If you haven’t heard about one of the newer Intramural sports, we’re here to break it down for you! Introducing Spikeball, a mashup of volleyball, handball, and pure fun! Spikeball is played with a special trampoline and a bright yellow ball.
The game is played with 2 teams of 2 people. According to the official website, Spikeball is played as follows, “a player starts a point by serving the ball down onto the Spikeball net so it ricochets up at his opponents. They have up to 3 hits between them (think bump, set, spike) to control the ball and bounce it back off the net. When they miss, you score. The first team to 21 wins.”
The other fun part of Spikeball is there are no boundaries. Once a team serves, the ball can be bounced to any part of the area surrounding the trampoline. Players tend to get pretty creative by hitting it backward, high in the air, or shooting across the ground. One of the rules is “hinder,” which means you got in the way during your opponent’s play. Since Spikeball has no official “sides” the player is allowed to move around the net, but if your team doesn’t have possession of the ball then you have to try to get out of the way of the other team. Also, keep in mind, you can’t hit the ball out of your opponent’s hand.
There are a few other rules about Spikeball that you may want to know before jumping in. “Pocket” is a unique situation when the ball won’t bounce off the net clean. The only time a pocket shot effects play is during a serve. In every other situation, a pocket shot is perfectly legal, even if it bounces a little funny.
While pocket shots are perfectly legal, rim shots are not. If you hit the ball off the rim at any point in time, it’s automatically a point for the other team. So be careful where you bounce the spikeball, it could come back to bite you!
The best part of Spikeball is you have the opportunity to play it through Intramurals this summer and during the school year! Check out this link to register! But you better hurry! The registration for Spikeball closes tomorrow!