Strider Racing

At KB, we love our Strider running bikes – they’re an awesome stepping stone just before your child is ready for training wheels, and a great way to familiarize them with bicycles – so we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to share this great event with you Knuckleheads.

If you happen to find yourself near Rapid City, SD next week, the 8th annual ‘Extreme Indoor Enduro’ will be taking place at the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center. You can enter your toddlers to race their Strider bikes around an awesome dirt course much like the ones professional motocross racers use (of course, scaled down to Strider size). Of course, if you can’t be there, don’t worry, you can catch this event of SPEED TV, January 21st!

While it isn’t local, don’t think for a second that it didn’t start cranking the gears in the KB teammates heads! Who says you won’t be seeing something like this at our Epicenter in Cambridge sometime soon? You never know!

KB New Years Resolutions

Hey Knuckleheads!

So, you’ve renewed your gym membership and thrown out all of that junk food in the house – maybe even polished off the last of the holiday cookies – all for that favorite New Years resloution: live healthier, exercise more.

But exercising can be a real pain if you aren’t enjoying yourself. So try exercising the KB way this year. Do what you love! If you don’t like running – don’t run! Try biking or rollerblading or hiking (or even hopping a mile on a Rody, that’s sure to give your quads a workout).

Maybe even get involved in a team sport. Check at that gym you just joined, maybe you’ll find your talent in basketball, or water polo. See what activities you can find around town – take an aerobics class at the Rec. center, or try your hand at Yoga (its ok, contortionist experience: not (always) required)

Whatever it is, make sure you’re having fun. You won’t get 100% out of your workout if you’re not committed, and how can you commit to something that you dread! So start exploring and find out what makes you excited to get up and play.

LIve healthier, exercise more, and enjoy ever second of it. That’s the KB new years resolution!

Strange Sport of the Week: CTFL

Now that the holidays are fast approaching, we are waist deep in our living rooms with bows, rolls of invisible tape (and you can never seem to find it), wrapping paper scraps, and we’re faced with the age old question: what on earth do I do with all of these bare cardboard tubes from my wrapping paper? So, maybe you haven’t always asked yourself that question, but we have an answer for you, nonetheless.

KB’s strange sport of the week: Holiday Edition – Cardboard Tube Fighting (sanctioned by the Cardboard Tube Fighting League or CTFL)

The CTFL was started in Seattle, Washington, but it now holds tournaments in Sydney, Australia, San Francisco, and London.

Here’s how it works:

1) Don’t break your tube. In a duel, the last person with an unbroken tube is the winner. In the event that both participants break their tubes at the same time, both duelists are considered losers. A tube is considered broken when it is held horizontal and the tip drops to an angle greater than 45 degrees or it is completely detached from the rest of the tube.
2) Attacking until the other combatant is knocked out, or dead. No stabbing. No weapons.
3) No stabbing. Lunges involving tubes are not allowed under any circumstances. Participants who exhibit this behavior will be ejected from the event.
4) Do not attack the opponent’s face. Hitting the face is heavily frowned upon and can force ejection from the event.
5) Once a tube is broken, fighting must cease.
6) Only official CTFL tubes are allowed. These tubes are provided at the events. (We’re still trying to figure out what makes them ‘official’, too)
7) No blocking of opponent’s tube other than with your own tubes
8 ) Tubes must always be held near the end. Participants may switch ends as they see fit. Holding tubes in the middle is illegal.
9) Shields are banned from tournaments

The League’s number one philosophy is” Don’t take yourself too seriously (trust us, we won’t).

KB’s #1 Favorite Game

Anything with a Rody!

Come check out our GRAND OPENING today in Davis Square and see what fun games you can play with a Rody!

#4 KB FavoriteGame: Stealing Sticks

How much fun can you have with 12 sticks you find on the ground? A lot more than you originally would have after you read this post!

Stealing sticks was originally a game thought up by Native Americans. They would hide sticks in trees, and all over the woods, and this game could go on for days. Fortunately for you, KB has a shorter version.

Setting Up the Game: This is a game for a larger group of kids, 8 and up about. Split them into two even teams. Tell the teams to each find 6 sticks, bigger than twigs, but make sure they’re not bringing back tree branches, either! Designate the boundaries, with a mid-field line. The bigger the field, the more difficult. This game is great to play at a park that has varied terrain. Tell each team to lay their 6 sticks in a strategic position on their side of the field

Playing the Game: This game is a lot like capture the flag. There’s a jail, and guards. The guards (pick 2 to start out, but determine how many you need based on the size of the field and the number of players) will keep watch over their sticks, and try to tag anyone that tries to steal them. If tagged, the player must return the stick to the appropriate side and then go to the designated jail area. That player can old be freed if a member of their team tags them. The game will continue on until one side has all twelve sticks. So, even if the “red” team has 8 sticks and the “blue” team has 4, the “blue” team can still come back, unlike capture the flag, where the game ends when one team gets the opponents one and only flag.

Additions to the game: If you want, you can add “safe zones”, designated by a hula hoop or cones (or a tree) on the playing field if too many kids are being tagged before they can reach their side.

Now, don’t you see how fun 12 sticks can be!

#5 KB Favorite Game: Guards

What can you do with a bucket of tennis balls and some hula hoops? A lot of things, actually. But one of our favorite things to do with them here at KB is to play the game Guards.

Setting up the game: Each player gets a hula hoop, and you lay them in a circle, the diameter can change depending on how difficult you want the game to be, or the age of the players. You will then mark off the center of the circle, preferably big enough so that someone cannot easily touch both sides at any point. Dump all the tennis balls, lets call them jewels, (as many as you can possibly find, the more the better) in the center of that marked off circle.

Playing the game: Pick three guards (or you determine how many based on the age of the players and the size of the circle). One will stand in the center guarding all the balls, the other two will run between the center circle and the outer circle of hula hoops (remember the one you set up at the very beginning of the game?). The rest of the players will attempt to steal one jewel at a time and bring it back to their hula hoop. If they are tagged by the guards, they must return the jewel back to the center, return back to their hula hoop, and then they can try again.

This game is great for kids, ages 6 and up, and adults!

Strange Sport of the Week: Toe Wrestling

Have you ever felt like arm wresting was just too easy, and maybe a little too boring? Well then, have we got a sport for you.

next time you’re hankering for some appendage-filled feats of strength (no pun intended), try our newest strange sport of the week: toe wrestling.

It’s a lot like arm wrestling, only, of course, the players use their feet instead of their arms. It took us a while to understand the dynamics of this sport, but they go a little something like this: Players must link toes and each players feet must touch flat on the other’s. Typically, after a short starting chant which varies by region (for example, “one, two, three, four, I declare a toe war.”), the opponents proceed to attempt to pin their opponent’s feet for three seconds, while avoiding the same. Pinning is accomplished by placing one foot on the same foot of the opponent.

And that’s about all there is too it. But of course, our favorite rule of toe wrestling here at KB, is that is is customary for each player to remove their opponents shoes and socks before a match.

So before you try any toe wrestling, make sure you stock up on that Gold Bond powder!