DIY your own foam battle gear for your little ninja

Guest post by Sophie Maletsky

Recently, a client asked for a ninja party for their child. Awesome! Immediately a couple of fun activities sprung to mind, all of which are perfect for training and testing a young ninja’s skills, but a few include weapons… which can get tricky.

I have discovered that foam is an awesome replacement for what could potentially be a dangerous object. It’s malleable, flexible, strong, lightweight, and unless you take it directly to the eye (which could happen with any toy), it’s pretty darn safe. I like to use either thin pool noodles, which are readily available at most discount chains during the late spring and summer, or pipe insulation foam, which is found year round at the hardware store; it comes in a variety of thicknesses so you can choose the one that suits you best.

If your little ninja is anything like the ones I have known, the following activities will be right up his or her alley:

Stealth Training
Easily done. You can set up a cool obstacle course with lots of barriers where the challenge is to get through as quietly as possible, like crawling under a series of ropes tied with bells, crossing over a teeter totter made from a piece of 12 x 8 wood balanced on an 18 inch section of 4 x 4, or climbing up a small step stool and jumping from the top, landing like a cat on the ground.

Accuracy
Set up a shooting range with lightweight play balls (the kind you see in most ball pits) balanced on top of cardboard tubes of varying heights (gift wrap tubes work great). All you need to do is take a 24 inch dowel, sink it into the lawn about six inches, then slide the gift wrapping tube over the dowel — it will stand perfectly. (You can use a bucket of sand to hold the tubes upright as well.)

Balance the ball on top of the tube, and fire away! You can use rubber bands or straw launchers. To make straw launchers, take two straws, one slightly thinner than the other in diameter. Pinch the end of the slightly larger straw closed and tape it with a tiny bit of tape to make a rocket. Trim the rocket so that it’s about 3 inches shorter than the thinner straw. Slip the rocket onto the thinner straw and blow through the thinner straw. It’s awesome! Just a reminder: no one ever steps onto the shooting range until all projectile rounds have been expended (and only when an adult says it’s safe). No shooting at moving targets.

Weapons
Uh oh. Here we get into a problem. Kids love weapons! Guns, knives, throwing stars… but how to make them safe? How to let kids use their imaginations to act out their favorite kung fu scenes without hurting one another? The answer, my friends, is foam!

Here are all the great weapons I have made out of foam, and how to make them yourself!

Quarter Staff

Just use a pool noodle! If you want you can duct tape a really cool grip pad in the center of the staff. *Please note: do not duct tape the actual “weapon” part of your foam creations; the duct tape will actually add strength and rigidity which negates the flexibility and safety of the foam.

Swords

I found these hard plastic pirate swords at The Dollar Tree. Using a hand saw, I simply cut off the offensive plastic blade about three inches up from the hilt. Luckily for me the blade was pretty thick, so all I had to do was apply hot glue all over the stub, let it cool about 20 seconds (hot glue and foam are not the best of friends; the hot glue, if applied directly to the foam will melt it) then slide a 24 inch piece of foam onto the stub and there you have it — one basically harmless (please note, nothing is ever entirely harmless) sword. *Special note: if you find that the sword hilt you’ve got is attached to more of a rapier-type blade, just bulk it out with duct tape.

Nunchucks

These are a total hoot, and super easy to make. All you need to make them is tubing, thin rope (or even heavy yarn), tape, a ballpoint pen, and two pipe cleaners. Cut the foam into 2 twelve-inch sections. At the top of both sections, wrap one piece of tape around the entire diameter of the tube (this will add strength to the holes you are about to make). Using a ballpoint pen, carefully make a hole from one side of the tube to the other (so that the pen sticks out on both sides of the tubing) about 1 ½ inches down from the top of the tube. Run a pipe cleaner through the holes and make a loop by twisting the pipe cleaner around itself. Secure a length of thin rope to each of the pipe cleaner loops — it’s up to you how long you make it; I made mine 24 inches to give myself lots of extra for tying. You will want about 12 inches of rope between the two chucks. You are ready to roll.

The weapons of course were a huge hit at the party, although I know that some of the parents were inwardly cringing. But seriously, most kids are going to go through a phase where they turn things into weapons. Wouldn’t you rather have it be something that’s flexible (like foam) than rigid like a stick? Just remember to also wear safety goggles — let’s stay safe out there!

Comments on DIY your own foam battle gear for your little ninja

  1. I can recommend building Dagohir weapons for any grown ups who want to try their hand at this sort of thing, or for kids to use more regularly. You make them out of PVC, camping mat, adhesive, hockey tape, and fabric covering. They have specifications for building safe versions of many different kinds of weapons, including one and two handed slashing swords, swords with a padded stabbing tip, one and two-handed hammers and axes, and several kinds of shield. You can build one in an afternoon, and they’re nice and sturdy. My husband and I were out fighting with some friends, and ended up having a battle with some of the neighborhood kids. Lots of fun, and not even the littlest ones (3-4 years old) got hurt!

  2. Thanks! I love helping to throw parties that make memories like that. The kids have so much more fun at parties where they get to run and play and be kids, instead of at those parties where everything’s picture perfect. And who doesn’t love a good obstacle course? 😀

  3. Another option is to look up LARP (live action role play) weapons and how to make them. Typically made for SCA weapons training and fighting, using PVC pipe, foam & electrical tape.

  4. Yay foam fighting! Was thinking the same thing while reading the article, there are a lot of groups for adults interested in a more grown up version of play fighting. Our local group here in Ohio has some info on our website http://www.pentwyvern.com but you can also check out the official Dagorhir website http://www.dagorhir.com or the official Belegarth website http://www.belegarth.com . Both are good games with a lot of groups spread out around the country.

  5. Oh, THANK YOU for this page!! Will ABSOLUTELY be doing this for my soon to be 6 year old’s party! If you were in my area I’d definitely hire you. 😉

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