How The Sport Was Invented

Bounceball started as a fun game played by a few close friends.

It wasn’t called Bounceball at the time, and there really wasn’t much formality to the game. It was just a group of friends throwing a ball against a white-wood backboard.

Once we started to play together, we just couldn’t stop!

Why The Name?

The name “Bounceball” was decided upon, because the game is really all about the bounce!

Going From Game To Sport

Dictionary.com defines sport as "an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess". We feel Bounceball truly became a sport when we started to created formal rules to the sport, and implemented the spirit of competition. To make Bounceball even more of a sport, we added the elements of (faster balls, harder balls, faster bouncing backboards, pedals, and proper boundary lines)!

Why The Pedals?

Bounceball started with a flat board, but we soon figured out that things became a LOT more exciting when we decided to add pedals. The pedals add an incredible new dimension to the sport! Once the pedals were introduce the element of risk and reward in a big way. The pedals make players have to think about the odds and reward of hitting a pedal (more points), but the risk (a lost point) if they miss. Often times if they increase their risk tolerance by aiming at a pedal, they also tend to miss a lot more shots!

The pedals also make the sport much more technical, because there are so many more shots that can be played. Play no longer goes just back and forth from left to right side of the court. Players have to be constantly ready to react and adjust if a pedal is hit, and often-times find themselves throwing with a different arm from the opposite side of the court! Finally, the pedals widen the playing area, because one player is usually trying to get close to the board to increase their odds of hitting a pedal while their opponent is trying to keep them away from getting to close by throwing the ball strategically into the back corners of the court.

Intensity Of Endurance

By widening the court with the pedals, and speeding up game-play with faster balls and backboards, we greatly increased the level of physical stamina (endurance) required to play Bounceball. Our experience with the sport is that within roughly 10-15 minutes of playing (which is 1 game), an athlete of average to good physical stamina is already starting to experience difficulties playing. A typical best of 5 set match can last up to 1.5 hrs and can pose a great endurance challenge for even top level athletes.

Our Goal With Bounceball

From day one, our goal with Bounceball was to bring something fun to a few sports enthusiasts, so that they could get the same joy we got from playing the game that first day we played. With that in mind, we will continue to pursue bringing Bounceball to life, with the hope that a few more people get to enjoy the sport we’ve spent so many hrs perfecting. If Bounceball grows past a few people playing, we will have achieved a great thing in the world and will be happy to see more people getting the same joy we have out of it!