Dodgeball: From the Playground to the Local Gym

First there was roller blades, then beach volleyball, and then climbing long staircases. Today, a schoolyard game often associated with bullies may be the next trendy participant exercise: dodgeball.

A dodgeball league is being established in the South Bay, and a Manhattan Beach health club will offer weekly lessons, the Daily Breeze reported.

The Los Angeles Dodgeball Society's Sum-Sum Chan told the newspaper eight teams of 20 players are being organized. Five people on each team must be women, Chan said.

Until then, the Adventureplex fitness center will offer weekly open gym sessions where athletes pay $5 to play, learn the rules and develop dodging skills.

Chan told the Daily Breeze the league could expand into Torrance if enough interest develops, and already several teams have signed up for play in Manhattan Beach.

"It's a level playing field when you start. There's no 'Oh, you played it in college,'" Chan told the Daily Breeze. "It's a sport that most everybody can pick up. It's very campy, so most people dress up in outrageous outfits."

Dodgeball neophyte Chris Beggs told the Daily Breeze he was hooked on the sport after watching a round of competitive, coed dodgeball following a Los Angeles Clippers game.

"I thought it was hilarious and looked like a lot of fun," said Beggs, a 31-year-old Playa del Rey resident.

Steve Kassab said the game's speed and the large number of players quickly made his childhood dodgeball experience look like childplay. The 24- year-old Redondo Beach residents told the Daily Breeze he picked up the sport about two years ago.

Kassab has routinely driven to Westwood to play on a team whose members don T-shirts from the landmark Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles, accessorized with rubber chickens.

The only question that remains is: "Do they still use those big red balls that will leave welts on you for days?"

Leave Comments