Whirlyball
Encyclopedia
Whirlyball is a team
sport
invented by Stan Mangum that combines elements of basketball
and jai alai
, or rather a combination of lacrosse
and bumper cars, with the players riding Whirlybugs, small electric vehicles similar to bumper cars. Because play requires a special court, it is played in only a handful of locations in the United States
and Canada
.
Players are not allowed to leave their cars or to touch the ball with their hands. Other than that, almost anything is allowed, within certain bounds of safety, e.g., one is not allowed to ram a player from behind (four-point penalty). Games played by veterans at a national level can get particularly vicious, although it is extremely rare for a serious injury to occur.
The scoops provided for recreational use are manufactured by Mangum's company, Flo-Tron Enterprises, while many players at the national level prefer to use a Trac Ball
scoop due to the lighter weight. In order to use a Trac Ball scoop, players must use an industrial-strength heat gun to mold the scoop to fit the ball.
is not provided by an overhead grid, but rather by alternating conducting plates that make up the floor of the court. This means that Whirlybugs are more complex than traditional bumper cars, but this is necessary, as an overhead grid would obstruct play. A Whirlybug is steered
by a handle that looks like a crank. This handle allows steering not just side to side, but also backwards. In this aspect, it is very different from a traditional bumper car.
One of the downsides to a Whirlybug's controls, however, is the difficulty beginners will almost certainly have with them. One reason is that there is technically no reverse. This can make for an extremely difficult situation for a beginner who has run into a wall. A player must apply the throttle as they are twisting the handle in either direction. After a single rotation, the drive train reverses, and the car moves away from the wall. More experienced players may simply twist the crank a single time and then apply the throttle. The other problem with steering is that Whirlybugs often do not center the crank automatically, making it difficult for beginners to recover from a very tight turn or from "reverse". Once the particulars of the steering are learned—usually in one or two games—the controls tend to be easy to use.
Power Shot Comparable to a lay-up in basketball.
Scooping: Hitting an opponent scoop while going for the ball. In league play, a two-point penalty.
Pillow Block: Driving the Whirlybug into an opponent's bumper and attempting to slow them down by remaining there.
Roll-Off: While contacting an opponent's bumper, player does a 360-degree roll-off turn and continues momentum.
Wall Bouncing: Running into the wall and spinning around to advance oneself or lose an opponent.
Bounce Passing: Bouncing the ball off the floor while passing it to a teammate.
The Back Door: The area to the side of the key where people frequently lurk to make a quick move to the basket.
Key: The area directly under the basket. Similar to Basketball.
. Many Whirlyball locations have a sports bar atmosphere, offering billiards
and other tabletop games to play between matches. There are three locations in and around Chicago
, three locations in the Detroit suburbs, and locations in Washington
, Cleveland, Kansas City
, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, Toronto
, New Jersey
, Connecticut
, and Florida
.
Team
A team comprises a group of people or animals linked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high in complexity and have many interdependent subtasks.A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team...
sport
Sport
A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...
invented by Stan Mangum that combines elements of basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
and jai alai
Jai alai
Jai alai is a sport involving a ball bounced off a walled space. It is a variety of Basque Pelota. The term, coined by Serafin Baroja in 1875, is also often loosely applied to the fronton where the sport is played...
, or rather a combination of lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...
and bumper cars, with the players riding Whirlybugs, small electric vehicles similar to bumper cars. Because play requires a special court, it is played in only a handful of locations in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
The game
A Whirlyball team consists of five players. Each player rides a Whirlybug and carries a scoop, with which he or she can pass the ball, usually a Wiffle ball, to teammates and shoot at the goal, a circular target above the two opposite ends of the court. A score in Whirlyball is called a "Whirlic".Players are not allowed to leave their cars or to touch the ball with their hands. Other than that, almost anything is allowed, within certain bounds of safety, e.g., one is not allowed to ram a player from behind (four-point penalty). Games played by veterans at a national level can get particularly vicious, although it is extremely rare for a serious injury to occur.
