http://www.odditycentral.com/funny/cycle-ball-when-cycling-met-football.html#more-23577 Cycle Ball – When Cycling Met Football By Spooky on February 10th, 2011 Category: Funny, Videos Cycle Ball is a niche sport that combines football and cycling in a unique way. It’s been around for over a century, but it’s still regarded as an unusual sport, especially in America. Also known as “radball”, Cycle Ball was invented in 1893, by a German-American named Nicholas Edward Kaufmann, and steadily gained popularity around Europe. The first Cycle Ball championship was held in 1929, and the sport even reached far lands like Japan, but it never really caught on in the US. You’d think Yanks don’t fancy weird sports played on a bike, but how do you explain the increasing popularity of Bike Polo, or Unicycle Basketball? Cycle Ball is played by two teams made up of two players riding around a basketball field and trying to shoot a ball through their opponents’ goal, using their heads, or the front wheels of the bikes. It may sound strange, but it’s a pretty simple and fun game to play. A match consists of two seven-minute halves, in which players must keep their feet off the ground to avoid a free-kick, and try to score more goals than their adversaries. While defending the goal, one of the players is allowed to use hands, but you’d be surprised how hard the ball is usually struck in one of these games, so using hands doesn’t help much if the ball is well directed. Photo credits The playing area measure 36 feet by 46 feet and the bikes used are optimized for Cycling Ball: the seat is positioned over the back tire, they have a single gear so there’s no breaking and players can easily move backwards, and the handlebars point straight up. Each bike costs around 2,000 euros and weighs a lot more than an ordinary bicycle. Still, players require quite a lot of riding skill to keep their balance and possession of the ball, at the same time. As their is no money to be made in Cycle Ball, professional players usually hold down full time jobs, while rigorously training in the gym, to keep in shape for competitions. These must pay a lot of money on bike wheels, because players run into each other all the time on the court. Still, the game is pretty spectacular and they spare no expense when it comes to getting the best gear possible. -------------------- http://cycleball.com/ Wikipedia defines it as: “Cycle ball, also known as “radball” (from German), is a sport similar to football played on bicycles. The two people on each team ride a fixed gear bicycle with no brakes or freewheel. The ball is controlled by the bike and the head, except when defending the goal.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_ball The description does the actual reality of Cycleball no justice whatsoever. ----------------------- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycle_ball Cycle ball, also known as "radball" (from German), is a sport similar to football played on bicycles. The two people on each team ride a fixed gear bicycle with no brakes or freewheel. The ball is controlled by the bike and the head, except when defending the goal. The sport was introduced in 1893 by a German-American, Nicholas Edward Kaufmann. Its first world championships were in 1929. Cycle ball is popular in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, Sweden, and Switzerland. The most successful players were the Pospíšil brothers of Czechoslovakia, world champions 20 times between 1965 and 1988. Closely related is artistic cycling in which the athletes perform a kind of gymnastics on bikes. ------------ http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/11/cycleball/ For Multisport Madness, Cycleball Takes the Crown By Erik MalinowskiEmail Author 11.23.10 3:55 PM Quick: Envision a sport where two teammates ride around on bicycles on a miniature basketball court, trying feverishly to “kick” a ball into a net with their wheel as they try not fly off their seat from a full-contact hit. Well, the good news is that cycleball is real and it’s spectacular. It’s been a favored sport in parts of Europe for more than a century, but the sport has never been able to make many inroads in America. It’s especially baffling when you break down how fast and easy the sport is to play. A cycleball match consists of two seven-minute halves. Players must keep their feet off the floor at times, or else the other team will get a free kick, not unlike in soccer when you foul an opposing player. There are two players on each side, with one usually hanging in the defensive zone to act as a de facto goalkeeper, who can use his hands to prevent the ball from entering a square net measuring 6.5 feet on each side. The playing area measures 36 by 46 feet, with a 1-foot-high wall usually surrounding the perimeter. The bikes are optimized for cycleball, with the seats positioned directly over the back tire, and the handlebars in front point straight up. The bikes are also fixed-gear, so there’s no braking and it’s easy for players to ride backward quickly. Czechoslovakia and West Germany dominated cycleball in the ’70s and ’80s, and it was these two countries that came to Colorado in 1984 during the now-defunct Coors Classic. (Although, Lance Armstrong’s years-long effort to bring prestigious bike racing back to Colorado paid off this summer with the birth of the Quiznos Pro Challenge.) Here’s some footage of that event, which ultimately failed to get cycleball much traction in the United States. Still, the crowd seemed plenty into the exhibition, which kicked off with a ceremonial coin toss by legendary Tour de France-winning cyclist Eddy Merckx. Cycleball, whose roots date back to the late 19th century and has traditionally been called “radball,” has remained popular in Europe over the years, and the World Cup finals, organized by the International Cycling Union, are slated for December 4 in Otrokovice, Czech Republic. Obviously, you’ve got to have some great riding skill to excel in this sport, especially keeping your balance while trying to maintain possession. Although, it’d be nice to see a younger generation integrate a crossover dribble or no-look pass once in a while, moves that have long been taken for granted in soccer and basketball. Looking at this footage from a UCI World Cup event in June, there still appears to be much room for innovation in the world of cycleball. -------------- http://www.hickoksports.com/history/indoorcycling.shtml Cycle-ball is played on a wooden court 11 meters wide and 14 meters long, bordered by a wooden railing 30 centimeters high. The goal is a net, 2 meters square and at least 20 centimeters deep.

There are two players on each team, one of whom is a goalkeeper. The ball is 17 to 18 centimeters in diameter and is usually filled with horsehair. It can be moved by the action of the bicycle or the player's body, but not with the hands or feet. However, the goalkeeper is allowed to use his hands to catch the ball in the act of defending his goal.

The goal area is a semicircle, with a 2-meter radius, surrounding the goal. Only one defending player is allowed within the goal area. A member of the attacking team can move inside the goal area only after the ball has already entered the area.

A game is made up of two halves of seven minutes each. Artistic cycling competition also takes place within an 11 by 14-meter rectangle, containing three concentric circles, 8 meters, 4 meters, and 1/2 meter in diameter. To the accompaniment of music, a competitor or team of competitors performs a 6-minute routine made up of figures. Each figure is assigned a number of points based on difficulty and the points are totalled to assign a value to whole performance. Judges then deduct points because of mistakes during the routine. -------------- http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/cycle-ball/vbma21ys The video to get --------------------- PAF BALL TOTW http://video.ca.msn.com/watch/video/funny-bubble-ball-game/vb083jkf?cpkey=8d16399b-5219-43fe-9244-6b36ac854268%257c%257c%257c%257c