![]() Jump across the Atlantic from New York City to France and you'll find the game isn't called hopscotch or potsy, but escargot (which means snail). In Boston, for example, the game is called hopscotch and played with a traditional 10-square court, but just about 200 miles (322 kilometers) away in Brooklyn they call the game potsy (sometimes spelled potsie), and whatever you use for your marker is also called a potsy. ![]() There isn't one true version of the game hopscotch changes depending on where you live. This court modification has a half-circle - an arch - at the end of the 10 squares, designated as a safe zone, sometimes known as "home," where you may stand freely on both feet. Also popular is the traditional English court layout, also known as an arched design. Most of us are familiar with the standard layout of a hopscotch court: a rectangle about 10 feet (3 meters) long - and up to as long as 15 feet (4.6 meters) - by 3 feet (1 meter) wide and made up of 10 sequentially numbered squares. The courts in playgrounds across America, though, tend to be a lot smaller. The organization Step UP 4 Change, Right to Play at the University of Guelph and Free the Children at the University of Guelph currently hold the record for the world's longest hopscotch court at 18,064 feet (5,506 meters). A hopscotch court is basically a long rectangle, broken into squares, on a spot of flat ground. Now that you know you'll be tossing markers and hopping through a series of squares, let's talk about what that set of squares might look like. There are, though, a few basic rules to know. Hopscotch is truly a casual game unlike other backyard games such as horseshoes or bocce there is no hopscotch association or world federation or any sort of ruling party. A coin, a small stone or another small solid object (even your keys) make good markers, and many games have been played on a simple chalk-drawn court. To play a game of hopscotch you'll need markers and you'll need a court. But the real object of the game is to be the first to complete every hop. The object of hopscotch is to hop from point A to point B and back again without hopping on any lines - the origin of the name comes from hopping "scotch" or hopping lines - and without losing your balance. Regardless of where it began, hopscotch is now a game with global participation. There's also some evidence, though, that the game may have origins in China. Hopscotch may have been an agility training exercise soldiers used during the early days of the Roman Empire, although back then they played on courts up to 100 feet (30.5 meters) long. While it's most often enjoyed as a childhood game today, its roots may be traced to ancient authority.
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