timepiececlock | edit: HANDBALL!

Did anyone ever play that game when you're a kid with the large rubber balls that's basically like four-square, except you play against a wall wiht only two people, maybe 3 tops?

And you had to bounce it once before it hit the wall and it could only bounce once coming back before you hit it-- if it bounced twice or just went past you entirely you lost a point. And it was really hard-core with little tournaments and play-offs and stuff. And there were rules like "no cross-country" (i.e. no deliberately bouncing it to the opposite corner of the wall so your opponent would have to run the length of the wall to get to it and probably hit it out) and other stuff.

And then teachers or other people come out and yell at you to stop banging against their walls. Anyone else play that? What was it called anyway?

Edit: I jsut spent about 20 minutes on google trying to find a name for this game or even a description, and I've found nothing. The closest seems to be rules on Foursquare and rules about dodgeball with people lined up against the wall (which we played too, but to a lesser extent as it was somewhat violent.)

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I did play that, and I played it poorly. Or maybe everyone always cheated. Yeah that's it, they cheated. Those cheaters!

I was pretty good. I held even with the boys and girls of my age group and the girls a year or two older than me (of course I could beat the younger kids), but I could never hold my own against the boys 2 or more years older than me. I was probably a medium-rated player. I remember I loved that game though. I just can't remember what it's called.

Thank you, I'm trying to find the right wording for a FMA icon at the moment...damn you! *smiles*

I think it was called Handball. I mean, there were a couple games I remember being called handball. One using the big dodge balls and another using the small racket balls which I was both bad at and hurt my hand like hell. But it seems it might also be a regional thing, but since we are Cali-kids, it's probably Handball.

Sounds like wally-ball. Or at least, that's what my PE teacher called it. he was a big fan.

Wally-ball. That's cute. I don't remember what we called it (we must have had a name; it was very popular) but I'm sure we didn't use that name. I wanna say we called it dodge-ball but that doesn't make sense because dodge-ball is a totally different game that we also played. And we were dodging them, we were hitting the balls.

You just sounded like Willow when you said that.

Sun

Wall Ball! But we played it with a tennis ball and like 15 kids and one of the lunch aids stood out of the way and umpired. Because we were hard core. We had outs -- if the ball touched you coming off the wall and you didn't catch it, or if you threw the ball and it missed the wall, you had to run up and touch the wall before whoever did catch it could hit the wall with the ball again. If the ball beat you to the wall 3 times, you were out of the game. It was when the games was down to a few people that "no cross-country" got yelled at a lot -- I'd actually forgotten that rule, but when I read it in your post I heard like 5 kids scream it in my head. Good times, man.

That's definitely a different game I think. We didn't play handball with more than 4 people, usually 2. And not with tennis balls. The point was to bounce it against the wall by hitting it (serves were either thrown straight up and then hit, or bounced straight up and then hit) so when it bounced back the other person missed hitting it-- like four-square. Catching it was an automatic out.

I think we called it handball. We never had the compaint issue because we played against the cinderblock walls surrounding the dumpsters rather than walls of occupied buildings. Of course, that brought up the whole dumpster-diving issue when a ball went astray...

evemac and I both agree that handball sounds right. Thank you for your good memory!

Of course, that brought up the whole dumpster-diving issue when a ball went astray...

I remember the wall we played against at my day care (we played at the elementry school too though) was relatively short in length, and one end was just a fence, but on the other end was the flat black top with the basketball courts leading out to the field. So whenever someone missed and the ball went shooting at high speeds but never hit the wall, the poor kid who hit it (I did my share of it) would have to chase the ball down, and it frequently meant running half or all the length of the multiple black-top courts before you managed to catch and trap it. Or until someone stopped it for you.

ACEBALL.

I think Aceball was the Bay Area name.

Wallyball is some strange east coast thing.

Or I could be going crazy.

I'm pretty sure I didn't call it that (which isn't to say other Bay Area kids didn't, of course). Actually the above suggestion of "handball" sort of seems familiar.

Speaking of Bay Area stuff, random rec: The Mercury News this morning had a fascinating breakdown of the demographics of the Asian-American population in the Bay Area. It was this huge article, where you can see the layout of different population numbers of different ethnic groups.

Actually, I think you're right. Handball. And there was a certain score that was called an ace, like if it bounced first off the wall and then the ground. Or something.

I'll look for that article!

Yes! I remember now, "ace" was a good scoring or a foul or somethingy. And I'm definitely sure now that we called it handball.

We called that "handball". There was a "no waterfalls" rule (if it hit the top of the wall and came straight down, it was out), something about "no babies" (no mini-bounces), and a lot of other complicated stuff. I remember everyone would like up to play it before school started, and the rubber balls would make wet marks on the walls.

I dunno if it has any relation to the "team handball" they play at the Olympics - from what I've seen and read, the only thing they share is a name.

I remember the waterfalls thing, and the no babies. And yep, handball fits my memory of it too.

We called it "Su-y" kinda like the sound a pig makes, which is how it also got its other name: Piggy.

Same concept, slightly different rules. If they missed the ball, we pegged them with it. Generally a tennis ball was used, and there wasn't a point system. I rocked at that game, but man, those kids did not hold back when they pegged others. Used to hurt like Hell.

I think both you and

hecatehatesthat are talking about a different game-- we always used the rubber bouncy balls, never tennis balls, and we didn't pelt people unless we were playing dodgeball against the wall (which I was only very occasionally good at.) Was the point to catch it or to hit it and bounce it back?

At my elementary school, the point was to catch it. At my middle school, the point was to hit it back. We always used a tennis ball because no one would trust us with a rubberball (translation: Our school couldn't afford one).

edit: HANDBALL!

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oooh I like your icon

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