Kin Ball

Today I had the opportunity to play Kin Ball (FYI, the link has really annoying music.  Mute if you are at work). By the way "Kin" is pronounced like the word "keen."

Kin ball was invented in Canada. There are three teams of four people and one huge ball, slightly heavier than a beach ball.  The teams each wear different colored jerseys.  We will call the teams, black, pink and grey.  To start, three members of the black team hold up the ball.  The fourth member yells, "Omnikin PINK" and hits the ball.  The pink team has to catch the ball before it hits the ground.  If they catch it, three people hold it while the fourth yells "Omnikin Black" or "Omnikin Grey" and hits the ball.

Scoring happens when a team makes a mistake.  If the pink team doesn't catch the ball, the black and grey teams get a point.  If pink tries to catch it and the ball goes out of bounds, the other teams get a point.  If black is the team hitting the ball and they knock it out of bounds, the other two teams get a point.  It created some fun strategy, as you wanted to call out the name of the team with the highest score and hope they failed.

It is a super goofy game, but it is a blast to play.  Being six feet tall I had a big advantage.  I could catch the ball without help and I could really hit the ball.  My teammates, some of them barely five feet tall, had to work together to catch the ball by bouncing it up in the air until a fellow teammate could assist.

I jumped right into the rules of the game, but now I'll explain the schedule of events.

After school, all of the teachers from our school and two nearby elementary schools all gathered at the local recreation center.  I only knew that we were supposed to play this game for two hours.  Not so, my friends, not so.

The first twenty minutes were spent sitting on the gym floor while all the people in charge introduced themselves and the referees.  Japanese people are highly organized.  When we sat down, we all sat in a grid, in defined columns and rows.  After twenty minutes of introductions and explaining the rules it was time to stretch.  We all quickly spread out--staying in a grid-- and stretched.  After five minutes of stretching we all squeezed back together for more talking.  Finally, after half an hour it was time to play.  We all broke up into groups of six or eight people from each school and one group from each school went to one of the five courts.

We played for ten minutes at a time.  It was hilarious fun.  No one rolled their eyes or lolly gagged.  We all gave 100%, from the 25 year olds to the 60 year olds.  Ladies were diving under a four foot ball, unwilling to let it hit the ground.  Odinarily dignified social studies teachers were nearly giddy with excitement and enthusiasm.  What a blast.

I mentioned before I had a height advantage and my team didn't want me to sit out.  I came very, very close to getting a very unfortunate nickname.  Mr. Kinubaru.  Please, oh please, when Monday rolls around, may that nickname not be spoken in the teachers' room.  If Mr. Kinubaru caught on I'd never know if anyone was talking to me.