Striking The Stick

This traditional Chinese outdoor game requires a certain amount of skill, practise and ingenuity, as well as some flat ground.

Striking the stick

Mark out a square, about 5 or 6 feet wide. One child (the "striker") stands within the square, placing his feet wide apart and trying to dominate the square as much as possible. He holds a stick.

Another child then places a small wooden block somewhere within the square, trying to put it in a position that will make it difficult for the striker to hit it.

The striker is now allowed to move one foot out of the square and hop around (keeping the other foot fixed tight) to find a good position from which to throw his stick at the block, trying to shove it outside the square. If he fails to move the block out, the child that placed the block takes his place.

If he manages to push the block outside the square with his first throw, he then gets to try the "challenge", as follows:

First, he hits the ball hard from above to make it jump into the air. When it does so, he then hits it as far as he can away from the square (as you would hit a baseball with a baseball bat). He has 3 goes like that, trying to move the block an agreed number of feet - say 50 or 100 - depending on the age and skill of the child.

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