Here are some examples of people’s experiences being bullied and targeted while being forced to play this “game” in PE. I find people’s willingness to dismiss these accounts as the complaints of wimpy snowflakes who just need to “suck it up” rather disturbing.
"I recall dodgeball being a very Lord-of-the-Flies affair in which some of the most physically aggressive kids in class would gang up on the weaker ones and pummel them with the ball with terrifying ferocity. In my school, those hit did not then get to become throwers. They just got to leave the game (mercifully). I used to get big red welts where the throwers would hit me with the ball as hard as they possibly could. "
“I absolutely hated dodge ball. It was the 70s and I was the ungainly, fat, and nerdy girl who got good grades. I was absolutely bombarded with balls the second the game started. Eventually I would just throw myself in front of the first ball so I could leave the game and read my book in the stands. I’m pretty sure that the purpose of the game was not to cause the fat kids to spend the P. E. time in the stands, but there was a regular cohort of us trying to avoid being battered and bruised. The game, in my opinion, is useless to encourage activity in children but is really quite good at encouraging violence.”
“When I was a child in elementary school, the “rule” was that the ball must be aimed toward the legs only. Players who wanted to harm classmates they didn’t like often decided that this rule did not apply to them. I know, because I was frequently the victim of this kind of bullying. I’d often been hit - hard - in the stomach and on the face. If I complained to the P.E. coach, it was brushed off as “accidental”. If I cried when I was injured, I was labeled a “baby” by classmates who sucked up to bullies in order to avoid being their next victim.”
“The gym coaches I had would pick the teams…usually one team would be “football player” type students vs. the “chess club” type students. It was all part of the coaches teaching athletic students to be “Jocks”. We even had some of the “victim team” kids knocked out with concussions.”
“I recall the bigger, stronger kids who had a penchant for bullying targeting those they disliked who were usually much smaller in stature. Roars of laughter led by the gym instructor would erupt if these rubbery missiles hit their target, a face shot at high velocity that rang throughout the gym. Looking back, I wonder how this is even possible in a civil society? How this activity was created and condoned by adults?”
“I am usually skeptical of studies like this, but there is no doubt that sadism is a major part of dodgeball. I even remember that back in elementary school, the gym teacher played as well, and this full grown man loved throwing the ball at us kids as hard as he could.”
“Dodgeball in school was really the bigger, athletic kids sadistically eliminating the smaller, spastic kids . . . . then getting down to real business on each other. You can guess which group has fond memories of dodgeball in school.”
“I knew plenty of kids who absolutely dreaded dodgeball. It gave some of the nastier kids in our school the opportunity to take out their aggressions on others without getting in trouble.”
“Fun?! Nope, although the athletically inclined, more aggressive and sadistic players certainly seemed to have a good time. Great “game” for bullies and those who aspire to same… Horrendous”
“They STILL play this in schools? We played this in gym in elementary school in the 70’s and kids would always get welts when the biggest kids in the class waled them with the ball.”
“I was never good at throwing balls and was not a jock, so I was a weak player, since I wore glasses it was common to have them flattened and bent against my face…”
“Dodgeball was the favorite game of the mean kids. Boy, did those balls sting. The rest of us attempted to hang back (out of range). Then they would go after the kids hanging back. . .”
“Heck yes it was dehumanizing. It sucked for anyone in that F’n gym class. All the jock A-holes teeing up on everyone else? Gym teachers reliving their sadistic tendencies in public. What a bunch of BS.”
“Sport?? Licensed assault”
“Dodgeball is fun if you are big or strong or aggressive. If you are none of these things, it is a nightmare. It is also a lazy gym teacher’s way to “plan” a lesson. Unless you volunteer to play on a team on your own time, no one should be forced to play a game that encourages students to use brute strength to deliberately target another student. Best outcome for many students? They get pounded by the ball and sit out the rest of the game. Great physical education there, coach. I work in the schools and can tell you that dodgeball should be outlawed in schools.”