Mayan ball game is a traditional game that has been played with a rubber ball throughout Mesoamerica for centuries. The game is still played on a small scale today, with altered rules, but hit its prime in the years before Spanish colonization. This paper will outline key elements of the Mayan ball game how it was played and what its significance the culture was. The Mayan ball game is also known as ollmaliztli in the Nahuatl language, which is basically Aztec and pitz in the Mayan language. The game is played with a rubber ball, as there was an abundance of rubber in this regions. It is believed to have started with the Olmec, who lives in Mexico to the north and west of the Maya, whose empire was centered on Guatemala, Belize and the Yucatan. The game had significant social and possibly even religious significance, as evidenced by the fact that the courts used for playing the game were often located in the sacred districts of towns throughout the region. The rules were slightly different depending on the town, culture and time period but there are consistent elements to this game.

The first is that the court is rectangular in nature, usually with high walls. At Chichen Itza, a Mayan-Toltec city in what is now the Yucatan, sits one of the largest courts ever found. Playing within the confines of the, the objective was to put the rubber ball through a hoop, which was made of stone and placed vertically at height. At Chichen Itza, the height...

The trick to the game is that players were not allowed to use their hands, something that is a feature of the game today. They were compelled to only use their knees, hands, elbows, shoulders, thighs and other body parts, which makes those 8m hoop especially impressive. The ball was heavy, too, weighing anywhere from 500g to 3.5kg, and they would range in size as well (Cartwright, 2013).
The game was played with two teams, usually of only two or three men. Depending on the culture and time, the game was played either by amateurs or professions, and among the former group were often prisoners of war. The winning team would usually receive trophies commemorating this victory. These were of religious significance, since the individuals were often buried with their trophies, indicating that the trophies can some significance with the underworld. The losers were frequently sacrificed to the gods and there are carvings and paintings that depict the beheadings of members of the losing team. There were even severed heads on display at the courts to drive the point home. The Maya sometimes made the practice of tying up the losers into balls themselves and rolling them down flights of steps as punishment (Cartwright, 2013).

The uniforms that the players wore reflected the physical nature of the game. Because the players were expected to direct these heavy balls with different parts of…