One wall paddleball is an American

ball game This is a list of ball games and ball sports that include a ball as a key element in the activity, usually for scoring points. Ball games Ball sports fall within many sport categories, some sports within multiple categories, including: *Bat-and- ...

that consists of hitting a small

rubber ball A bouncy ball or rubber ball is a spherical toy ball, usually fairly small, made of elastic material which allows it to bounce against hard surfaces. When thrown against a hard surface, bouncy balls retain their momentum and much of their kin ...

against a single wall by using

paddle A paddle is a handheld tool with an elongated handle and a flat, widened distal end (i.e. the ''blade''), used as a lever to apply force onto the bladed end. It most commonly describes a completely handheld tool used to propel a human-powered wa ...

s. It can be played in singles (1 versus 1) or in doubles (2 versus 2). The general rule of the game is that the ball must hit the wall without touching the court floor more than once in order to be a valid

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sports ...

. The balls are usually

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ...

blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...

, and

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

. The paddles were originally made of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...

, but they are now primarily made of materials such as graphite and titanium. The game is popular in places where the weather permits outdoor play such as

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New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

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and

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, although indoor courts, although rare, exist. Tournaments are ruled by the American Paddleball Association.

History

The history of the game is somehow undocumented, but it obviously originates from

American handball American handball, known as handball in the United States and sometimes referred to as wallball, is a sport in which players use their hands to hit a small, rubber ball against a wall such that their opponent(s) cannot do the same without the bal ...

which consists of hitting the ball with the bare hand or a gloved palm. However, due to the cold weather in northern American states, the players carved wooden paddles to hit with to relieve the pain from the cold.

Other governing bodies

There have been many attempts to package paddleball as a sport. However, attempts to organize it have had mixed results. Founded in 1960, the original U.S. Paddleball Association was the inspiration of doubles champion and founder, Christopher Lecakes, and lasted well into the 1970s. In the late 1960s, the American Paddleball Association (APA) was organized, only to be challenged by the Paddleball Players Association in 1974. In the 1980s, the PPPA, founded by Ray Gaston, became the dominant governing body, and small community-based organizations like the One Wall Paddleball Association founded by Murry "DA K" Kushner continued efforts to push the sport forward. In the early 1990s, the National Paddleball Association, founded by Michael G. Magnaldi, George Medici and Linda Sales, picked up the torch from the prior organizations. The NPA officially ceased operations in early 2006. All prior organizations eventually became inactive. The APA was reorganized in the late 1990s by paddleball legend Howard Hammer and shortly thereafter became inactive again. In 2005, the United States Paddleball Association (USPA) was reborn, this time headed by Henry Marquez and beginning with an authorized revision of Christopher Lecakes' original one pall Paddleball rules. The USPA remains active in overseeing the sport's promotion and application of its original rules. A number of factors prevent paddleball from becoming more of a national sport, notwithstanding the lack of walls outside of the New York region. Part of the problem stems from the experience in NYC with annual tournaments, which when sponsored by companies such as Budweiser (in the 80s) fell victim to forces on tournament courts that turned away further corporate involvement. Another is the speed of the game, which, barring technological advancement, prevents televising tournaments. The ball moves too fast and the court is too small for following the action during a live game. Without the revenue stream from television, the game is relegated to member fees to enter tournaments which are sponsored locally. File:Gameball.jpg, Paddleball game,

Roy Wilkins Park Roy Wilkins Park, originally known as Southern Queens Park, is a park in the St. Albans neighborhood of southeastern Queens in New York City. It is located on an irregular plot of land bounded by 115th and 116th Avenues to the north, 175th Stre ...

, Queens, NYC File:Games-end.jpg, Games end with all players shaking hands. File:Brims-n-glassses.jpg, Spectators bring their own chairs and park in the rear. Some wear brims and eyewear for protection from stray balls.

External links

Official Tournament Rules for the game by the American Paddleball Association

The United States Paddleball Association
Ball games Racket sports