Hop to it!

The season usually starts in April, somewhere near Easter, definitely after most or all of the snow has melted.  It lasts through the spring, and you sometimes get stragglers here and there throughout the summer.  If you run in town, or otherwise cover a lot of suburban sidewalk, you might have guessed it:  hopscotch.

I’ve seen my fair share of hopscotch courts on my runs.  There are the traditional, 10-square schoolyard courts, not-so-traditional 10-square designs, and then there are the creative ones.  Usually decorated with chalk hearts, stars, initials, faces, and names, these courts vary in length and design.  One of my favourites was from last spring; it just went on and on, about 30 squares in total, each row progressively smaller and more crooked.  I’ve been known to hop through a court on a run from time to time, but I couldn’t have hopped through that one if I’d wanted to, given that whole rule about not touching the lines with your feet.

Last week, I saw my most challenging (and oddly hilarious) hopscotch court yet.  Each box (or set of two side by side boxes) was one panel of the sidewalk.  While this court gets an “A” for its perfectly straight lines and uniformity of box sizes, it could probably only be properly played by basketball players and circus performers.

Apparently hopscotch is serious stuff.  According to Internet rumour, it started out as a military exercise by the Romans in ancient Britain, with courts 100 yards long.  Soldiers would do the courses loaded with packs to improve their footwork.  It became a children’s game when kids, emulating the soldiers, made their own courts, and eventually, their own rules, and the game spread across Europe.   In more modern times, there is even a category in the Guinness World Records for fastest game of hopscotch.

That got me thinking: maybe there are some benefits to runners.  I mean, maybe runners don’t really need to focus on accuracy, per se – mercifully, the “in bounds” area is pretty large.  But it could be pretty good plyometrics,  don’t you think?  Maybe I should go for a run before it rains and washes away the last few courts!