Sport of the Week – Bossaball

Combining gymnastics, soccer, and volleyball bossaball is a rising sport all around the globe. Seen outside of the 2016 Rio Olympics on the beach it probably doesn't have a chance of being recognized by the IOC any time soon, but it looks extremely cool.

Combining gymnastics, soccer, and volleyball bossaball is a rising sport all around the globe. Seen outside of the 2016 Rio Olympics on the beach it probably doesn’t have a chance of being recognized by the IOC any time soon, but it looks extremely cool.

Two teams of four are split on a large inflatable that measure 18m x 14x with a 9m high net in the middle. Players use a barrage of volley touches (hands and forearms only) and soccer touches (anything but the hands) to try and land the ball on their opponents side.

Scoring is broken up as follows. Scoring with volley touch:

1 point: when the ball hits the opponents playing area.

3 points: when the ball is played directly in the opponent’s trampoline area.

Scoring with soccer touch:

3 points: when the ball hits the opponents playing area.

5 points: when the ball is played directly in the opponent’s trampoline area.

Bossaball also heavily integrates music, using their “samba referees” as in-house DJs. The music gives the sport a festival vibe. Did we mention each side of the court has a large trampoline on the front middle?

The game itself begin in the early 2000s in Spain and spread from there. The term bossa in this case relates to style, flair or attitude in Brazilian Portuguese.

While it’s starting to gain traction all over, it has a fairly crazy setup which means you’ll need to actually search for it. The large inflatable court takes about 45 minutes to set up, so it’s a bit of a chore.  There are several clubs which you can find in the Bossaball World Map.

The court can be of any size but are usually around 18 yards in length and 14 yards in width. The 3m net can be adjusted based on who is participating. Children and women are generally lowered a bit, while men stick with the 3m net height.

This is definitely a sport, but not one we’ll see played in high volume any time soon. Geoff thinks it would be a good candidate for the X-Games, but let’s be real, they’ve never had a ball sport in their games and they’re not about to start now.