Huw Pryce
As the title suggests today I played trampoline dodgeball. I’ve never played dodgeball before and although my strategy for football and rugby was to avoid the ball at all costs this was slightly different. Mainly that people tried very hard to get the balls near you, the complete opposite of what has happened every other time I’ve played before. The game had the added edge that any injuries sustained while playing would not be covered by my health insurance, this meant that I couldn’t get injured unless I wanted a massive hospital bill. American healthcare seems, to me, very broken.
Furthermore, before I was allowed to go anywhere near a trampoline I had to sign a waiver, but not the standard sort where you simply accept there are risks associated with the activity. If you have read a letter of complaint I have written in one of my less serious moments the waiver bared many similarities, despite being (I believe) a proper document.
It covered entirely irrelevant issues in extreme detail, including my travel to and from the location (organised by me but they thought it necessary to point out that there could possibly be a traffic accident and in this situation they would have no responsibility). It then, in comic detail, described the different sorts of ways the staff could be incompetent and/or negligent and that this was not their problem. Just when it seemed all too much it then described the different ways the equipment could break, assuming some sort of bizarre sequence of events – of course they were not liable for this.
My colleagues (all American, I was the only British person who played due to fear of injury and large hospital bills) did not seem to find the waiver at all unusual. Apparently it is usual to sign documents describing in great detail the potential incompetency of the staff working for a company, how this could lead to severe disablement and yet the company is not responsible at all for ensuring their staff are not incompetent and their equipment is in good working order.
I can report that, contrary to the suggestions in the waiver, the staff were competent, the equipment was well maintained and I did not sustain any serious injuries or die. I am, however, not very good at dodgeball. Attempting to trampoline just made things worse and the team that I was on ended up getting knocked out straight away. So, like any sport-like activity I try to play then.
Fortunately as well as a set of trampolines set up for dodgeball there was a much larger set just of bouncing on. I am marginally better at this and so after being knocked out of the dodgeball I entertained myself by bouncing around. There was also a foam pit you could bounce off several trampolines into, much like a long jump. This was very difficult to get out of, although I am now thinking a bed consisting of a large amount of foam would be very comfortable.
Pictures are below, sorry for the low quality – they were taken with my BlackBerry as I didn’t have my camera.
Sadly Huw you are in the land of the lawsuit and all those jokes back in Blighty about how litigious every one is in America is true. You only have to see an advert on TV for some drug such and over half the advert is them explaining all the possible side effects including DEATH! What a way to sell. Yes this drug might help but it might kill you.
They have freedom of speech but what about freedom of taking responsibility for your own actions and using common sense? The other sad thing is that Britain is heading the same way too. Only the other day here there was a report of a school having to mini bus students only 400 yards down the road for fear they may have an accident if they walk.
Still sounds like you are managing to have fun in between the work.
You do know how to pick them don’t you?! I’m quite liking the sound of Trampoline Dodgeball however whenever I get on a trampoline I normally take my glasses off, I’m betting this would make it totally impossible for me to see: the ball, the trampoline, my team, their team or indeed the large red rubber ball flying at my face at a surprisingly visious speed. I think I’ll stick to something a little carmer, Swords anyone???
@Rob: What is perhaps disturbing is that what shocked me was not so much the length they went to cover their backs legally (something that, as you say, is becoming more and more common in the UK) but how normal and usual everybody thought it was. I was supposedly agreeing to defend them in court if necessary, something that I assumed would normally make people at least think about what they were signing but most people did so without even reading the thing.
@Michael: I, perhaps foolishly, kept my glasses on (along with a large number of other people – lots of glasses-wearing people with me). I don’t think they actually contributed at all to my ability to play dodgeball but if you desire a higher standard of ability than me you might find them useful.
Anyway, I’ve looked and this seems to be an American phenomenon (and one limited mostly to California, at that) – there is nowhere you can do this in the UK.