The art of styk and ball
Posted by: stykball on: July 15, 2011
Some of the art and photography that has been produced over the years.
How to play stykball
Posted by: stykball on: July 15, 2011
How to play
First the player learns to balance the ball on the stick, receiving the ball and passing the ball around between the circle of players.
The main aim of the game is to keep the flowing motion of the ball being passed around the circle, never hitting the ball but instead keeping contact and balancing, gracefully guiding and redirecting the movement of the ball.
A game of Stykball is usually played by between 2- 9 players (with more than 9 players the circle becomes large and each player recieves the ball less often). With 3 or more players a “circle” is formed and the ball is much more likely to stay in play even if mistakes are made.
The spirit of the game of Stykball is one of fairness and co-operation, players of any skill level can join or leave the circle at any time. Creativity is encouraged, players are welcome to join the game without using a stick but instead using their body (or even other props such as rope or fans) to roll and guide the ball in play.
Equipment
The size and weight of the equipment you use is a matter of personal choice. Each different type of stick and ball has its advantages and disadvantages.
Sticks
Light sticks have the advantage of speed and can be used for longer without the player becoming tired as quickly, although generally they are not as strong. Short sticks are particularly good for fast tricks with lots of rotations etc. Heavier sticks are stronger and more powerfull although they are slower to react with and tend to be more dangerous. Long sticks are good for big throws and power shots.
Sticks can be plain wooden broom handles, pieces of bamboo or even cardboard plastic or metal tubes. Some players prefer to have different grips and textures applied to them so they grip on to the type of ball being used. Tassles can be fastened to the ends of the staff to make it safer to use and they look good. See the tutorial on how to wrap sticks and connect tassles. Use bright coloured equipment! It looks good and makes the game safer.
Sticks need to be as straight as possible and not have any sharp ends or splinters.
Some good ways to check if a stick is straight
- Roll the stick on some flat ground.
- Look down the length while turning the stick.
- Throw the stick in the air whilst it’s spinning and look for wobbles.
Balls
Any type of ball can be used to play Stykball. The smaller the ball used the more difficult it will be to balance.
The giant tennis ball
The official Stykball is the giant tennis ball (aka jumbo tennis ball). These balls are about 9 – 9.5 inches in diameter (approximately the same size as a basketball but much lighter (about 350 grams).
Playground balls
“Playground balls” are also good to play Stykball with and have a nice grip. They are a bit heavier than the giant tennis ball but are easy to get and come in lots of different colours. These balls are good to use in wet weather and at the beach as they do not become waterlogged like the giant tennis ball does.
10 inch diameter PG balls are nice to use but can be a bit too bouncy. Pumping up an 8 inch diameter playground ball to 9 – 9.5 inch diameter is no problem (use the air pump at the petrol station) this reduces the “boingyness” that larger PG balls tend to have.
Other balls
Soccer balls and volley balls can be used but they are a bit more difficult to play with because they are generally smaller and heavier as well as having a smooth surface which makes them slippery unless a rubber grip is used on the stick. Netballs are usually a bit easier to play with as they are very grippy. Basketballs are a good size and have a great grip to play with and are usually nice and round but they are commonly so heavy that they can be quite dangerous to play a game of Stykball with.
How to check if a ball is spherical
To check if a ball is spherical throw the ball high up into the air with lots of fast spin on it and look for wobbles, then turn the ball 90 degrees sideways and repeat the throw again with lots of spin and high into the air.
If the ball is egg shaped you will notice a wobble when it’s spinning. Eggy balls are not as good for balancing but can still be used to play Stykball with. A perfectly round ball is very rare.
The 3 golden rules of Stykball
Rule # 1 – Never play dangerously
Rule # 2 – Go with the flow
Rule # 3 – Never say sorry
Rule # 1 – Never play dangerously
The most important thing to remember when playing Stykball is to play safely and allow each player their space to move. If played in this way players should never crash into each other and no one should ever be hit by another player’s stick. Holding the circular formation helps the game to flow better and is the safest way to play.
- Each player has an invisible zone around them which should not be entered by the other players or their sticks.
- Never throw or let go of your stick when playing with other players.
- Never hit the ball with the stick. Hitting the ball is dangerous, sticks can get broken and you could accidentally hit someone or yourself. It’s also not good for the shape of the ball.
- Never play with sharp or splintered sticks.
- Be aware of your surroundings and pay attention to the ball! If you’re not watching the ball for a reason it’s recommended to put your elbow up as a guard to protect your face.
- When running with the stick always keep the ends high above the ground. If the end locks into the ground while you’re running towards it, this can be very bad.
Rule # 2 – Go with the flow
Stykball is all about guiding and keeping contact with the ball. In this game we never whack the ball with the stick, the idea is to keep the flowing motion of the ball going between the players in the circle, building upon the energy of the movement of the ball.
