Stone Touching in Mancala

Video Transcript

"Today we’re talking about basic tips for playing the game Mancala. Now, let’s talk about for just a moment, stone touching. Now we’ve discussed in earlier segments that it’s a great game for kids to play, especially if they’re learning how to count. Touching the stone is also very relaxing but that’s not what I want to focus on in this segment. What I mean by stone touching is this, it’s a big no-no when you’re playing the game Mancala. Stone touching tip number one would be this: When you have committed to a particular group of stones in one of your components in here and you grabbed them, you touched these stones, you’ve committed to these stones. This is the move you have to make, you can’t go back, say oh I changed my mind, put it back and decide to move this one. You have to commit to those stones, so you’ve sowed the seeds or the stones there, you have to commit to them. So that’s the one part of stone touching that I mean. The other part that I mean about stone touching, a big no-no. It’s probably a little bit difficult to see here but in this compartment here, there are a lot of stones. Now, the big rule thumb, especially when you get into advanced games of Mancala and higher stone quantities, like we were discussing putting 6 stones in, these compartments get quite full. You are not allowed to touch the stones to pull them out to count them to see how many are in these smaller compartments. It’s very important to keep in mind. One, if you’re touching the stones and you’ve committed to them, you have to move those stones. Two, if you want to figure out how many stones are in a compartment, you have to do your best to kind of look at it to gage how many are there and sometimes when you’re using colored stones, it’s kind of difficult but it makes the game more fun. So stone touching, a big no-no."