I wonder if kids still play bloody knuckles, mercy, punch buggy or any other game where the point is to inflict pain on your friends.
We played chicken with knives. Two boys a few feet apart spread their feet. Each boy sticks a knife in the ground between his opponent’s feet.
Each boy brings one foot to the knife blade, so they are closer together. Then repeat the process.
Eventually, your feet are very close together. It gets more and more difficult to stick the knife between your opponent’s feet without hitting him.
If you chicken out, or stick the knife in your opponent’s shoe or body you lose your throwing knife.
We never played that where the teachers could observe us, though.
I got into my first fight in 1956 when I was ten, in Spokane, WA. My Old Man was a believer in Physical Fitness and self defense, thought that boxing lesions were a part of a young mans education, started when I was seven.
That plus my Celtic Beserker approach to confrontation led to intellectual rather than physical, except for a few confrontations in the Army, Peace Love, maybe.