A ball is a round object with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch or juggling. Balls made from hard-wearing materials are used in engineering applications to provide very low friction bearings, known as ball bearings. Black-powder weapons use stone and metal balls as projectiles.
Boules, or jeu de boules, is a collective name for a wide range of games similar to bowls and bocce in which the objective is to throw or roll heavy balls as closely as possible to a small target ball, called the jack. 'Boules' itself is a French loanword that usually refers to the game especially played in France.
A football is a ball inflated with air that is used to play one of the various sports known as football. In these games, with some exceptions, goals or points are scored only when the ball enters one of two designated goal-scoring areas; football games involve the two teams each trying to move the ball in opposite directions along the field of play.
Jeu de paume, nowadays known as real tennis, (US) court tennis or courte paume, is a ball-and-court game that originated in France. It was an indoor precursor of tennis played without racquets, and so "game of the hand", though these were eventually introduced. It is a former Olympic sport, and has the oldest ongoing annual world championship in sport, first established over 250 years ago. The term also refers to the court on which the game is played and its building, which in the 17th century was sometimes converted into a theatre.
Real tennis – one of several games sometimes called "the sport of kings" – is the original racquet sport from which the modern game of tennis is derived. It is also known as court tennis in the United States, royal tennis in England and Australia, and courte-paume in France. Many French real tennis courts are at jeu de paume clubs.
Basque pelota is the name for a variety of court sports played with a ball using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bat or a basket, against a wall or, more traditionally, with two teams face to face separated by a line on the ground or a net. The roots of this class of games can be traced to the Greek and other ancient cultures.
Palla is a traditional Tuscan ball game played in villages between Siena and Grosseto. It is also called palla EH! because players call out eh! before serving.
Pallone is the name of several traditional ball games, played in all regions of Italy, with few differences in regulations.
Medieval football is a modern term used for a wide variety of the localised informal football games which were invented and played in England during the Middle Ages. Alternative names include folk football, mob football and Shrovetide football. These games may be regarded as the ancestors of modern codes of football, and by comparison with later forms of football, the medieval matches were chaotic and had few rules.
Harpastum, also known as harpustum, was a form of ball game played in the Roman Empire. The Romans also referred to it as the small ball game. The ball used was small and hard, probably about the size and solidity of a softball and was stuffed with feathers. The word harpastum is the latinisation of the Greek ἁρπαστόν, the neuter of ἁρπαστός, "carried away", from the verb ἁρπάζω, "to seize, to snatch".
A football is the ball used in the sport of association football. The name of the ball varies according to whether the sport is called "football", "soccer", or "association football". The ball's spherical shape, as well as its size, weight, mass, and material composition, are specified by Law 2 of the Laws of the Game maintained by the International Football Association Board. Additional, more stringent standards are specified by FIFA and other big governing bodies for the balls used in the competitions they sanction.
Valencian pilota is a traditional handball sport played in the Valencian Community. Its origins are not known.
The International game is a ball game that is related to many sports derived from and similar to Jeu de paume. It is played in the Handball International Championships by teams from the Americas and Europe.
The Palazzo della Pilotta is a complex of edifices located between Piazzale della Pace and the Lungoparma in the historical centre of Parma, region of Emilia Romagna, Italy. Its name derives from the game of pelota played at one time by Spanish soldiers stationed in Parma.
The International Ball game Confederation, founded on May 13, 1928, is the organization that manages the common activities of the many ball games deriving from Jeu de paume.
Juan Bautista Luis Augurio Perera Orfila, known as Augurio Perera, was a Spanish-born merchant and sportsman based in England, credited alongside his friend Harry Gem as a lawn tennis pioneer.
The 2007 edition of the Handball International Championships was the VII European Championship, organized by the International Ball game Confederation, and was held at the Belgian cities of Nivelles and Buizingen during September 21 and 23.
Jeu de mail or jeu de maille is an ancient outdoor game, originally from Naples, which gave rise to numerous modern sports, such as golf, croquet, hockey and its variations, and polo. It is a now-obsolete lawn game originating in the Late Middle Ages and mostly played in the Kingdom of Naples and France, surviving in some locales into the 20th century. It is a form of ground billiards, using one or more balls, a stick with a mallet-like head, and usually featuring one or more targets such as hoops or holes. Jeu de mail was ancestral to the games golf, palle-malle and croquet, and, billiards.
Balloon, baloun, balloon-ball or wind-ball is a game similar to the modern game of volleyball, in which a leather ball is batted by the fist or forearm to prevent it from touching the ground. The game was played in ancient Rome where it was known as follis, the Latin word for a leather bag. Such a ball made of leather was quite heavy and so protection might be used such as a leather gauntlet or wooden bracer. The Roman game was considered a sport for boys and old men, as Martial wrote:
Gain-ground games are team sports which are played with a small ball or a balloon. They are often outdoors on a "ballodrome" but can also be played indoors.