The scoops provided for recreational use are manufactured by Mangum's company, Flo-Tron Enterprises, while many players at the national level prefer to use a Trac Ball
Trac Ball
Not to be confused with track ballTrac Ball is typically a game of catch played by two or more people wherein both participants wield an oversized glove/racquet/basket, passing a ball back and forth. The racquet is similar in appearance and function to a jai alai basket. Trac Ball is also utilized...
scoop due to the lighter weight. In order to use a Trac Ball scoop, players must use an industrial-strength heat gun to mold the scoop to fit the ball.
Game origins
The game was first conceived in Salt Lake City in the early 1960s. Its creator, Stan Mangum, was already a patented inventor who was working to develop a small agile bumper car. This car eventually developed into the Whirlybug and is an integral part of today's game of Whirlyball. Whirlyball's popularity and dissemination is largely credited to Kim Mangum, Stan's son. He is the founder of Flo-Tron Enterprises, an organization that distributes franchise rights and equipment for Whirlyball.Whirlybug
A Whirlybug is similar to an electric bumper car. It is round, with a bumper going all the way around. Unlike most bumper cars, however, powerElectric power
Electric power is the rate at which electric energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt.-Circuits:Electric power, like mechanical power, is represented by the letter P in electrical equations...
is not provided by an overhead grid, but rather by alternating conducting plates that make up the floor of the court. This means that Whirlybugs are more complex than traditional bumper cars, but this is necessary, as an overhead grid would obstruct play. A Whirlybug is steered
Steering
Steering is the term applied to the collection of components, linkages, etc. which will allow a vessel or vehicle to follow the desired course...
by a handle that looks like a crank. This handle allows steering not just side to side, but also backwards. In this aspect, it is very different from a traditional bumper car.
One of the downsides to a Whirlybug's controls, however, is the difficulty beginners will almost certainly have with them. One reason is that there is technically no reverse. This can make for an extremely difficult situation for a beginner who has run into a wall. A player must apply the throttle as they are twisting the handle in either direction. After a single rotation, the drive train reverses, and the car moves away from the wall. More experienced players may simply twist the crank a single time and then apply the throttle. The other problem with steering is that Whirlybugs often do not center the crank automatically, making it difficult for beginners to recover from a very tight turn or from "reverse". Once the particulars of the steering are learned—usually in one or two games—the controls tend to be easy to use.
Whirlyball terminology
Whirlic: A score in Whirlyball, two points.Power Shot Comparable to a lay-up in basketball.
Scooping: Hitting an opponent scoop while going for the ball. In league play, a two-point penalty.
Pillow Block: Driving the Whirlybug into an opponent's bumper and attempting to slow them down by remaining there.
Roll-Off: While contacting an opponent's bumper, player does a 360-degree roll-off turn and continues momentum.
Wall Bouncing: Running into the wall and spinning around to advance oneself or lose an opponent.
Bounce Passing: Bouncing the ball off the floor while passing it to a teammate.
The Back Door: The area to the side of the key where people frequently lurk to make a quick move to the basket.
Key: The area directly under the basket. Similar to Basketball.
Popularity
Whirlyball is played as a competitive sport with organized leagues, but it is more commonly played for entertainmentEntertainment
Entertainment consists of any activity which provides a diversion or permits people to amuse themselves in their leisure time. Entertainment is generally passive, such as watching opera or a movie. Active forms of amusement, such as sports, are more often considered to be recreation...
. Many Whirlyball locations have a sports bar atmosphere, offering billiards
Billiards
Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
and other tabletop games to play between matches. There are three locations in and around Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, three locations in the Detroit suburbs, and locations in Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, Cleveland, Kansas City
Kansas City Metropolitan Area
The Kansas City Metropolitan Area is a fifteen-county metropolitan area that is anchored by Kansas City, Missouri and is bisected by the border between the states of Missouri and Kansas. As of the 2010 Census, the metropolitan area has a population of 2,035,334. The metropolitan area is the...
, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, 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...
, and 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...
.