Schoolyard dodgeball has grown up into a sport with world championships
Most people remember dodgeball as a chaotic gym-class game. It now has international federations, a world championship held every year since 2012 and a rulebook that specifies court sizes, match lengths and how many balls to use. Even ball count is tactical: too many breed stalemates, too few make every throw easy to see coming.
The basic idea is unchanged. Two teams try to knock each other out by hitting opponents with thrown balls, by catching a throw, or by forcing a violation such as stepping over the boundary. A ball is live from the moment it leaves a hand until it touches the floor, a wall or the ceiling. Get hit by a live ball and you are out; catch one and the thrower is out, while a teammate returns from the sidelines. Fumble the catch, though, and you are the one who leaves.
Formal play tightens everything. The World Dodgeball Federation, which runs the championship, uses six players and six balls a side on a court 60 feet by 30, with matches of two 20-minute halves in which as many sets as possible are played, each set earning a point. Players may block a throw with a ball they are holding, but the blocked ball stays live and dropping the blocker counts as an out. Holding a ball for more than ten seconds without using it is stalling, which is penalised. At the start, teams sprint for balls laid on the centre line, and nobody may fire one straight back.
Equipment varies from rubber to foam to cloth, and the federation added a cloth category alongside foam from 2022. Its membership reached 80 national bodies in 2021, and the championship moved from an open event to qualification as it grew. Serious teams develop calling systems, numbering opponents from left to right so throwers can gang up on one target from different angles, and coaches advise aiming below the waist to avoid catches.
Countries have their own versions. German, Austrian and Swiss schoolchildren play Volkerball, originally a mock contest between two peoples, and in Sweden killerboll limits the thrower to three steps.
Source: Dodgeball
