When you were a child, what were some of your favorite pool games that you played with the other children?

Marco

@johnpowell Polo

My sister had a fun game of let’s see how long it takes for asmo to try to grow gills in desperation.

Does that count?

Wow. That brings me back. My friend had a big pool and we’d play MP and chase all damn day. The pool had a slide and an attached hot tub and we had elaborate and codified rules about what parts of the deck and slide were in and out of bounds as well as what constituted our bases.

His over the fence neighbor was also our friend and had a pool and there was a ladder over the fence connecting the two yards, so we really had an epic space to play.

I was told to say hello. Apparently you are good friends with some fossil. ;P

We threw a penny in the water and then we would race to see who could find it first and retrieve it from the bottom of the pool.

All the cousins and some friends belonged to the town pool. Around the sides was a ledge, right at water level. We played gutterball everyday, summer after summer. We’d mark off boundaries (usually between a ladder and the end of the pool) and you had to try and get a Koosh ball to stay on the opposite side’s ledge, and defend your own at the same time.

Do they even make Koosh balls anymore?

And then of course they’d blow the whistle for adult swim and all the kids would sit along the sides as the pool went silent. We would watch very closely as the lifeguards changed shifts. As soon as the rotation ended and the whistle blew again you had to be the first one to be back in the pool.

Marco Polo, of course.
Throwing a handful of coins in and seeing who could collect the most.
Filling balloons with water via the filter system, and tossing them at people not in the pool.
Getting everyone to walk/swim around the pool in the same direction, to create a whirlpool effect.
And of course, tipping my mother over when she fell asleep on the inner tube.

Marco Polo i suppose. I didn’t play much pool games. I did play in the pool with my Barbies a lot though.

One game we played was dubbed “pool rugby”. We divided into teams, usually 2 on 2 or 3 on 3. We used one small rubber toy football. Using the shallow end of the pool, we would get opposite sides and the goal was to get the ball to the opposing side by touching to the edge on that side. “Tackling” was simply done by dunking the ball carrier, who was required to release the ball when submurged, creating a free-for-all. Great fun.

The other was “Square”. Really simple – make an imaginary square-shaped boundary in the deepest part of the pool and play Marco Polo without saying “Marco” or “Polo”. Same thing, but tougher for he who is ‘it’.

“Who can hold their breath the longest”
“Who can swim the fastest”
“Who can make the biggest splash”
...I’d always win :)

We played “Water rugby” in PE when I was in high school. Our gym teacher would play with us – he was this giant guy. Whenever I caught the ball (accidentally) I’d just throw it up in the air rather than get pummeled by my entire PE class.

Ever tried the “Settlers of Catan” ? Great board game.

CHICKEN!!!

Sharks and Minos

Monkey in the middle (but it had to be in the deep end to make it fun)

with the swim team after practice we would play a game called Over Under, which is pretty much where the Coach would yell a series of OVER UNDER and then we would have to swim over the lane ropes or under them in the order he yelled it out, this got pretty competitive.
We also played a game called Survivor which is where the coach would move us all to the 10 foot area and make us tread water with our arm in the air, if you put your arms down our your chin hits the water then your out, last person left would win and get icecream. (this was actually tourte now that i think of it)

@JellyB You bet your kittens that you are correct. See you in the pool!

@mattbrowne We are referring to playing games in the pool right? You are such a silly stork but I do know that the Future does happen twice.

@gambitking Pool Rugby!! That does sound rather fun. I wish we thought of that when I was a child.

@Kraken Cool! You’ll bring your Ken then? ;P

Marco Polo. And me and my sister used to play with our Barbies in the pool too, we’d pretend they’re at a water park and we’d make all these fun water rides for them. It was uber fun.