Whirly what?

One of our friends recently had a big 3-0 birthday. The party was held at a Whirlyball facility. I have heard of this whirlyball activity - the groups at work have gone there for "Team Building". It sounded like fun - bumper cars, basketball, and lacrosse... it was the lacrosse that scared me a bit. I remember watching lacrosse with my mother as a kid. We described lacrosse as - kill the man with the ball, and here's a stick to do it with...

Anyway, the bumper car bit sounded like fun and it was! I never scored a goal, I was able to throw the wiffle ball all the way down the court without hitting the heating vent, and I hit the backboard SEVERAL times from a short distance away, but you have to hit the circle in the middle.

I got rear ended into the wall, and decided that I was done - the boys were becoming overpowered by their competitive nature... The next 10 minute game - the boys ruled the court - all the ladies left and watched from the observation area. They had picked teams and ran plays - well, one team did, they won the match 8-2 or so (2 points per score, there is a 3 point line, but I think getting a 3 point score would be more luck than skill, especially for those of us playing on this day.)

It was a blast, and I would do it again, at least until I started to see the NASCAR - rear end them into the wall - spirit coming out in my competitors.

There is an official web site, with a video of "advanced players".

Here is the video of our crew... The funniest thing was that you have one hand steering, one hand throwing and catching, and one foot accelerating - NO BRAKE! and some times, you loose track of what your foot is doing while you are focusing on the ball and the other people on the court - I captured Marci in this situation, but it happened to me too...