Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
Friday, December 15, 2006, Washington Post

Enjoying Sports from the Inside Out

Winter's almost here. The nights are growing longer. The ground is getting cold and hard. And it's tough for kids to play the sports they love outdoors. What's a sports-loving kid to do? Simple, move indoors.

Wintertime is when games go inside to stay warm. Take basketball: Sure it's fun to play hoops on the playground. But when the weather gets cold, the ball loses its bounce and feels like lead. And it's tough to shoot three-pointers like the Wizards' Gilbert Arenas when the winter wind is blowing.

So sign up for a basketball team and move your game indoors. Believe me, any chance to play hoops with a good ball and a glass backboard on a polished wooden floor is a little bit of basketball heaven.

In New England, Upstate New York and other parts of America's frozen north, kids play hockey on frozen ponds. Around Washington, the ponds rarely freeze over enough for it to be safe to skate. Kids have to get their hockey fun at indoor rinks. Playing hockey indoors is especially sweet after the Zamboni has finished circling the ice, making the surface as smooth as glass. The sound of skate edges digging into the ice and sticks slapping together is enough to make any kid imagine he's in the National Hockey League.

Some games change completely when they move inside. Indoor soccer is nothing like the outdoor game. Fewer players on a smaller pitch dash up and back in nonstop action. With shots and passes bouncing off the sideboards and back walls, indoor soccer is more like a crazy kind of human pinball than it is like regular soccer.

Last Saturday I saw an exciting indoor soccer game at the Rockville SportsPlex. The kids and the score went back and forth. The game ended 5-5 on a last-second goal. The game had everything: quick moves, lots of shots and diving saves. Soccer purists will disagree, but I think the indoor game is much more exciting than the outdoor version. When was the last time you saw a 5-5 tie in an outdoor soccer game?

Field hockey is different indoors, too. The ball skims across the smooth floor like a puck across the ice in hockey. There are none of the bad bounces or crazy hops you get in outdoor games, which are too often played on chewed-up football and soccer fields. So indoor field hockey is super-fast. The girls must have quick sticks and even quicker feet (it's a penalty if the player touches the ball with her feet).

Even baseball moves indoors for the winter. It's not a real game, but lots of kids keep their home-run swings grooved by hitting baseballs off tees or facing fastballs from a pitching machine.

Tennis players practice inside big bubbles. Golf nuts knock balls off mats and into nets. Lacrosse kids play catch indoors and bounce balls off gym walls.

Sports don't hibernate for the winter, and neither should you. The next time someone says, "Brrrr, it's cold outside," tell them, "Let's play."

Indoors.