Even if you don't agree with me, I do appreciate you and I love the feedback, good or bad, positive or negative, if you agree or disagree, I welcome it. I welcome the challenge because I'm on the right side of at least the law, basically, and so definitely the standards, and I just challenge you to again if somebody gets hurt, you have to defend yourself and you might just defend yourself in court, because it's against the standards, it's against our community and the reason why people get so mad is because you're basically saying that's all we are is dodgeball teachers and anybody can teach dodgeball. You can get a football coach in here and teach dodgeball because everybody knows how to play it.

Speaker 1: 8:05

So don't become replaceable. Don't teach garbage. Teach the right way, and I usually don't take a stand in the soapbox, on a soapbox and stuff like that, but this is my soapbox. Don't teach dodgeball, please. End of discussion. Have a great day. You're awesome. Let's keep pushing our profession forward.