Game of graces
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Game of Graces was a popular leisure activity for young girls during the early 1800s. First documented during the 1830s[1], The Game of Graces was considered a proper game benefiting young ladies and, supposedly, tailored to make them more graceful. Graces was hardly ever played by boys, and never played by two boys at the same time, either two girls, or a boy and a girl.[2]
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[edit] How to play
[edit] Traditional Rules
Graces is traditionally played with two people. Each person gets two dowel rods, four in total. Then, one of the players takes a wooden hoop and, pushing apart the two rods, makes the hoop fly in the air for the other player to try and catch it. The winner is the player who catches the hoop ten times first.
Mastering aiming and catching can be very time consuming. To throw the hoop, one takes the hoop and, with one rod in each hand, places the hoop over both of the rods so as they are inside of the hoop. The player would then let the hoop slide slightly down the rod and cross the rods in an X shape. Ideally, the hoop should be on the lower triangle of the X shape. Then, pulling the rods apart, the hoop will quickly slide up and shoot away from the player, towards the direction aimed for.
The hoop is generally 9 inches in diameter and decorated with different colored ribbons. The ribbon, used to make the hoop softer to catch, is wrapped all around the hoop in alteration with the ends left hanging off so that they will slow the hoop down in the air.[3] The dowel rods are 15 inches to 2 feet long, some rods come to a point.[4]
[edit] Ultimate Graces
[The instructions in this section is not at all clear to an outsider.] Recently Graces has made a revival among some American teenagers with a new twist. The idea came from student Kevin Tydlacka from Huntsville, Texas. Ultimate Graces utilizes the same technical abilities of the traditional game of Graces, but turns it into a more active sport. Played much like football(soccer) mixed with Ultimate Frisbee, Ultimate Graces is played on a field with two goals on each side. teams can range from just two players to eleven players on each team, so long as the teams are even. Depending on the amount of players, there may be a goalkeeper.
Ultimate Graces shares the general rules of Football and Ultimate Frisbee, along with the technical aspects of Graces, with a few additions specific to the nature of the game itself. These changes include changes in the name of the apparatuses used to play. The rods are called batons and the hoops called halos. Additional rules for play include, if the halo falls on the ground and a player throws his baton towards it and the baton lands in the ground inside of the area of the halo, that player gains control of the halo, this can also be accomplished without throwing the baton. This causes a frantic chase after the halo if a player fails to catch it on his batons. This is the only way to steal the halo from the other team other than intercepting a throw to another player since stealing off of another player's baton is not allowed. Also, the rule inspired from Ultimate Frisbee, once a player gains control of the halo, he can not move forward any, though he can move left, right and backwards. If a player catches the halo near the penalty box then the invisible line in front of him is only that penalty box, and he may maneuver around it however he pleases, but players in control of the halo may not enter another team's penalty box to shoot. There have yet to be specifications of time, score limits or time limits are set before the game, or players will play until a majority is too tired to play anymore.