If the ball is moving in the direction of one of the players then it should be left to go to that player, even if the ball is travelling very slowly. This is because the player who is most in the direct line of the ball’s travel has the best chance to receive the ball easily rather than trying receive it from a sideways angle which is much more difficult.
It’s not polite to step in front of someone and take the ball when they are lining up to do their move. Holding the circular formation is important for the game to be able to be played safely.
Rule # 3 – Never say sorry
This rule has been borrowed from the game Hakeysak. It is a good rule. If rules one and two are followed properly then there should be no reason to say sorry. Mistakes are made often inStykball even by experienced players. As long as you try your best then there’s no reason to apologise because a pass is not accurate, or the ball ends up flying out of the circle of play.
If players apologised for every mistake in Stykball there would be thousands of sorrys in every game!
The history of stick and ball
Stick and ball balancing has existed for a long time and has been performed as part of the routines of some of the world’s most famous jugglers, often holding a short stick in their mouth and balancing, throwing and catching the ball and even juggling at the same time as balancing!
One of these styles is a form of object manipulation originating from ancient Japan called Edo-daikagura. This form of traditional juggling involves many different types of balancing and spinning objects as well as toss juggling and even balancing teapots on a stick held in the mouth. Most of the historical information on stick and ball manipulation I’ve been able to find has been about this type of mouth stick balancing done by jugglers and circus performers and seems to trace back to this traditional form of Japanese juggling.
The multi-player game known as Stykball using long sticks to balance a ball was invented in September 2000 by a man called Damien James. Beginning in West End, Brisbane on the east coast of Australia, the game quickly gained popularity and was expanded upon by other people with some changes to the equipment being made such as the use of the giant tennis ball and different textures and grips being added to the sticks.
Different forms of the game were discussed and played and a decision was made to leave the game as a non-competitive freestyle game with no rules or referees to encourage creativity and improvisation. Stykball can often be seen being played on the streets, at markets, festivals and is commonly appearing at juggling meets and conventions.
Over time the complexity of tricks and skills of the players has increased but the game itself has stayed the same. Since it’s invention Stykball has gained in popularity and there are people playing stykball in places all over the world.
Here’s some interesting links to discover more information about stick and ball manipulation …
http://www.juggling.org/books/alvarez/
http://www.edo-daikagura.com/english/index.htm
The beginnings of stick and ball manipulation
Here’s some stuff about the beginnings of stick and ball manipulation taken from a book about the history of juggling by Francisco Alvarez.
http://www.juggling.org/books/alvarez/part4.html
The Jedi hackeysack trilogy
Posted by: stykball on: June 24, 2011
Luminous fractal and Sacred hands from Canada. Truly awesome.
Interesting article about the giant tennis ball
Posted by: stykball on: June 26, 2010
nytimes.com – Fans at the United States Open stand a good chance of not catching a single glimpse of Roger Federer or Serena Williams. It may be impossible to miss the jumbo balls.
At tournaments around the world, oversize tennis balls are the must-have souvenir, especially for the preteenage set with regular-size Sharpies and jumbo-walleted parents. New Yorkers have a special affinity for them. It is likely that more jumbo balls will be sold during the Open than at any other tournament in the world. A boisterous crowd, apparently, is best armed with an in-your-face ball.
“It’s a much better seller at the U.S. Open than it is at the Australian,” said Chris Kushner, global manager for tennis balls at Wilson Sporting Goods, the official ball supplier at the Open.
Wilson saves its biggest balls for New York: 11 inches in diameter, two inches bigger than the usual “jumbo” ball sold at other Wilson-sponsored tournaments. (A third size, five inches, comes with the oxymoronic name Mini Jumbo Ball.) Thousands are gobbled up, by autograph seekers, mostly, but also dog lovers and those who cannot resist the temptation of purchasing anything deemed jumbo, particularly when covered in bright, fuzzy material.
It is unclear who had the initial idea of creating an oversize tennis ball, pricing it proportionately to its size ($40 at the Open this year) and aiming it at the preteenage demographic. But it was a stroke of marketing genius (someone deserved a promotion).
Wilson has been selling the balls at the Open since 1992, Kushner said, and sales have increased each year. Wilson expects to sell as many as 8,000 jumbo balls at this year’s tournament.
All the top-level tennis ball suppliers have versions of oversize balls, sold mostly at tournaments where they provide regulation-size balls for competition. But Wilson, the official ball of the WTA Tour, several ATP Tour men’s events and two of the four Grand Slam tournaments, is probably the No. 1 oversize tennis ball seller in the world, whatever that is worth.
Actually, it is worth millions, although Kushner declined to be more specific than to say that the company sold “tens of thousands” of jumbo balls each year.
“It’s part of our business that’s growing,” Kushner said. “It’s not a huge part of our business, but it’s something that’s kind of fun and gives us a lot of good P.R. at the events. At the tournament, every single kid that walks in there wants a jumbo ball. They get attracted to them. It’s like a magnet.”
