Three Popular Swimming Pool Games

The heat of summer should not keep children from having fun outside. As a matter of fact, this is the time of the year when children should be enjoying the cool waters of a lake or a swimming pool.

And to make their afternoon swimming more enjoyable, children can play some of the popular swimming pool games. Three are suggested here: Cherry Drop, Fish out of Water, and Marco Polo. How each of these games is played is described below:

Cherry Drop:

This game, which is sometimes called "Chicken Fight" or "Shoulder Wars," can also be played in lakes. Teams each composed of two members battle it out in the water. A team will have one member sitting on the shoulders of the other member. The player on top is called the "assailer", while the one below is called the "vehicle".

The game begins with the teams charging at one another with the objective of knocking the opponents down by breaking their tandem set up. The rule allows only the top players to use their hands, arms, or even feet in trying to achieve this objective. The bottom players, on the other hand, can use only their momentum to attack by charging at each other.

The team that gets separated or is knocked down is eliminated from the game. The game continues until only one team remains standing, which, of course, is declared the winner.

Due to safety concerns, however, many swimming pool operators prohibit children from playing this game.

Fish out of Water:

This game produces no winners as it is played purely for fun. It starts with one player being selected as the "searcher". This player can open his eyes while swimming under the water but not when surfacing. When the searcher sees (while under the water) or feels/thinks (while on the surface) that another player is out of the water, he/she shouts "fish out of water." The player called out becomes the next searcher.

This game is actually similar to one of the variations of the next game described below.

Marco Polo:

Other names for this game are "Mermaid on the Rocks" and "Alligator". It is a form of tag played safest in a swimming pool.

To begin this game, one player is chosen to be the "it". This player tries to tag the other players with his/her eyes closed, using their shouts of "Marco" and "Polo" as his/her clues to their locations. A player whom the "it" first tags becomes the next "it".

As variations to the tag, a player can be made the "it" by one of two ways. If "it" senses that someone is sitting on the side of the pool with legs on the water, "it" can declare "mermaid on the rocks." That player then becomes the next "it". Or if "it" feels one of the players has gotten out of the water, he/she can call out "alligator", and that player takes over as the new "it".

Playing any of these swimming pool games may require the presence of a lifeguard. Cherry Drop, in particular, can get intense and dangerous, especially with older children as participants.