 Pelote Basque - A New Sensation
Added: 11/29/2007 |
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Pelote Basque , is a specific name that is dedicated towards a variety of court sports played with a ball, by using one's hand, a racket, a wooden bate or pala, or a basket propulsor against a wall. However, there is also a more traditional form, in which the game is played, in which there is the presence of two teams remaining in a face-to-face situation but is separated by a line on the ground or a net.
However, it would be wrong to ascertain that the Pelote Basque is a recent phenomenon! While on the contrary the roots of Pelote Basque can be traced to the Greek and other ancient cultures, but in the context of the continent of Europe they all do derive from the real tennis. In the present age, Pelote Basque is widely played in several countries, of which the most prominent are Spain and France, and also the noted Basque countries along with its neighbor areas. In Valencia, Valencian pilota is considered as the national sport and it is also played in the rural areas of Ireland, Belgium, North of Italy, Mexico, Argentina and in some States of the United States of America, such as Florida. But since for the expansion and steady growth of any discipline there is the need of an official emblem, the foundation of the International Federation of Pelote Basque can be regarded as a milestone. It has been found that the international organization has been able to standardize the different varieties of the game into two or three simpler modalities, with fixed ball weights, rules and court sizes. However, it is to be noted that indeed there are several criticisms on this, since some might argue that the original traits of each particular modality would be lost. As far as the origin of the game is concerned, the antiquity of Pelote Basque ball-game is uncertain but it seems consolidated in the 19th century and the first official competitions were organized in the 1920s. Though the term may be quite inimical to many, Pelote Basque has been an official Olympic sport once, in the 1900 Paris Games and a demonstration sport in 1924 (men), 1968 (men) and 1992 (men and women). But at the same time, it is also to be mentioned that though the game is mostly played in the countries like Spain and France, there are also federations of Basque ball In Argentina, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Philippines, Guatemala, Italy, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, United States, Venezuela, Netherlands, India And Greece. It should also be kept in concern, that due to the origin of the game, there are many good players who are Basques, either natives or from the Basque diaspora. In the recent years, it has also come to the knowledge, that the professional games are open to beting on the results, as usual in most traditional Basque competitions. In the USA and Macao it is mainly this aspect of the competition that has given it some popularity. But besides the federations, in the recent years the emergence of several professional competitions such as the League of Companies of Pelote Basque has been to the fore, being the finst specimen of the growing popularity of the game. In this respect, the name of the International Jai-Alai Players Association is to be mentioned, since it is a union defending the players of Jai Alai.
Nevertheless, last but not the least for the smooth play of the Pelote Basque there is the need to follow the rules correctly. In general, the game is played in a two walled court As seen in the picture, there are also courts with one wall (although they are not recognized by the International Federation of Pelote Basque ). These courts are often built in villages using a wall of a church or town-hall as frontal one, to which it has been attached another longer wall, with marks for the distance to the frontal one. The lateral wall is always at the left of the frontal one, while the right side is open and the playing area is simply delimited there by a line on the floor. The popularity of the game has led to many Basque churches to put signs forbidding pelota games on their porches! The back side of the court has typically a wall in closed courts (including professional ones) but it is often open in common rural open-air courts (and, in this case, also delimited by a line on the floor)!!
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