Angleball
Angleball is a fitness game developed by Rip Engle, onetime head football coach at Penn State. Engle devised the game as a way for his players to maintain physical fitness in the off-season. It has deliberately light contact and minimal rules.[1]
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[edit] Gameplay
Two large balls are placed atop standards (normally 10' tall posts with a 10' radius circle around the post) at opposite sides of a field. In a mixture of soccer and basketball, teams pass a smaller ball back and forth, attempting to knock the other team's ball off its perch with the smaller ball (normally a regulation size handball). A goal is worth one point. An offensive player who is touched by a defensive player must come to a stop and has three seconds to pass the ball to avoid a turnover. Additionally, once tagged a player cannot shoot for a goal. Requirements on the "time limit" between tagging and passing the ball is usually up to the organizer, but is, as stated above, standardly set at 3 seconds. If a ball is knocked off its perch as a result of the standard being struck it does not count as a goal and results in a turnover. After a score is made, play may not resume until the ball is replaced in its perch at the top of the post. The team scored against then begins with possession of the ball inside of their own circle and can begin to advance the ball towards the other team's goal. The ball may be thrown, kicked or rolled from player to player. There is no tackling. The organizer should set tagging rules, but it is usually one hand tag.
Like basketball, teams don't have goalies and the goal is surrounded by a key area where offensive players aren't permitted. As stated above, this key area is a circle marked on the ground at a certain distance (usually 10') from the goal. Defensive players may cross into the circle area of the goal that they are defending as often as they wish. Offensive players may never transgress the circle guarded by the opposing team. If at any point a member of the offense crosses the plane of the defensive team's circle (with or without the ball) the defense may call to account the transgression and demand an immediate turnover. It should be decided before play begins whether defensive players may tend goal. Some rules allow for a single goalie who is allowed inside of the marked area, but is discouraged from exiting it. Teams do not have a set number of players—the number of participants is simply divided in half, although five or six per side is considered ideal.
There is no regulation field size and out-of-bounds, if used, are arbitrarily set; the suggested size is a field large enough to place the standards 35 to 50 yards apart or about that of a soccer field, and out of bounds areas usually do not exist.
[edit] History
The first angleball game played was in the late 1960s at camp La Junta in Hunt, Texas when the Corry High School Beavers hosted the Corry's athletic director, Lou Hanna and Titusville's athletic director, Roy Van Horn, had been teammates on the 1939 Slippery Rock State Teachers College undefeated championship football team.[citation needed] The game was won by Corry.
Van Horn was the owner of Pioneer Ranch, a boys camp on the Allegheny River near Tidioute, Pennsylvania. With Hanna, he founded the Northwestern Pennsylvania Football Camp at Pioneer Ranch in 1961, the nation's first summertime football camp for high school gridders, and hired Penn State's coaches to staff it.[2] It was here a relationship with Rip Engle was formed, and they were first introduced to angleball.
In the mid-1990s the game was also introduced to students at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana by Philosophy Professor, Dr. James Spiegel.[citation needed] On October 4, 2009 Angleball was introduced to a group of about 20 people in Tucson, Arizona.[citation needed] It remains a favorite in Gym classes at Bellefonte Area High School in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania and Mount Nittany Middle School in State College, Pennsylvania.[citation needed] Angleball sets are manufactured by the American Angleball company and are being used by camps, schools, and youth groups throughout the United States and Canada. In 2011 at the 100th year celebration of the Dept. of Kinesiology at Penn State, Angleball equipment was featured in "The Ball Games of the World Exhibit" presented by Dr. Ken Swalgin, Associate Professor of Kinesiology. The exhibit includes over 80 balls, equipment, and posters depicting ball sports from around the world. Ball sports are categorized as follows: handball games, bowls and bowling, ball and bat games, racket and paddle games, football games, ball and raised goal games, invasion goal games, and other ball games.(Swalgin, K.L. 2011)
[edit] References
- ^ Vickey, Ted (2008). 101 Fitness Games for Kids at Camp. Coaches Choice Books. p. 73. ISBN 978-1585180707.
- ^ Dohrmann, George (2001-06-25). "Sweat Shopping: Though rife with NCAA violations, college-run football camps have become bull markets for recruiters". Sports Illustrated. http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1022835/index.htm. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
[edit] External links
- The Clarion Ledger: Angleball gives families chance to get together
- Have You Played Angle Ball?, MentalHealthRN, April 22, 2006
- http://www.americanangleball.com
- http://www.angleball.net
- http://www.angleball.info
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