One Wall Paddleball is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 ball game

Ball game

In American English, ball game refers specifically to either a game of basketball, baseball or American football. In British English ball game refers to any sport played with a ball....

 that consists in hitting a small rubber ball against a single wall by using paddle

Paddle

A paddle is a tool used for pushing against liquids, either as a form of propulsion in a boat or as an implement for mixing.-Materials and designs:...

s. It can be played in singles (1 versus 1) or in doubles (2 versus 2). The general rule of the game is that the ball must hit the wall without touching the court floor more than once in order to be a valid rally

Rally (tennis)

A rally in tennis is a sequence of shots within a point.A rally starts with serve and return of the serve, and a sequence of shots until the point is won by one of the players....

. The balls are usually of the colors black

Black

Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...

, blue

Blue

Blue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...

, and green

Green

Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

. The paddles were originally made of wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

, but they are now primarily made of materials such as graphite and titanium.. The Black Beauty paddle pictured on the right was actually designed by doubles champion, Chris Lecakes and manufactured by Nat Marks of MarCraft. The original Black Beauty paddle remains in the possession of the Lecakes family.

The game is popular in places where the weather permits outdoor plays such as New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...

, although indoor courts, albeit rare, exist. Tournaments are ruled by the American Paddleball Association.

History

The history of the game is somehow undocumented, but it obviously originates from American handball

American handball

American handball is a sport in which players hit a small rubber ball against a wall using their hands.- History :...

which consists of hitting the ball with the bare hands or a gloved palm. However, due to the cold weather in northern American states, the players carved wooden paddles to hit with to relieve the pain from the cold.

Other Governing Bodies

There have been a many attempts to package Paddleball as a sport. However, attempts to organize it have had mixed results. Founded in 1960, the original U. S. Paddleball Association was the inspiration of doubles champion and founder, Christopher Lecakes, and lasted well into the 1970s. In the late 1960s, the American Paddleball Association (APA) was organized, only to be challenged by the Paddleball Players Association in 1974. In the Eighties, the P.P.P.A., founded by Ray Gaston, became the dominant governing body and small community based organizations like the One Wall Paddleball Association founded by Murry "DA K" Kushner continued efforts to push the sport forward. In the early 1990s, The National Paddleball Association, founded by Michael G Magnaldi, George Medici and Linda Sales, picked up the torch from the prior organizations. The NPA officially ceased operations in early 2006. All prior organizations eventually became inactive. The APA was reorganized in the late 1990s by paddleball legend Howard Hammer and shortly thereafter became inactive again.

There are a number of factors that prevent paddleball becoming more of a national sport, not-withstanding the lack of walls outside of the NY region. Part of the problem stems from the experience in NYC with annual tournaments, which when sponsored by companies such as Budweiser (80's) fell victim to forces on tournament courts that turned away further corporate involvement. Another is the speed of the game, which barring technological advancement, prevent televising tournaments. The ball moves too fast and the court is too small for following the action during the live game. Without the revenue stream from television the game is relegated to member fees to enter tournaments which are sponsored locally.

Pick-up Games

In Queens, Juniper Valley Park in Maspeth - Weekends and weekday afternoons,
Roy Wilkins Park, Baisley Blvd and 120th Ave in Jamaica - Weekends and weekday afternoons,
Victory Field in Forest Park, other locations to be added.

External links

• Official Tournament Rules for the game by the American Paddleball Association