Games (Video): Rutabaga Bowling

Dick Moss, Editor, PE Update.com

Here's a fun contest you can use as an icebreaker. It's a bowling game except that the bowling balls are rutabagas. The catch is, rutabagas aren't round!

Setup
Divide your class into teams, each with a rutabaga (or turnip) and lined up 10-20 meters (yards) from a bowling pin or plastic soda bottle. A teacher or student (i.e. the ones who forgot their gym clothing) stands behind each pin.

How to Play
On your signal, the first player from each team bowls their rutabaga, ?attempting to knock down the pin. That student then runs to the back of the line. The rutabaga is rolled back to the next player in line, who also bowls it.

This continues, with the first team to knock down 10 pins winning the contest.

The fun part of the game is the fact that the rutabagas are irregularly shaped. So a perfectly aimed shot can bounce sideways at the very last second. It makes for lots of loud groans and cheers from the players.

Variations
To increase the fitness component of the game, have one student from each team stand behind the bowling pin. That student returns the rutabagas that have been bowled and when the pin is knocked down, sets it back up and runs to the end of the line. The student who knocked down the pin runs behind the rutabaga.

For an even greater fitness component, have every student chase down and return their own rutabaga and re-set their knocked-down pins.

To see a demonstration of
Rutabaga Bowling, watch the video below:

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