Jai Alai

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jai_alai

Summary: Jai Alai is known as the world's "fastest sport because of the balls". It is a variety of Basque Pelota. The court consists of 3 walls (front, back, left) and the floor in play. It's considered an out if the ball touches the floor outside the walls. There are usually eight teams with two players each or eight single players. The winner of each point stays on the court to meet the next team. Losers go to the end of the line to wait their next turn. the first team to score 7 points wins the game. If the scores are tied, then the winner will be determined through playoffs. The ball used in Jai Alai has metal strands tightly wrapped together and covered with goat skin. The server on one team has to bounce the ball behind the serving line and then use the cesta (basket) to hurl it to the front wall so it bounces between lines 4 and 7. The ball is then in play. Since there isn't a wall on the right side, the players have to play right-handed. Points usually double after the first round. The sport remains popular in Florida (Dania Beach, Orlando, Miami, etc.). Jai Alai was popular as a gambling alternative to horse racing, greyhound racing, and harness racing. It was a very popular sport in Latin American countries and the Philippines because of its Hispanic influence. It's been banned because of illegal gambling, but returned to the Philippines around March 2010. The sport of Jai Alai is vanishing, but it's making a comeback in Florida (particularly Orlando). The sport can be very dangerous at times because the ball is travelling at high velocities which have caused injuries and even deaths.

Critique: In my opinion, this sport seems really hard to play because of the rules and how fast you have to be. I would not want to play this sport just because I don't want to get hit many times with a ball travelling at a very high speed. But, this sport would be great for people who are looking for a challenge. The rules seem really tricky, and to me it's like rocket science. Plus, it involves a lot of hand-eye coordination. I don't really understand though why people would use this sport to gamble. I guess this sport's not as popular as before because it's so hard that people would maybe give up and quit? I guess it would take people like a long time until they actually understand the sport unless you're a really smart person and you can learn new things really quickly.

Impact: This sport has caused a lot of injuries and some deaths. A lot of people even gambled on it, which kinda made it illegal as a result. It was super popular before, and now it's not really known to that many people. The sports in decline in America and the frontons have been losing money. So, this sport didn't really make an impact except for its brief popularity and how it was banned in some countries.