Paddle ball is a one-person game played with a paddle and an attached ball. Using the flat paddle with the small rubber ball attached at the center via an elastic string, the player tries to hit the ball with the paddle in succession as many times as possible.
The paddle (sometimes called a bolo bat [1] ) is similar in size and shape to a table tennis racket. It is usually made from either wood or plastic.
Created and patented ( U.S. patent 1,529,600 ) by William R. Lind in the 1920s, the paddle ball was one of several recreational products to follow the invention of soft rubber.
In 1937, the Fli-Back Company was founded in High Point, North Carolina with the paddle-ball as their main product. [2] The paddle logo depicted a cowboy playing paddle ball while riding a bucking bronco. In that year, the toy was featured in Newsweek . [3] This first successful mass-marketing of the toy allowed the company to diversify into other toys, including the yo-yo and spinning tops.
In the 1950s, Duncan Toys Company manufactured the "Hi-Li Paddle Ball Toy" that sold millions of units. The paddle reads “Duncan’s Official Hi-Li, Reg. U.S. Pat. Off., Champion No. 99.” [4]
In 1972, the Ohio Art Company, the makers of the popular Etch-A-Sketch, purchased the Fli-Back Company. They continued to make Fli-Back paddle ball games in High Point until 1983. [5]
In 2000, Yomega received a trademark for "Extreme 180° APB", [6] their paddle ball featuring adjustable cord lengths and ball types.
Paddle balls have been depicted in several motion pictures. In an early demonstration of 3-D effects, the carnival barker in House of Wax is shown doing tricks with a paddle ball to gain the attention of potential customers. [7]
In The Misfits , Marilyn Monroe is depicted provocatively whacking a paddle ball while wearing a polka-dot dress in a saloon in Dayton, Nevada. [8]
In Blazing Saddles , Mel Brooks (in his cameo as the cross-eyed governor) and Harvey Korman use a paddle ball to great comedic effect. Korman's character performs tricks with relative ease and hands the paddle to Brooks, who can barely manage one hit. This was a deliberate anachronism, as the paddle ball would not be invented until fifty years after the film was (mostly) set. [9]
In the Pixar/Disney animated movie WALL-E , there is a brief scene in a montage where the titular robot loses control of a paddle ball and is struck repeatedly in the head. The paddle ball ends up in the "Don't Keep" pile. [10]
In the Paramount Pictures film Sonic the Hedgehog , Sonic is seen with a paddleball, making fast hits before ditching the game. In the DreamWorks Animation film Over the Hedge , RJ uses a paddleball by hitting it a few times, and then making the attached ball to get tied on the ceiling in order to go over Vincent to steal his food.
The record for the most paddle balls controlled simultaneously by one person is 7. This was achieved by Steve Langley on the set of Lo Show Dei Record in Milan, Italy, on 8 April 2011. Langley controlled all paddles for 10 seconds, with all balls bouncing simultaneously. [11]
The record for the most people controlling paddle balls at once is 443. Also achieved by Steve Langley, this record was set at O.P. Earle Elementary School and Landrum Middle School in Landrum, South Carolina, on 30 November 2012. [12]
The record for the most people in a paddle ball relay is 162, achieved by a team from Nike Digital Sport in Las Vegas, Nevada, on 20 February 2013. The attempt was held on the plaza of the Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas Strip. Each participant was required to have full control of their device before the next person was allowed to begin. [13]
Blazing Saddles is a 1974 American satirical postmodernist Western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who co-wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Uger, based on a story treatment by Bergman. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. Brooks appears in two supporting roles: Governor William J. Le Petomane, and a Yiddish-speaking Indian chief; he also dubs lines for one of Lili Von Shtupp's backing troupe and a cranky moviegoer. The supporting cast includes Slim Pickens, Alex Karras and David Huddleston, as well as Brooks regulars Dom DeLuise, Madeline Kahn and Harvey Korman. Bandleader Count Basie has a cameo as himself, appearing with his orchestra.
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails called 'pins' and had hollows or pockets which scored points if the ball came to rest in them. Today, pinball is most commonly an arcade game in which the ball is fired into a specially designed cabinet known as a pinball machine, hitting various lights, bumpers, ramps, and other targets depending on its design.
A yo-yo is a toy consisting of an axle connected to two disks, and a string looped around the axle, similar to a spool. It is an ancient toy with proof of existence since 440 BC. The yo-yo was also called a bandalore in the 17th century.
Contact manipulation is a form of object manipulation that focuses on the movement of objects such as balls in contact with the body. Although often used in conjunction with "toss juggling", it differs in that it involves the rolling of one or more objects without releasing them into the air.
The Douglas B-18 Bolo is an American twin-engined heavy bomber which served with the United States Army Air Corps and the Royal Canadian Air Force during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The Bolo was developed by the Douglas Aircraft Company from their DC-2 as a replacement for the Martin B-10.
Bolas or bolases is a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, used to capture animals by entangling their legs. Bolas were most famously used by the gauchos, but have been found in excavations of Pre-Columbian settlements, especially in Patagonia, where indigenous peoples used them to catch 200-pound guanacos and rheas. The Mapuche and the Inca army used them in battle. Mapuche warriors used bolas in their confrontations with the Chilean Army during the Occupation of Araucanía (1861–1883).
