Basketball Games Zigzag Overhead Toss
( Basketball, BeanBag, Choreographed, Handball, Physical Contest, Relay Race )This game is a variation of Zigzag Ball and is more difficult and interesting for older players. The players are divided into two parties best distinguished by colors–say Red and Blue. The two parties stand in even ranks alternately about five feet apart for instance the Red party will form ranks one and three and will play together facing each other while the Blue party will form ranks two and four which will face each other and play together.
The first player in each party has a ball which is put in play upon a signal by being tossed over the heads of the intervening rank to Number One in the other rank of his party. This player tosses the ball back to Number Two in the first rank and so the ball is tossed in zigzag form from one player to another in ranks of the same color until it reaches the end of the line when it is zigzagged back to the starting point in the same way. This is all done over the heads of an intervening rank of the opposite color. Simultaneously the competing team is playing in the same way.
The party wins which first gets the ball back to the starting point.
With a large number of players the number of ranks may be increased beyond four if desired.
This game may be made more interesting and require much more alertness on the part of the players by putting more balls into play. This may be done by the starters starting a second or more balls tossing down the line as soon as a predecessor has reached the third player. When this is done the game is won ( a ) by the party whose last player at the foot of the line is first to receive the last ball or ( b ) the last player may accumulate the balls and return them to the front in reverse order the party winning which first gets its last ball back to the original starter.