Hello, and welcome to Airtoboal. This is officially the first ever content in the entire world history of print about Airtoboal… that I know of. I have definitely never seen the name anywhere till I made it up and I have also never seen this sport played anywhere in the way it will be explained in this post. To be absolutely clear from the outset this is not some mythical imaginary fantasy fiction game that I've created that can only be written but only played in a made up hypothetical world. Nor is this a video game, or a board game; but a 3D real life sport that can be played like any other sport out there and as you can see it is complex enough to be challenging but simple enough that anyone anywhere should be able to play it for leisure or more competitively at least at a basic level. Though not all parts of it have been flushed out yet through mass experimentation and trial and error and there are potentially multiple versions and variations of this game that can be played based on the circumstances or situation of a given game, game location or the particular set of player involved. Yes there are still parts of it that may change and fluctuate for the bettering of the sport over time, however the general concept of the sport as will be explained below is set in stone. The foundation is set but we are in a sense still building this as we go along.
This is the beginning of the sport and hopefully it is the beginning of something big, bold, and beautiful. I won't beat around the bush but get straight to the point. I wish all who are reading this could just get together and play a big game as the demonstration of it instead of me needing to write it out. However I guess the game must be played out on paper first before it is on the field. So here is the game in a nut shell; a quick summary in a few sentences:
The game is actually explained in it's name word for word so let's start with that: Airtoboal or “Air to bowl” as each syllable is pronounced, involves getting a ball that must mainly be kept in the air into a bowl that must stay on the ground (yes a litteral bowl that you could eat out of). As you can see the code and key to the game is hidden in the name and it's not even well hidden but actually extremely straightforward and I believe easy for all to understand. So why is bowl not spelled normally? It was not just to be different or look cool, it is actually an intregral part of the game play and terminology. “Boal” is a combination of “ball” and “bowl,” since if you look you'll see that it has three letters of each of those two words in it. In this sport a ball connects and combines with a bowl both litterally and phonetically and results in a “boal.” It is Airtoboal's version of a goal and also rhymes with goal, it is all part of the game's special unique terminology and helps to quickly describe it too.
That was the very short form description, now let's keep going: The ball must stay in the air and not hit the ground in order for a team to maintain possession of it, but both bowls (each team has one to defend), are kicked on the ground like a soccer ball and must always stay on the ground. So Air-to-boal= get the ball that's in the air into the bowl that's on the ground, that is established! Right here though is another very important part of this sport that helps define it and set it apart: the ball AND both team's bowls can be moved all over the field as one team tries to get the ball into the opposing bowl and the other team runs away trying to avoid having thier bowl scored into or vice versa. There is no fixed area the bowl must stay for any set period of time, it can just like the ball go the length and width of the playing field, wherever a team needs to take it to avoid the opposing team. It is the ultimate moving goal sport! At it's simplest form this is what it is. It gets more complex, but it can honestly be boiled down to a basic ball and a boring bowl. These two playing props make it literally the ultimate air and ground game!
So if you have digested that then here's more: In the ultimate version of this sport the ball that's in the air cannot be caught, grasped, gripped, or thrown (except on rare occasions to be explained in the future). It can only be touched by one body part at a time usually and a player can only bounce it with that body part, sort of like dribbling it off yourself to a teammate. Your hand in this instance should never hold it. This keeps the ball in constant movement, you cannot stop the ball's movement by catching it in most circumstances within this version of the sport. Think of it like volleyball in this regard. This hitting it to teammates is officially called a “Bop” (hey it's short and sweet and conveys the message, what do you think of the name?). So this is a game of constant bopping.
