While there are many sports practiced competitively around the world, there are those that are not competed in major tournaments. Whether it is because they do not have the necessary funding, are not seen as major sports by the rest of the world or its organizers simply not wanting to hold year long tournaments, there are sports which are meant for fun, and are more commonly seen in a physical education course rather than televised to millions of people via satellite.


Some examples of informal sport include dodge-ball, kickball, peteca and tag. While these are games that many children play to get into shape and keep up their general fitness, they are not given much importance as international events and it is rare that they are televised. In the next few paragraphs, I will profile some of these types of informal sport, and how to play them.


Dodge-ball is the most famous informal sport, with a movie even being made with the game as its sole subject (entitled Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story). Dodge-ball is relatively simple to play, with the object of the game being to “out” the opposition team by hitting them with the ball. Players aim to dodge the balls thrown by the opposition team to stay in the game, while they can also catch an airborne ball thrown that has not hit the ground to get an opponent out. Players are not allowed to aim above the shoulder as this can be dangerous, and should the ball hit an opponent above shoulder level he/she is not declared out.


Peteca is another type of informal sport, played mainly in Brazil and other South American countries. It is very similar to badminton or volleyball, in the fact that the object of the game is to hit the peteca (shuttlecock) over the net. However, no racquet is used, and players of peteca use their hands to hit the shuttlecock (also called the peteca in Portuguese) over the net. There are not many rules, as it is played mainly for amusement and relaxation purposes. Each match is played to a best-of-three format, and the first player (or pair) to score twelve points wins the set. A single game is meant to last a maximum of twenty minutes.

Kickball is a typical sport played by young children in the playground. Also known as soccer baseball, kickball incorporates the aspects of the two sports and makes it one; it is basically a baseball field where you kick the ball. There are standard baseball bases, and each player to reach the last base (and score a home run) gets their team a point. Each team is given three strikers, just as in baseball and instead of throwing the ball at the kicker, the ball is gently rolled to him/her.

Tag, or catch is another game typically played by those of a young age. It will never be competed as a sport, as there are no teams or opponents as such, just one catcher and the rest runners. A variation of tag is called cops and robbers, where those tagged are sent to “jail” and must be freed by fellow runners. The basic version of tag is easy to understand, one person is the catcher and tries to catch a runner, when he/her does that they swap- the catcher becomes the runner and vice versa.