Other companies have their own synonyms for big. At the French Open, Dunlop’s “giant balls” of yellow, orange or turquoise are available. Penn and Head, part of the same company that supplies balls to tournaments around the world, call theirs “giant balls,” too. At Wimbledon, Slazenger sells a “midi ball” in yellow or pink.
There is no truly comparable item in the world of sports concessions. Most novelty items are smaller than the real thing — miniature baseball bats, pee-wee footballs, a model Zamboni. But even when such things are in convenient sizes, stadiums and arenas are not filled with people walking around with them under their arms.
Before tennis balls, the trend toward oversize concession items seemed to stop with the giant foam No. 1 fingers. Thankfully, no one has dared make an authentic-feeling golf ball the size of a beach ball, or had much success in marketing it. Mr. Met, with a huge baseball head, has not spawned a jumbo baseball craze. Even Fathead, the maker of giant cut-out posters of athletes to cling to the wall, primarily sells images that are life-size, not oversize.
But bigger is better in tennis, apparently. That is a serendipitous byproduct of the tennis ball itself. It is small, light and fuzzy. Even a bigger version is nonthreatening and relatively cuddly, at least for sporting equipment. And making jumbo balls is relatively simple.
The same factories in China, Taiwan and Thailand that produce Wilson’s regulation-size tennis balls create the jumbo ones, too.
“But they’re not made the same way,” Kushner said, adding with a laugh, “We don’t have giant machinery for them.”
A regular tennis ball is essentially a hollow rubber sphere covered in felt. Enlarging it proportionately, Kushner said, would make the rubber membrane too thick and the ball too heavy — a sure way to get a jumbo-size case of tennis elbow, should one dare rally with giant rackets.
Instead, the jumbo balls are akin to soccer balls and basketballs, with a thin inflatable membrane that makes them light and bouncy. Then they are covered with felt.
They are shipped deflated — not in a vacuum-sealed, three-pack cylinder that goes wooosh when opened.
That is why one of the busiest jobs at the Open, besides running the cash register where jumbo balls are sold, is that of jumbo-ball inflater.
francis brunn
Posted by: stykball on: January 4, 2010
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This ones got some nice footage of the backbend trick thing brunn used to do.
Embedding disabled: CLICK HERE for the video
some scoops and some loops
Posted by: stykball on: November 10, 2009
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caleb practicing some moves
point balancing
Posted by: stykball on: November 4, 2009
Interesting vid of a guy doing a point balance with a really long stick, presumably the ball is spinning so it`s really an extension of the spin the ball on the finger thing.
talking sticks
Posted by: stykball on: September 16, 2009
The Talking Stick is a tool used in many Native American Traditions when a council is called. It allows all council members to present their Sacred Point of View. The Talking Stick is passed from person to person as they speak and only the person holding the stick is allowed to talk during that time period. The Answering Feather is also held by the person speaking unless the speaker address a question to another council member. At that time, the Answering Feather is passed to the person asked to answer the query. Every member of the meeting must listen closely to the words being spoken, so when their turn comes, they do not repeat unneeded information or ask impertinent questions. Indian children are taught to listen from age three forward; they are also taught to respect another’s viewpoint. This is not to say that they may not disagree, but rather they are bound by their personal honor to allow everyone their Sacred Point of View.
taken from :
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TraditionalTalkingStick-Unknown.html
The temari ball
Posted by: stykball on: September 16, 2009
Here`s some stuff I found on the web about “temari balls” (also called “gotenmari”).
These are the type of decorated yarn balls that the early japenese jugglers were using to do stick and ball manipulation. These days most people use styrofoam balls to make them but originally the inside could be made of anything, usually bound yarn or even a wooden sphere.
from http://www.japanesetemari.com/
“As Buddhist missionaries traveled east from India through China and Korea to Japan, they spread not only religious beliefs but culture. The Japanese craft of stitching temari balls is said to have its origins from kemari (football) brought to Japan from China about 1400 years ago. The art of temari comes from simple beginnings.
Making Japanese temari balls grew as a needlework handcraft for noble women in the early part of the Edo Period (1600-1868). Maids of the court stitched colorful thread globes for young Japanese girls. They would sit on the floor withthe children rolling a temari ball between them. Tossing and bouncing games followed. Over the years, region by region, more Japanese women became interested in Japanese crafts, and they explored this folk art as an Oriental needlecraft and improved it. They added noisemakers to the inside to delight the ear. They added stitching designs from Japanese crafts as well as other Asian embroidery designs, like the kiku (chrysanthemum), and they copied the colors of nature around them. Kaleidoscope designs became favorites for Japanese temari balls. They used the brilliant colors of kimono silk, stitching eye-catching temari patterns. Sometimes, temari are called silk ball ornaments. Ever changing, becoming more and more complex, each of the new temari balls was a delight to behold, an embroidered puzzle.”
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