| abstract
| - Moonball and its many variations is a great limbering activity with therapeutic value. It fosters the development of communication skills, problem solving skills, and positive competition. It's also a great gauge for how well the group is working together, and for determining whether members are feeling physically safe when others share their personal space. Many scenarios can be used to frame the regular game of moonball. Two examples follow:
* (to your group): "I have what looks like a beach ball. But really, this object was found out in the Mojave Desert after a fiercely intense and bountiful meteor shower. Now I only say it looks like a beach ball because you might pick it up and hold on to it for too long. Or you might think you can bounce itfrom hand to hand, back and forth. WRONG. If you did, the prolonged exposure to the chemicals it has stored on its exterior surface would affect the use of your hands (or any other limbs that it touches). You'd soon feel a numbing sensation, followed by temporary paralysis. Still, if you're up for a challenge, we can try to play with it as a team and see how long we can keep it from returning to the ground. Shall we try it? I can start by quickly picking it off the ground and bouncing it towards someone. Your job is to keep it off the ground, AND OFF YOUR LIMBS. Are we ready? Here goes!"
* "Let's try to keep this ball off the ground. No passing it to yourself and no holding on to the ball is allowed. We start counting hits when the ball is off the ground, and we stop counting when it touches the ground. A group I know got to 440 hits. Shall we try?"
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