Luksong-Tinik (“Jump Thorns”) is a native Filipino game.
Equipment: None, but legs and hands
Requires at least three people to be properly played.
Two players perform the task of being the wall of thorns over which the other players will jump. These two people sit on their behinds and first extend their legs out, then later their hands to form a barrier that increases in height with each round. The rest of the players must jump over the extended legs and hands without touching the any part of the two sitting player’s hands and legs.
Jumping contests have always been around. Children like the idea of going high up in the air. They like the dare of leaping over barriers, testing how high they can go.
Luksong tinik is an old Philippine game that many children like simply because it has everything that makes a jumping contest exciting. The name means “jumping over thorns” and it involves jumping over an obstacle.
Sometimes the obstacle is only a stick that is held by two children and raised higher and higher. But the word “thorns” perfectly fits the kind of obstacle that is made by hands and feet held one on top of another and raised higher and higher. In the mind’s eye, the rising barrier of hands and feet begins to look like a tight thicket of thorns to be cleared in one leap.
Jumping games have been played around the world for centuries. The first jumping contests were held in Greece, and they were the start of the· great pole vaults that are major athletic events today.
In Africa, great warriors — who were often taller than six feet — took part in magnificent jumping contests. These were challenging games that had traditional rules going back over the centuries.
As children play them, jumping contests were known in many countries of Europe. Many old paintings show children jumping over barrels or over each other showing great skill and obviously having fun.
Perhaps some of the most interesting jumping contests were those recorded by Pieter Brueghel in his painting, “Children at Play.” He shows children of an old village in Belgium at their games, including jumping games.
In one of the games in the painting, the children are lined up in two rows facing each other. One row of children leans against a fence. The other row leans back on their hands which are propped on the ground. They need the support, because their feet are together and raised high above the ground.
Over the barrier of several pairs of raised feet, two children are jumping.
Since the feet are raised closed together, there is not very much room in which to leap. It must have been a very tough game that tested not only jumping strength but also timing.
KAHULUGAN SA TAGALOG
luksóng-tiník: laro ng paglundag sa kamay na nakaunat ng dalawang batàng nakaupô