American handball, known as handball in the United States and sometimes referred to as wallball, is a sport in which players use their hands to hit a small, rubber ball against a wall such that their opponent(s) cannot do the same without the ball touching the ground twice or hitting out-of-bounds. The three versions are four-wall, three-wall and one-wall. Each version can be played either by two players (singles), three players (cutthroat) or four players (doubles), but in official tournaments, singles and doubles are the only versions played.
A beach ball is an inflatable ball for beach and water games. Their large size and light weight require little effort to propel them.
The National Toy Hall of Fame is a U.S. hall of fame that recognizes the contributions of toys and games that have sustained their popularity for many years. Criteria for induction include: icon status ; longevity ; discovery ; and innovation. Established in 1998 under the direction of Ed Sobey, it was originally housed at A. C. Gilbert's Discovery Village in Salem, Oregon, United States, but was moved to the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, in 2002 after it outgrew its original home.
Pickleball is a racket or paddle sport in which two players (singles) or four players (doubles) use a smooth-faced paddle to hit a perforated, hollow plastic ball over a 34-inch-high (0.86 m) net until one side is unable to return the ball or commits a rule infraction. Pickleball is played indoors and outdoors. It was invented in 1965 as a children's backyard game in the United States, on Bainbridge Island in Washington state. In 2022, pickleball was named the official state sport of Washington.
Astrojax, invented in 1986 by Larry Shaw, is a toy consisting of three balls on a string. In the original version of the toy, one ball is fixed at each end of the string, and the center ball is free to slide along the string between the two end balls. Inside each ball is a metal weight. The metal weight lowers the moment of inertia of the center ball so it can rotate rapidly in response to torques applied by the string. This prevents the string from snagging or tangling around the center ball.
Super Breakout is a sequel to the 1976 video game Breakout released in arcades in September 1978 by Atari, Inc. It was written by Ed Rotberg. The game uses the same mechanics as Breakout, but allows the selection of three distinct game modes via a knob on the cabinet—two of which involve multiple, simultaneous balls in play. Both the original and sequel are in black and white with monitor overlays to add color. It was distributed in Japan by Namco and Esco Trading.
A rolling ball sculpture is a form of kinetic art – an art form that contains moving pieces – that specifically involves one or more rolling balls.
TOSY Robotics specializes in designing and manufacturing robots and smart toys. The most famous products from TOSY Robotics are TOPIO Robot, DiscoRobo, TOOP and AFO.
Charles Edgar Brumfield is an American attorney and former professional racquetball player as well as a noted paddleball player. For much of his professional racquetball career, Brumfield was the marquis player for Leach Industries, the leading manufacturer of racquetball rackets at the time. Leach produced several Brumfield signature rackets including the "Graphite Brumfield". For a brief time, Brumfield had his own sports brand label, which marketed rackets and sports apparel.
Four wall paddleball, or paddleball, is a popular court sport in the Upper Midwest of the United States, on the West Coast of the U.S. and in the Memphis, Tennessee area. It is played with a paddle and small rubber ball on a standard handball or racquetball court, with similar rules to those sports.
Bud Muehleisen was an American dentist, racquetball and paddleball player from San Diego, California. A left-handed player, "Dr. Bud" Muehleisen part of the first class inducted into the Racquetball Hall of Fame in 1974, only a year after the Hall of Fame was established. He was also inducted into the World Outdoor Racquetball Hall of Fame in 2015. He is considered the best racquetball player and the best paddleball player of the 1960s era, and one of the best finesse players in the history of either game. The description of his career at the Racquetball Hall of Fame reads:
'Dr. Bud' Muehleisen has sometimes been called the most influential man in racquetball. He began playing paddleball in 1962, won four national titles, then took up paddle rackets in 1969, edging out Brumfield to win one of the first national championships in the sport that would become racquetball. Bud served on the IRA board of directors for seven years as the first Rules Committee chairman and was instrumental in the formation of the game's first rules. He won an unprecedented 41 national titles, was a coach and teacher, a regular contributor of instructional material to early magazines and worked with most of the major equipment manufacturers in developing racquets, balls and other products.
Kinect Sports is a sports video game developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360. The game utilizes the Kinect motion-sensing peripheral and was released in North America on 4 November 2010 as a launch title for Kinect, then, a few days later, in Europe and Australia.
Florian "Venom" Kohler is a French professional pool player trick shot artist, particularly known for his massé shots.
An Eskimo yo-yo or Alaska yo-yo is a traditional two-balled skill toy played and performed by the Eskimo-speaking Alaska Natives, such as Inupiat, Siberian Yupik, and Yup'ik. It resembles fur-covered bolas and yo-yo. It is regarded as one of the most simple, yet most complex, cultural artifacts/toys in the world. The Eskimo yo-yo involves simultaneously swinging two sealskin balls suspended on caribou sinew strings in opposite directions with one hand. It is popular with Alaskans and tourists alike. This traditional toy is two unequal lengths of twine, joined together, with hand-made leather objects at the ends of the twine.
