I first described Tard Ball in a previous post. It's like a miniature tennis game without the net and using your non-dominant hand (this is the tard factor) to hit the ball so that it bounces in your opponent's area. An easier variation of this is simply Tard Ball Catch. Two people throw a ball back and forth using their non-dominant hand or alternating left and right. I prefer to alternative so one arm doesn't get too tired. My husband and I play Tard Ball and Tard Ball Catch most weekends. We go out on our back porch and use the 4' X 8' plywood sheets on the floor to mark our areas. We usually start Tard Ball Catch standing 8-feet apart and then once we are warmed up we spread out to 12-feet apart. (As an aside, almost without fail, our "warm-up" session is the one in which we make the most catches in a row without dropping the ball. We also do better at the 8-foot distance than the 12-foot, but we hope to improve enough to become "Tard Ball Champions".)

This past weekend we were lucky enough to be able to introduce Tard Ball and Tard Ball Catch to a visiting couple. I don't think they were too enamored with it, but they humored us and played it some. We made up a new game we called "Double Tard Ball Catch". We used two balls and stood at the four corners of a square. Couples faced each other across the middle, like a plus sign configuration "+" and each couple threw a ball back and forth. At this point you have a choice: throw the balls one at a time or throw them at the same time for "Synchronized Double Tard Ball Catch". You might expect that the balls would strike each other in the air with synchronized throwing and they did at first. A lot. But we realized that if a taller person and a shorter person threw at the same time, the balls were less likely to hit.

I think everyone had fun. I'll know for sure if the couple ever comes back to visit us again.