Stuff We Do: Indoor Hoop

A common request we get from Eli is to make a "tall hoop." This involves a mom or dad or an aunt standing and holding their arms in a hoop formation. Eli, with the aim of a four-year old, then starts to shoot balls at us. Really no one, besides Eli, enjoys playing "tall hoop." One day I thought...there has got to be a way around this.


My first attempt at making a tall hoop. I started by taping plastic straws together and then hanging them from the ceiling. We did notice that it was hard to tell when the ball went through, so I taped wax paper to the straws, making it more hoopish. We soon found out that straws do not hold up well under indoor basketball and wax paper doesn't really stick to tape.

Tall Hoop #2

This time I took a wire hanger and unfolded it into a straightish line. I knew that we needed something for a net so that we could tell if the ball was reaching its desired aim. (Just now a Happy Gilmore quote popped into my head..."why don't you just go to your home?") I had some left over tulle from a previous project...folded over a hem of about an inch and sewed a seam with my sewing machine. The wire was fed through this seam, I bent the wire into a circle and duct taped it closed. We tired yarn to the wire and taped it to the ceiling with painters tape.

It might not be pretty (though Eli did tell me it looked like a dress) but it works and is a blast!!

Hooperific


Fun for big boys too. One of the many many reasons I love him. I also love him for letting me post these pictures, though he was a bit reluctant.

Super Fast

I do feel compelled to tell you that after some serious dunking, the hoop did get ripped down, taking a chunk of the ceiling paint with it. Oops. The hoop is currently tied up.