OLD GAMES for a new day
Not ready for crowds at the beach or park? We have outdoor games to play at home or in the yard.
So it’s now OK to go to the parks and beaches — with limitations — but you’re not ready or you are in a highrisk group that should stay close to home.
That doesn’t mean you have to miss out on warm-weather fun.
We’ve compiled a few outdoor games that you can play solo or at a safe social distance with friends, while avoiding the crowds.
Going solo
PADDLE BALL
Good old paddle ball. A paddle ball is simply a rubber ball connected to a paddle with an elastic string. The beauty of paddle ball is that it is cheap to buy, versatile and appeals to all ages. You can paddle while lounging on the patio or going for a walk. YouTube has tutorials on mastering high-level tricks. Kids can set paddling records among themselves and adults can try sipping a cocktail in one hand while paddling with the other.
While no face mask is required, rookies might want to wear a face shield to avoid whacking themselves as they learn the feel of the game.
A bonus: Players can warn people to stay 6 feet away by simply paddling the ball vertically.
HACKY SACK OR FOOTBAG
Hacky Sack should be the go-to quarantining game. It encompasses various things that virus prevention calls for, including the “Look ma, no hands,” rule of the game, and it can be done without others or at a safe social distance.
The player usually has to use a hand initially to pitch the ball aloft, but then the object of the game is to keep the bag airborne by bouncing it with knees, thighs, arms, forehead, etc.
It can be played with friends spread several feet apart, propelling the ball between them.
The bags are typically small bean bags that can be bought or DIYed like people have done with face masks. The sacks can be made with a piece of heavy fabric and thread, or an old sock and a filler of sand, rice or dry beans.
With friends
BADMINTON
For those who stare longingly at the downed nets at tennis courts all over Hampton Roads, badminton is the ultimate mobile net game for lovers of racquet sports. Sets with four racquets go for as little as $20, and anyone with a decent lawn or nearby park will have enough room to set up a net.
The game is pretty much a fast-paced, racquet-sports version of volleyball that can be played with fewer players — including oneon-one — because it’s played with a shuttlecock and not a ball. The shuttlecock, also called a “birdie” because badminton terminology is fun, has built-in, feather-like airfoils to slow its descent.
Play usually goes to 21 points, with a point scored whenever a player can’t hit the shuttlecock over the net and in-bounds on the opposing court. While, technically, there are official rules for the length of the badminton court (22 feet), lawn games tend to use whatever out-of-bounds markers are convenient.
BOCCE
There are a lot of lawn-throwing games, from horseshoes to petanque to lawn bowling. But Italianborn bocce is simple and can be played on grass without a specialized court — making it perfect for a bored family.
Essentially, the goal is to bowl colored balls on a lawn to get them close to a small ball called the pallino. The first team throws out the pallino, then teams take turns trying to bowl larger colored balls to land as close as possible to it. Each team gets four balls.
Only the balls from the team that get closest to the pallino score points. So only one team per round scores points. The closest ball gets 1 point, or 2 points if it’s touching the pallino. Every ball from the winning team that’s closer than all other balls from the opposing team will also score a point.
If the balls are the same distance from the pallino and no one can agree, no one gets points. The game ends when one of the teams reaches a pre-agreed point amount. Then the bragging begins, preferably with an Italian accent.
LADDERBALL
Ladderball, also called ladder toss or hillbilly golf, is a new-school lawn game. And unless you keep bolos around for hunting wallaby in the outback, you’ll probably need to buy a ladderball kit to play.
But it’s a great game for two or more people, in limited space. The target consists of a “ladder” with three horizontal bars. Your goal is to throw your bolos so they wrap around the horizontal bar and stay there until the end of the round.
The top bar nets 3 points, the middle bar is 2 points, and the bottom bar is 1 point. Score one bolo on each rung, you get an automatic 10 points.
Players alternate turns with different-colored bolos and score at the end of the round. The first team to reach 21 points wins. Kits range from flimsier $20 sets to fancy ones for $100 or more.
VOLLEYBALL
Volleyball is pretty much not possible unless you’ve got at least two people on each side — up to six a team. But luckily all you need is a net, a place to stake down your net, some players, and a ball.
We presume you’ve seen it played, so we won’t explain all the rules. But basically, you bump, slap or spike the ball (arms only, folks) to keep it in play and get it over the net. Only three touches per side, and nobody can touch the ball twice in a row. If a team can’t get the ball over the net after three touches, or if they land it out of bounds on the other side, the other team gets a point.
Volleyball players are easy to spot: Just look for the red skin on their forearms from where the volleyball has smacked them.
YARD YAHTZEE
Not feeling athletic? A number of vendors sell sets of five yard dice that can clunk and wobble over on the grass. All you need is a pencil and a scorecard.
If you’re the gambling sort, we suppose, you can also shoot a game of craps and socially distance while you do it.
CROQUET
Believe it or not, competitive croquet is seeing a resurgence in the world. But most of us just play the casual backyard version with nine wickets and a couple stakes.
How to play? Start at a wooden stake that marks both the beginning and end of the course. Take turns among players: Each turn is one thwack with your mallet. Use your mallet to thwack your ball through a haphazardly improvised course of nine little archways called wickets before hitting the ball against a wooden stake at the end of the course.
Then, go backward through all the wickets until you get your ball back to the beginning. Do this first, and you win. And if you’re losing, spend all your time thwacking your balls into everybody else’s balls, to screw them up and make the game last forever. This is considered excellent sportsmanship.