Brännboll Is Disappearing – Traumatic for Students

Brännboll has been documented since the 18th century and is played today in Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Germany, but now the classic Swedish youth sport appears to be on the verge of disappearing as it is suddenly considered too problematic.

According to P4 Sörmland, many physical education teachers are choosing to exclude brännboll, which is usually closely associated with spring, from their P.E. classes. One of them is Pierre Jakobsson, a P.E. teacher at Nyköping’s High School Alpha.

– If you don’t hit very far, the fielding team starts moving forward; that aspect obviously exists too, and I think many of us older people can probably recognize ourselves in those situations, he tells Sveriges Radio.

– I think it can affect one’s view of physical activity, like, “I wasn’t good at this so I might as well skip other activities too.”

Felt Stared At

One person who claims to have suffered harm from playing brännboll at school is Freja Widqvist.

– I felt stared at when I played it; I felt very exposed during P.E. in particular.

The traumatic experience is also said to have affected her relationship to physical activity for a long time after school, and it was only as an adult many years later that she was able to start exercising.