Dozens of contestants attend the “Bring Your Own Big Wheel” Race on Easter Sunday at Potrero Hill in San Francisco, California, United States on April 20, 2025. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)

In a simpler time all a child or an adult needed to enjoy the outdoors was a ball and a stick. Or maybe an old tire tied to a high branch to fashion a swing. And the only instruction given to children was to “be home before dark”. Now there are iPads and computers and television screens and shrinking safe public spaces. But despite the distractions and limitations of space, these images show the charm of kicking a ball or skipping rope endures. Sometimes with modifications as a nod to changing times. Here: in this Saturday, June 20, 2015 photo, a boy runs while playing with a motorcycle wheel in Samugari, Ayacucho, Peru. (Photo by Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo)

Athletes compete in the women's 100m semi-final during the World Athletics Championships at the National Athletics Centre in Budapest on August 21, 2023. (Photo by Andrej Isakovic/AFP Photo)

The Sheep watch the sunset from the top of Cleeve Hill, Cheltenham, United Kingdom on June 22, 2020. (Photo by Jack Boskett/The Telegraph)

Hundreds of gannets dive for mackerel off the coast of Shetland, Northern Isles of Scotland on July 2020, where they plunge into the water from heights of up to 100ft at speeds of 60mph. (Photo by David Keep/The Times)

A Russian police officer detains a teenager during rally protesting retirement age hikes in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, September 9, 2018. A government plan to increase the age for collecting state pensions brought protests across Russia's 11 time zones on Sunday even though the opposition leader who called them was in jail. Nearly 300 people were reported arrested. (Photo by Roman Pimenov/Interpress photo via AP Photo)

Charli XCX performs at Hype Hotel on March 17, 2016 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Lorne Thomson/Redferns)

Graduates dance as they take part in a “Last school bell” ceremony at a school in Minsk, Belarus on May 30, 2018. (Photo by Vasily Fedosenko/Reuters)