British bulldog (game)

British Bulldog
Players20–30
Playing time15–20 minutes
Age range8+
SkillsPhysical fitness, group energy, social skills, developing trust[1]

British Bulldog is a tag-based playground and sporting game, commonly played in schoolyards and on athletic fields in the UK, Canada, South Africa, Australia, and related Commonwealth countries, as well as in the U.S. and Ireland. The object of the game is for one player to attempt to intercept other players who are obliged to run from one designated area to another. British Bulldog is characterised by its physicality (i.e. the captor inevitably has to use force to stop a player from crossing[2]) and is often regarded as violent, leading it to be banned from many schools due to injuries to the participants.[3]

The game is a descendant of traditional chasing games recorded from the 18th and 19th centuries,[4] which partially evolved into collision-sport-related games during the early 20th century by the inclusion of lifting and drifting tackling techniques. In a sport's historical context, like its predecessors, British Bulldog has been used as a skill-and-drill device to reinforce and further develop locomotion skills fundamentally vital to American football, rugby, football, hockey and related team sports.[5][6]

  1. ^ David Wallace Booth: British Bulldog. In: Games for Everyone. Pembroke Publishers Ltd., Markham, Ontario, 1986, ISBN 0-921217-03-X, p. 27.
  2. ^ Iona Archibald Opie, Peter Opie: British Bulldog. In: Children's Games in Street and Playground. At the Clarendon Press, Oxford 1969, p. 22.
  3. ^ Caroline Sanderson. "British Bulldog". In: Kiss Chase and Conkers: The Games We Played. Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd., Edinburgh 2008, ISBN 9780550104274, pp. 15–16.
  4. ^ Roud, Steve (2010). "British Bulldog and Other Chasing Games". The Lore of the Playground. Random House. pp. 37–42. ISBN 9781407089324.
  5. ^ Sharon Baker, Jane Watkinson: "Games Using Tag Concepts". In: Jane Watkinson: Let's Play! Promoting Active Playgrounds. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois, 2009, ISBN 978-0736070010, p. 92.
  6. ^ Tim Lynch: Quality invasion games. Red Rover or British Bulldog? In: Active + Healthy Magazine. Volume 20, Issue 3/4, Australian Council for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, Adelaide 2013, p. 27.