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ABC News reports on the health-endangering possibilities of ‘Sack Tapping’—A Schoolyard Game Turned Ugly::

Gone are the days when bullies merely gave wedgies. The newest fad in schoolyard violence? A quick slap to the testicles. In the game of “sack tapping” or “ball tapping,” as it is called, a boy will try to slap or flick the groin of another boy to inflict discomfort or pain.

The “game” has gotten out of hand, however, according to Dr. Scott Wheeler, a pediatric urologist in Minnesota. In recent years he’s seen an increasing number of young boys coming in with serious damage to the testicles because of a “tap” that hit too hard. “For some reason, [this game] is popular,” Wheeler says. “It’s not just bullies, it’s kids doing it to their friends. It’s rare that bullies target the testicles, they just beat up people.”….In some cases, trauma sustained by sack tapping can be severe enough to rupture a testicle, an injury that can require surgery or even the amputation of the testicle, says Wheeler.

Read the rest of the piece—which covers everything from the appeal of “Playing ‘Chicken’ of the Groin” to “The Psychology of the Sack Tap”—here.

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

18 replies on “Groin-Punching is Unhealthy”

  1. Man who signs up to be a pediatric urologist?

    Actually that is perfectly normal and nice to be a doctor, maybe I have been reading too much youth pastor watch!

  4. This was common on my HS football team. As we were lined up on the sidelines waiting to practice or play, certain kids would walk down the line and whack your nuts with the back of their hand, ostensibly to give you a reason to wear a cup. The end result was 40 boys standing around with their hands hanging in front of their crotches.

    The kids that did that are still hillbillies in Kansas, with 3 kids in a trailer park and long criminal histories.

  5. Uh, as a woman, damage from self-defence is sort of the point when you’re being assaulted by someone with packed luggage.

  6. “Playing chicken of the groin,”

    Comparing a very old and stupid self destructive game to a new one?

    I think in my school days it was slap jack.

  8. This is almost as head-slappingly dumb as that article putting parents on watch about the ‘spraying yourself with Axe and setting yourself on fire’ teen fad from a few months back.

  13. This has a ring of “rainbow party” about it to me. Namely, ridiculous reporting by a conservative-leaning news source on something they believe is an epidemic, because they’ve only just discovered it. Or made it up.

  14. @13 This stuff happened when I was a teenager. Seriously. Frankly, I’m glad. Idiots voluntarily indirectly castrating themselves? I think I feel the gene pool getting stronger!

  18. From Yukio Mishima’s semi-autobiographical Confessions of a Mask:
    “‘Dirty’ was a traditional sport at our school, always widespread among the boys during their first and second years, and as is the case for any craze for a pastime, it was more like a morbid disease than an amusement. We played it in broad daylight, in full public view. Some boy–call him A–would be standing around not keeping his wits about him. Noticing this, another boy–B–would dart up from the side and make a well-aimed grab. If his grab was successful, B would then retreat victoriously to a distance and begin hooting:
    ‘Oh, it’s big! Oh, what a big one A has!’
    …
    As though by prearrangement the victim would shout:
    ‘Oh, that B–he’s dirty!’
    Then the bystanders would chime in with a chorus of assent:
    ‘Oh, that B–he’s dirty!'”
    (pp. 50-51, Weatherby translation)

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