Paddleball

Paddleball is a competitive sport, started in the 1930’s, where players strike a ball against a wall until the opponent cannot return it. There are two kinds of paddleball: the one-wall and four-wall game. As the name suggests, the ball can only be hit against a single wall for the one-wall game, and on all four walls of the court for the four-wall game. Tournaments are ruled by the American Paddleball Association for one-wall and the National Paddleball Association for four-wall.

Around 20 years later, video games back then created arcade game versions of racquet sports. There was such a game called “paddle ball”, fashioned after the paddleball sport. The paddle ball game can be played by two players, wherein two bars bounce a ball against each other until one cannot return the hit. If you want to try this vintage game, there are free paddle ball games you can download on the Internet.

Not long after, a paddleball toy was invented. Basically, it is a paddleball racquet with a small rubber ball attached to the center with an elastic string. It looks easy how to play paddle ball, as you only bounce the ball on the paddle. But paddleball is not as easy as it seems. It takes a while to learn to play paddle ball. The challenge is keeping the ball bouncing as many times as you can. The paddleball world record was made by Ben Best, with 110,821,667 nonstop volleys. He was 11 years old when he attained the world record and it took him three days to accomplish it!

Playing a game of paddleball can relieve you of stress and provides hours of fun once you get the hang of it. You can buy paddleball toys at the nearest toy store. There are koosh paddle ball toys- made out of koosh ball, a ball with rubber strands - to make it easier to volley the ball. You can also shop paddleball toys on eBay, as some sell cheap vintage paddle balls.

Elmer George, a retired American athlete, invented the Whizball – a paddleball that makes you use both hands. You clip a string with a ball attached to your shirt and you volley it with paddles on your hands. His invention was featured on the American Inventor show.

You can enjoy this simple game yourself. Get yourself a paddleball game set and see if you can beat the world record!