The games adults play

I have just come back from tae kwon do and as always my whole body hurts! However, this time I was the victim of optimism beyond reason. Our instructor had the "brilliant" (I used the word in irony) idea of getting the class to play leapfrog – yes leapfrog - to increase our agility. Now I may look two thirds of my age (or even half it on a particularly good day), but I am really 50. What I know from my past career as an exercise professional, is that older people are less flexible, take longer to warm up and are slower to heal!

I knew from the moment he said the word “leapfrog” that it would all end in tears. Apart from the fact that even as a child I wasn't particularly good at leapfrog. (Indeed the prevailing memory I have of playing it is misjudging the height of a bollard I was leapfrogging over and colliding pelvic bone to immovable concrete object – you do the physics. It was not a pleasant experience). Most of my class mates are males over 5’10” so I didn’t relish the thought of having to support their weight on my back.

Anyway I decided not to be a whoosh and reluctantly joined in. It’s true what they say about abstinence improving your performance because despite the many years break, I was actually not that bad at it. So where were the tears? From one of my classmates; a particularly weighty and sometimes stroppy 13-year-old, who repeated my experience with the bollard only this time I was the bollard!

Falling over is bad enough when you are 50 and possibly the only thing that could make it any worse is a heavy teenager, who is in the act of propelling themselves forward, falling on top of you. Hence the pain and the twisted joints! Oh well at least it provided me with something to blog about – I'm desperately looking for the positive! OK, if I’m honest, it was actually quite fun.

What was your favourite game when you were a child and do you still play it? Please share your stories, are always look forward to reading them.