Talk:Tetherball

Regionality
Tetherball is, to the best of my knowledge, not played in my country (Israel). If anyone locally is aware of it, it would only be because of its occasional appearance in foreign media; we do consume a lot of American TV shows and movies.

I think this article should make some mention of which regions world-wide actually play this game. For example: netball (I randomly clicked articles in Category:Ball games until I found a good example) says in its opening paragraph: "... the sport is played specifically in schools and is most popularly played in Commonwealth nations."

Obviously, I don't have any knowledge at all about where this is played and I feel out of my depth, otherwise I would add it myself.

--NeatNit (talk) 18:20, 7 April 2022 (UTC)

invention
When was tetherball invented and who invented it?

Im guessing some kids thought of attaching a ball to a basketball pole or something that was broken.--Metallurgist 04:10, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Tetherball has a shared history with swingball. It was invented in England in about 1880 - as a variation of tennis, with rackets. It was imported into the United States by 1881.http://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/02/a-ball-pole-rope-twisted-history-of.html Unclear when the volleyball was used instead of a tennis ball, but hands were sometimes used with the tennis balls, even before the volleyball-sized ball was used. Svaihingen (talk) 20:06, 21 April 2016 (UTC)

Swingball Origins?
Is swingball used in a certain locations or does it vary from place to place? I have never heard it called that in the US, so does anyone know if it is a UK saying or somewhere else?

Never heard of it. Might be a fake name used in a movie. --Metallurgist 02:17, 29 June 2007 (UTC)

It was always called Swingball when I was growing up in the UK (I'm now 38). I'd never heard it called Tetherball before. --Pearcey 02:17, 22 July 2007 (UTC)

It was called Swingball in South Africa, when I was a child in the seventies. I have never heard of the name Tetherball either. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 94.210.89.225 (talk) 15:52, 19 March 2013 (UTC)

The multiple sections on swingball need to be brought together and the idea that you could use a table tennis bat corrected.  Tu rk ey ph an t 21:02, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[ Citations as requested,, , ] Hakluyt bean (talk) 22:52, 29 May 2009 (UTC) ...This is substantially different from Tetherball. In Australia this game is called Totem Tennis." The portion on 'totem tennis' or the version of "swingball" involving a soccer ball and fundamentally nothing like tetherball it sounds like does not need to be on this page as a disambiguation and should be moved to a separate article on swingball, and if necessary two separate articles for swingball with an appropriate disambiguation page should be created. As it is currently worded, the statement relating to swingball is confusing and has no citations.
 * "There is a version of this game called Swingball, where the two opposing players hold bats, and hit a tennis ball that is connected onto the rope...

—Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.12.35.202 (talk) 03:30, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
 * However, the term Swingball refers to an entire different game involving swings and a soccer ball....


 * No it doesn't, the above refers to this spoof game Hakluyt bean (talk) 23:23, 29 May 2009 (UTC) (edited: Hakluyt bean (talk) 18:34, 1 July 2009 (UTC))

Swingball / Totem tennis / Tetherball / Lengoteke
Swingball seems to be the UK/Australia/NZ term for the game comprising a pole, tennis ball on a rope, and racquets: images.google.com.

Totem tennis looks like an alternative term for swingball: images.google.com

Tetherball seems to be the North American game involving a pole, a volleyball or basketball on a rope/tether, and played with the hands: images.google.com.

Lengoteke is a European beach game that I've only come across in print, occasionally glossed as 'swingball'. It may be the swingball referred to above, but the term is also applied to some version of skittles:.

Hakluyt bean (talk) 22:54, 29 May 2009 (UTC)

Vote to split article into two - Tetherball/Swingball
I would consider the game known as tetherball in the US and the game known as swingball in the UK to be two different (albeit very similar) games. I imagine that they also have seperate origins. I'm going to vote to split the article - i.e. create a seperate article for swingball. Zestos (talk) 01:30, 5 July 2009 (UTC)
 * Bit late, but Support. Keeping them together would be like keeping tennis, table tennis, and volleyball in the same article. Or keeping kickball and baseball in the same article. Metallurgist (talk) 05:36, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

Alternative forms of play: Tetherball
I'm just wondering if anyone has heard of alternative rules for Tetherball - for instance, at a summer camp I worked at, there was a game called "elimination tetherball" which used tetherball equipment, but was substantially different:

1) There could be 2 or more players, with the "maximum" being determined by how many people could fit in a circle drawn around the poll at the maximum rope distance.

2) The objective was to either eliminate all other players (players are eliminated if the ball touches them anywhere but the hands - ie, arms, face, back, or if they leave the circle), or bounce the ball against the poll 10 times in succession without someone else touching the ball.

I can only find one google reference for "elimination tetherball", and that's a comment on a blog, from a person who may actually have worked at the same camp as I did though I don't recognize the name, so it is possible that this is a very niche game...

So my question is: Are there varieties of the game relatively well known? Where would one look for sources on something like alternative rules for tetherball? 99.230.205.11 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 06:10, 6 June 2011 (UTC).

Elimination Tetherball Is a game played at Camp Mini-Yo-We http://www.miniyowe.com/prime/ You're Welcome! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 174.95.102.37 (talk) 19:13, 13 April 2012 (UTC)

I just came here looking for rules of Elimination Tetherball as well after playing it as a kid at Mini-Yo-We. I assumed it'd be common because it was so much fun. Unfortunately I realized that most "regular" tetherball poles are small metal cylinders, unlike the large, square, wooden poles that MYW had, which enabled the Elimination rule of "if you bounce the ball against the pole 10 times consecutively, you win". I think it'd still work with a normal pole, but not nearly as well. ElectricGrandpa (talk) 04:29, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

What Is A "Cherrybomb"?
The article says, "The Players pick if a 'cherrybomb' is legal but is usually legal in official games," but it fails to further mention this "cherrybomb" or explain what it is. Furthermore, a comprehensive internet search was unable to bring up any articles, other than this one, containing both "tetherball" and "cherrybomb," which suggests shenanigans. I move to remove this line because it's unreferenced, undefined, and makes absolutely no sense in the context of the article.76.29.225.28 (talk) 22:52, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
 * It was old undetected vandalism, which is why I removed it. It also explains the lack of results from the searches you made. Lugia2453 (talk) 23:03, 26 August 2013 (UTC)