Intense, competitive, trash talk – are the three terms used by the founders of Spikeball to describe the game. After watching a short video of how the sport is played on their website, I’m finding it very hard to disagree. It’s really quite exciting just to watch, so playing it should guarantee an absolute whale of a time.

Spikeball is probably best described as volleyball’s distant cousin, but there’s a lot more to it than just that. The net used for Spikeball is small and circular – probably the size of a Hula Hoop, and it sits on the ground at ankle level. The ball is pretty small too, just about palm-size. Two teams play against each other with only two players on each team. The objective of the game is to smack the ball across to your opponents, just like in volleyball. However, with spikeball, you need to bounce the ball on the net first, so it ricochets upwards at an opposing player. They in turn have to be able to bounce it back to your team, within three hits, or you score. You score points every time they miss, and a score of 21 is needed to win the game.

Photo by Spikeball

The beauty of spikeball lies in the simplicity of the equipment; it is incredibly easy to set up. So you could play it indoors, outdoors, on the beach, on grass, or even at the gym. All you require is plenty of space to be able to fall and jump around, in order to get the ball in control. While you can download the complete set of rules from their website, company co-founder Chris Ruder says that people are so excited about the game that some even make up their own rules.

Photo by Spikeball

According to Chris, he has been playing Spikeball since his childhood in the 1990s, along with his siblings, cousins and friends. During this time, the game was discontinued as it wasn’t very popular. However, over the years several people wasted no time in telling them how great it was and wanted to know where they could purchase a set of their own. So when the time was right, Chris re-launched Spikeball along with 6 other co-founders. This time around, it’s been a lot more popular. And I can see why. It looks like it’s simple, fun and something that can be played hours on end. Who wouldn’t want to?

Photo by Spikeball