You catching what I'm throwing at you? (Actually don't catch it that's against the rules of this game). Anyways like I said, imagine volleyball as far as how the ball is transported and sent, however that's as far as you should think of volleyball in relation to this game. From here on it is nothing like volleyball. That's because there is a soccer/football field involved as the playing surface and atmosphere, not a hardwood court with a net between the teams. So yes Airtobowl is played on a standard 360/160,’ football field. Whereas volleyball is a very confined and stationary sport; Airtoboal is a very wide ranging and all over the place free and full field sport. So think football now, both the American brand and what we Americans would call soccer. There's a lot of running needed and speed is crucial just like in those two sports. The ability to anticipate and run certain patterns and routes to be in position to recieve the ball and make quick decisions as far as getting rid of it is very much a part of Airtoboal as well. As will be explained in future posts it is probably best played on an American football field because of the yard markings those fields have, but it is as free and open and up and down as soccer is for both both the ball and the bowl of both teams. In fact one can quite correctly say that this is soccer except the ball must stay primarily in the air and not on the ground. Also remember that of course there is a bowl that is kicked around exactly like a soccer ball. However it is so much more than just all that.
As I said speed is crucial to this sport, it is one of the key pillars that it's built on actually. I believe the best asset any team will have is fast and quick players who can run down the field ahead of or chasing the ball and chasing the opposing box and the defenders fleeing with the ball. In this way the sport is track with a ball. This first ever post was not planned to be an depth nuanced description of the sport in any way but rather a general overview of the basics of it. I'm giving out the bare bones explanation now, much more will be layed out in future posts. However I'll tell you at least one thing more indepth now. Each game, playing period, and post boal restart begins with a foot race between two players and the winner gets to start with possession of the ball. Yeah so basically a 100 meter Olympic sprint in the middle of the field. Football has it's kick off, basketball has it's tip off, hockey has it's face off, and Airtoboal has it's race off as it's means of beginning games. This race part is not just thrown in here willy-nilly to try to be unique. Instead it flows out of the natural make up and style of the game which has a necessity of speed in order to play and therefore it showcases bright and clearly in one individual set play what will be one of the most valuable single skill sets of the overall game which is speed. It's like a dunk contest in basketball except this is a speed contest in Airtoboal, both are individualistic parts of thier respective sports that are integral to the wider tactics and game play of their specific sport.
Now I don't want this to get too long or technical nor do I want to overwhelm you like getting doused by a fire hose on your very first time hearing about this game. I'm not trying to make you go through mental gymnastics in attempting to comprehend all this. So I compared it to very well known sports so everyone could get the idea although it is not at all meant to be just a hodge podge combination of various sports thrown together, it is very much it's own unique sport. It was not created as a variation of any sport, however just like all other sports it has certain similarities to many sports by default and not intentionally. However this does indeed help to explain it out by using the examples of sports that it is similar to.
So I gave a summary at the top and I'll try to wrap this up by doing a quick round up and putting together the basics succinctly. So since the goal is to get the ball in the bowl and there is one ball and each team has thier own individual bowl then each team will naturally be trying to steal the opponent's bowl to be able to connect bowl to ball for a boal. The desired treble therefore is to have possession of your own bowl, the ball, and the opponents bowl, so the team that has those triplets all at the same time essentially controls the game. As of now I'm thinking 9 players a team is a good number for a full field game, though it could end up being more or less depending on various factors. My thinking with 9 is a team needs 3 to guard the bowl, at least 2 in order to attack and attempt to stealthe bowl, and 4 to play the ball up and down a full field and chase the bowl and of course all 9 can do multitasking to do more than just thier primary position description as there will inevitably be mixing and intermingling of players as the excitement of sport is that no game is static but instead fluid and constantly changing. Every sport needs a level of difficulty to pose a challenge to the competitors or it is not a sport at all. Airtoboal does this because of the unique challenge of needing to keep a ball airborne and directed on a huge field without being allowed to hold or throw it and to somehow get it into a small bowl that unlike all other goals in every other major sport (soccer, football, basketball, baseball, hockey, etc) can be moved anywhere the length and width of the field. It is truly a one of a kind sport!
There is still so much more to analyze and explain out, from the field markings, to the type of ball used, to the size of the bowl, to the names and responsibilities of each position, to even the question of what the future vision of the sport looks like and on and on. All that is upcoming, so stay tuned! This was just a taste test for you all and hopefully it whetted your appetite. I'm excited to hopefully share this journey with all of you as teammates as a revolution in sports is set to begin since this is truly sport reimagined!