Fitting in with what John said, I think a lot of Duck sports will be developed from simple 'playpond' activities. Time-honoured games developed by Ducklings long ago will continue to be played to this day.
I don't know what everyone else played in the playground, but our games generally involved half the playground trying to beat up the other half, in that childish way which strikes you as quite natural at the time, but would get you arrested for Affray and Attempted Bodily Harm now...
Examples include:
British Bulldog => ... something to do with Stormbill, surely... [one half of the group tries to make it (full-pelt) to the other side of the playground, while the other half of the group charges them (fullpelt) in a line to try and stop them]
Romans and Saxons* => Woonars un' Gwazers... Woonars un' Twolls etc. [was never always to sure on the rules for this. It was a little like British Bulldog, and typically started thus: 'Let's play Romans and Saxons!'... 'Yay!'... 'Who's on my side... no, WAIT... SMACK!'. It was basically a free-for-all. 'I wanna be Argwath...' ... 'No I'M ARGWATH!' SMACK!]. *this may originally have been Normans and Saxons, and there's been an error in the teaching! :o)
There were variations on these, and of course 'Tig' [which some poor fellows call 'Tag'!]. Which tend to develop ever more violent applications. Hide and Seek would be great along the marshy stream banks too, and provide a hunting element in their formative years. Ducklings sitting puffing cigars behind the jetty sheds before the Ducks catch them.
Finally there is that great old playschool game, where someone brings in a toy of some sort (and a costume mummy duck made) and just goes around whacking people with it. This has great potential amongst the Ducklings, especially for forging character for the more combative games John suggests. 'Wow... cool sword an' costwume!'... 'I AM DUEYMAKT DA DWEAD DWAKE'... 'Ow, stop it... STOP IT!'
These 'games', played in the pond by Ducklings, will have influenced to a certain degree the sports they play when they get older. Rugy is just a pansyish game of British Bulldog, with the added complication of a ball, after all...
Powered by hypermail