Sure, you can just sit on your couch, drinking soda, eating chips and watch TV while we’re socially distancing and staying at home, but there’s a better way to hang at home: It’s called the Stay at Home Challenge; on social media platforms it’s #StayAtHomeChallenge.
Here’s how it works: You shoot a selfie video of you washing your hands (for 20 seconds, of course), then juggle a soccer ball, then post the video to social media.
N33, a soccer media company in the Netherlands started the #StayAtHomeChallenge. Shortly after, it went viral.
Pro soccer players all over Europe are doing it, soccer fans are doing it, Major League Soccer players are doing it, even kids in Abu Dubai are washing their hands and juggling a ball while they're home.
Now the craze has reached San Diego. The San Diego Sockers all-time leading goal scorer, Kraig Chiles, posted a video of him juggling a ball at home with a message telling everyone to “stay safe out there.”
“When I got a message to make a 3-minute video, I said, ‘Yeah I got nothing but time right now, so I can knock that out with a cup of coffee,’ “ Chiles told NBC 7. “I think you have a lot of people willing to jump in and do what they need to do because everybody is revamping right now and has more spare time than we’re used to.”
As the social media campaign grew, people got more creative: Wash your hands, juggle a basketball and make a basket. Juggle with tennis balls? Yeah, that works, too.
Local
Then the world took it to another level and started juggling toilet paper rolls. After all, toilet paper is now synonymous with the coronavirus. Next, people started doing tricks with toilet paper, even playing soccer games with rolls of toilet paper. Then a few pro golfers started showing off -- after juggling a roll of toilet paper with his golf club, European tour pro Matthias Schwab hit his roll out the window.
From there anything was fair game: Juggling to clean up your room; one lady ditched the juggling and just posted a video of her doing sit-ups, kissing and high-fiving her dog each time she reached her knees.
The point is that everyone came together to get through this together in a fun, unique way. And Chiles says there’s more to come.
“The club is going to put together some social media challenges -- just keeping everyone active and doing something at home,” Chiles said. “I know training is stopping on the field, but players can be working on their own, and if we can assist with some videos and make it fun, then we’re all for it.”
