On Kingly Ascension

In which an imprisoned individual claws his way from the depths of a dungeon to rule over all in his domain.

A week ago I was fortunate enough to spend a week as an adult guest at a Young Life camp¹.  Which, if you’ve never been, is not like your typical summer camp.  When you here the words ‘summer camp’ you are probably picturing something like this:


Not so at Young Life camp.  These are some of the most beautiful, well run, intentionally designed camps around.  Middle school and high school students are told that it will be the best week of their lives and it is rare trip in which that is not the case.  This is where we stayed:


But all of this is a prelude to the actual topic of this post.  In the middle of camp, right near the dining hall, there was an incredibly sweet Four-Square court.  And we played, a lot.  It had been a number of years since I had played four-square and I forgot how much fun it was.  There were always people playing so when we had some free time Tim and I would join in.

Early in the week the games would be filled with a bunch of dudes  that played games that allowed slams and they enjoyed crushing the ball as hard as they could.  This wasn’t much fun, so Tim decided to introduce a new style of play.  King rules.

In king rules whoever is in the king square² makes up the rules that they want to play by.  This, at first, allowed us to easily do away with overhand hits and slams.  As time went on we introduced other variations.  Examples include, having to spin after you hit the ball, screaming after you hit the ball, saying a state or color as you hit the ball, quarters³, and even requiring that the player be off the ground when a ball is struck.

At first the kids weren’t really into this new style of play, but it slowly caught on.  Later in the week we walked up to the court and found a group of students playing king rules even when we weren’t involved at in the game.  It was pretty great.  The girls really enjoyed coming up with random, or embarrassing, things to say after you hit the ball and it was cool to watch the kid abide by the rules set up by the king.  It made me miss being a Young Life leader more than anything else in the last four years⁴.  It also made me want to play four-square more often.  So if you have a ball and a some spare time drop me a line and we can get a game going.  Just be warned, I have a pretty awesome serve.
____________________________________________________
¹ Timber Wolf Lake in northern Michigan.
² In four-square the squares are labeled dungeon, joker, queen, king.  The king square, which is the best, gets to serve.
³ In quarters at quarter is placed in the center of the court.  If a player can grab the quarter after striking the ball legally and is able to remain in play he or she automatically ascends to the king square.
⁴ Not enough to actually lead again though.