Burning ball
Brennball is a throwing, catching and running game that is very popular in Scandinavia . It is played professionally in Sweden . In Germany, Brennball is mainly played in physical education in schools .
The basic structure
Brennball is played with two teams made up of any number of people. The game is played in a closed area (sports field, hall) with a number of "bases" (mostly sports mats or similar) on the edge. The ball is usually a volleyball , but it can also be played with other throwing objects. One team is distributed in the infield, the other waits outside the field.
The rules of the game
A player throws the ball into the infield and starts running. While he is trying to run over as many mats as possible, the opposing team must try to get the ball as quickly as possible into a container usually located at the starting point. A player who does not touch a mat when the ball is thrown into the receptacle is considered "burned". He has to return to the starting point, or he is eliminated for this round. If he touches a mat, he can run from this mat towards the target mat for the next throws of his teammates. If he reaches the finish mat, his team receives one point. Sometimes there is also a home run rule that scores more than one point for the team whose thrower completes a whole round after the throw.
The roles of the teams are swapped either after a specified period of time, when a certain number of players is "burned", or when a team can no longer throw a thrower because everyone is either standing on mats or "burned". In the end, the points scored are used to determine the winner. In some variants, only three players can be on a mat. If a new player is added, one of the players is considered “burned” (e.g. the newcomer or the one who has been on the mat the longest).
variants
There are various variations that differ in the size of the playing field, the type of ball and the rules of the game. In some variations, the ball is not thrown, but hit with a bat as in baseball.
distribution
In Finland , Pesäpallo, a variant of the game, is seen as the Finnish national sport; there is a national championship with its own league. In Denmark rundbold ("round ball") is known, in Norway slåball ("hit ball"), in Sweden the variant brännboll , which is very common there and is played with wooden clubs and a tennis ball. In Switzerland , Brennball is also known as Mattenball , Mattenlauf or balle brûlée .
Championships
The world's largest Brennball tournament , the Brännbollscupen , takes place annually on the last weekend in May in Umeå, Sweden . Several hundred teams take part in the tournament (over 1000 teams in the record year 1997). Swedish Brennball has also been played in Umeå's twin town Würzburg for many years . The International Würzburg Brennball Tournament is held annually .