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My Scout video picks for this week include a great game from Spain and birch bark canoes.
Ninja Slap – Jugeo Scout
This sophisticated game of tag shown in this video of Spanish Scouts was very popular with my Scouts for a year or two.
The game begins in a tight circle, shoulder-to-shoulder, with hands in the middle. On the count of three players shout “Ninja” and jump back into a “Ninja” pose. The object is avoiding having your hand touched or slapped.
Players take turns one at a time, counter-clockwise, being the attacker. Any player may choose to attack any other player and touch either of their hands in a single “Ninja” move. Once they have moved the attacker must freeze in the pose that move creates.
To avoid being touched the other player reacts with a single Ninja move, and also freezes in the pose that move creates. Only the attacker and their victim may move, and only a single Ninja move and a responding reaction move are permitted.
If a player’s hand is touched they are out. The game ends when only one person remains.
As the video shows the pace of the game can be very fast!
Building a Birch Bark Canoe
Archaeologist and woodworker Grant Goltz from Hackensack Minnesota and his friends build a birch bark canoe. The full video runs just under an hour, but it’s fascinating record of the highest form of woodcraft handed down from Native American skill developed over generations.
Author and adventurer Kevin Callan’s sweet, meaningful meditation on our collective future in the wilderness. We all worry a little too much don’t we?
