How to Play Kin Ball?

Playing kin ball can be more than fun. It's also a unique team sport that can be enjoyed with friends.

There are so many new or little known sports that are amazing to discover. Some of these disciplines such as kin ball even have world cups! Read along to find out more about this entertaining sport.

Kin ball is a team sport that was created in Canada in 1986. Although it’s not among the most popular sports, it has almost four million participants in Canada. Athletes also practice the sport in Japan, Malaysia, Switzerland, France, and Belgium.

Brief history and characteristics of the kin ball

Kin ball is a fairly recent invention, unlike other games that were developed in ancient times.

Its origin dates back to 1986 when a physical education teacher named Mario Demers created a sport that required three teams. Each team is made up of four to eight players, and you can make all the changes you want during the game.

The field where kin ball is played is square, 20 meters aside. The ball used is large and it weighs one kilo. There are two referees and there’s a support table to control the scoreboard.

The objective of the kin ball is quite simple: the attacking team chooses which of the two opponents to throw the ball to. The receiver mustn’t allow the ball to touch the ground. If this happens, a point is given to each opposing team.

The sport has been so successful that an international federation was created. Every two years – since 2001 in Quebec – the world cup has been held in different parts of the world. As you can expect, Canada usually dominates the competition. Out of the ten male world cup competitions, Canada has won nine and Japan has won one.

How to play kin ball?

If you want to take the first steps in kin ball, you must first learn the rules. To start the game assign a color to each team; it can be black, red, and blue, for example.

In this discipline, the teams don’t have special jerseys as those seen in soccer or rugby. Each of the three teams will line up four players, who can be changed as they see fit.

The game is divided into three periods of seven minutes each. The rules allow for each period to vary if all teams agree, except in world cups and international matches. You can play games for points, in other words, the game ends when one of the teams reaches eleven or thirteen points.

Game dynamics

To start playing kin ball, one of the teams “serves” by throwing the ball. Three players from that team hold the ball and the fourth one hits it while saying the word, “Omnikin” and the color of the team he will attack. For example, if the blue team is serving, he’ll say, “Red omnikin!” Or, “Black omnikin.”

The defending team is the one that’s been named. Any of its four participants will have to catch the ball before it hits the ground. If the team catches the ball, they can repeat the omnikin ritual. They can attack the same team that attacked them before or they can attack the other team.

Each team has only ten seconds, t o organize its attack. If it exceeds that period, the other two gain a point. Another way to score a point is if the defending team doesn’t catch the ball. In the example we indicated earlier, if blue throws the ball at red and the latter fails to catch the ball, both the blue and the black teams get a point.

A third way to get points is if during the service all the players on the team aren’t in contact with the ball. So, how do you throw the ball? There are three striking techniques: with two hands interlocking the fingers, with one hand or with both hands pushing with the palms.

Tactics and more details to play kin ball

Finally, it’s interesting to know the names of the kin ball tactics. The most interesting is The Fast Game (throw before 10 seconds and with speed), The Sandwich (hold the ball from the sides), The False Hit, The Turn, The Block Movement, The Pass, and The Pass and Go.

Of course, to learn more about these strategies and other important points of this sport, you can do more research on your own. There’s no doubt, however, that this is a very entertaining, unique, and demanding sport . Give it a try!