Bringing the Co-operative Spirit Into Play
3-Legged Games

Perhaps the ultimate incentive to be co-operative is the 3-legged
race. If you can't come to an agreement with the person tied to
your leg, you lose. The traditional 3-legged race, however, still
includes an element of competition. One pair still wins. Two
people still come in last Ä and each may blame the other for the
loss.

Three-legged running can be made more co-operative if the group
forms a large circle. The object is to get to the other side of
the circle without running into anyone. Instead of racing more or
less directly to the finish line, the runners must dodge and
weave in unison to avoid colliding with anyone. If everyone makes
it safely without falling down or getting tangled with another
pair, the whole group wins.

Other variations on 3-legged games may include 3-legged hopscotch
and 3-legged skipping. The truly daring could try building and
walking on 3-legged stilts. Each partner uses one regular stilt,
and they share a single middle stilt with two foot supports. Make
sure you have something soft to fall on!

For another challenge, turn a 3-legged run into a 4-legged run by
joining three people together. I get confused even thinking about
that one... Let's see, the person on the right goes right, left,
right; the one in the middle goes left, right, left, and the one
that's left goes right, left, right, right? This could be carried
to extremes if a whole bunch of kids tied their legs together to
form a giant centipede, and then went for a walk.  


- Maureen Woodall
From August/September 1995 VICHA Newsletter (Newsletter of the
Vancouver Island Co-operative Housing Association).

Co-operative games allow everyone to take part without feeling
left out, without feeling like losers, and without hurting or
getting hurt. If you would like to share a co-operative game with
us, please e-mail Maureen Woodall: wj045@freenet.victoria.bc.ca