Who would have thought that dodging balls would lead into something both exhilarating and fun for adults.
Sandton Action Sport hosts its dodgeball league every Tuesday nights for Sandown residents who enjoy dodging, and throwing objects at their opponents.
The simple objective of the competitive game is to hit as many players from the opposition. Once a player gets hit, they are eliminated from playing. This goes on till one team has all of its members eliminated.
Jason Baydinet, a regular who has been playing dodgeball since Sandton Action Sport started the league, broke down the major rules of playing the sport. “It starts and ends with dodge. As the game starts, you run from your side of the field to the centre where you will compete with a player to get a ball.
Once a player grabs a ball, they quickly return to the point where they started in order to activate the ball by touching the wall or net. That is when one can start throwing the ball at their opponents from their end of the field. If I get hit by a ball, I get eliminated but here’s a cool twist, if I happen to catch the ball, the player who threw the ball gets eliminated and I get to bring in one of my eliminated players.
The game ends once all players from the other team get eliminated either by stepping over the boundary line, getting hit by the ball or by having their ball caught by the opposition,” said Baydinet.
Captain of the MaverIQs, Tamzyn Smith, discussed how her dodgeball experience has been so far with her team. “Dodgeball is more than a sport to us, it’s about developing relationships, trust and strategies which helps us navigate the world as a unit. Our goal right now is to get two wins,” she said.
The league, which began in 2019, currently has 10 teams competing against each other every Tuesday from 18:30 to 20:00. The league ends in December.
