Contraball

As Contraball is still in its infancy, many details like measurements, scoring, and even the name are open to tweaking. But the general rules are as follows:

There are 2 players (and I'm experimenting with a "doubles" version).
Equipment: a table-tennis paddle for each player and a table-tennis ball.

Basic gameplay:
One player serves the ball by hitting it with the paddle to the other player. The other player must hit the ball 2 times. The first hit is defensive, to absorb the serve. The second hit is offensive, to return the serve to the server. The server in turn hits the ball twice, absorbing the shot and then returning the shot. This continues until someone scores a point. After a point, the next player serves.

How to Score:

You hit your opponent's target. 2pts.
Your oppenent hits the ball at his own target (an "own goal"). 2pts.
Your opponent hits the ball only once (i.e. he biffs the absorb, the ball gets away from him, and he is unable to hit the ball a second time before it bounces off some other surface like the floor or his face). 1pt.
Your opponent successfully absorbs and returns your shot, but misses your target and hits the floor, a wall, etc. 1pt. (If your opponent's shot WOULD HAVE missed your target, but you played the ball anyway, it's still in play, and you are now responsible for returning the shot).
Your opponent crosses over the foul line. 1pt.

Let me just say: this game is fun! Although I've only had a few chances to play it so far, I love it, and I want to find more people who will play.

The action of "absorbing" and "returning" shots feels great. The opponent's shot comes in at high speed, but you put your paddle at just the right angle and cushion the ball with a backward motion as the paddle makes contact. If you absorbed the shot well, the ball bounces off your paddle into the perfect position for you to zing in your countershot, perhaps with some curve. If not, you may have to dive to get to the ball before it hits the floor, and if you ARE able to make contact again, you'll be happy if you can just get the ball back to your opponent, however weakly.

Contraball has a feeling of frenetic desperation, a beauty of motion, a deep simplicity. Don't be surprised if, in the middle of a volley, you shout out something like, "I felt like Neo just now!" or "I know Kung-fu!" or "I'm Batman!".

Here are some ideas I'm considering. If you have any thoughts, or if you've had the chance to test these ideas out, tell me about it!

Ball spin: I've had some more chances to play, including some matches against a guy who's really good at putting top-spin and back-spin on the ball. I found it pretty hard to absorb the ball with control. Whenever the spinning ball hit my paddle, it took wild bounces with exaggerated effects from the spin. This made it hard to keep a volley going. I see a few solutions:

We were playing in a cramped space with a low ceiling, and moving to a court with dimensions closer to those specified in the "rules" section above would make it easier to react.
Maybe I'm just not good at handling spin, and it's a skill that players would develop as they start to play against more advanced opponents. In fact, I did get noticably better at receiving spin-balls as we played.
If (1) and (2) don't solve the problem, keep in mind we were using flat-rubber-faced paddles, known for being high-friction, and therefore super-easy to make spin and super-hard to control incoming spin. Switching to the bumpy-faced paddles would greatly reduce (though not eliminate) the spin factor. Worth a try.

Doubles: I can imagine, though I've never tried, a doubles version of contraball. My proposed rules for doubles: instead of 1 person per side, there'd be 2 (duh). So instead of 1 person both absorbing and returning the ball, in doubles, 1 person would "absorb" it to the teammate, and the teammate would return the ball to the other team. So each of the 2 partners would have to hit the ball once, though which one receives and which one attacks doesn't have to be pre-determined, and can vary every shot. I don't think court dimensions would have to change, but that question is still under consideration.
Score by pelting: Another possible variation would be that you can score 2 points by pelting your opponent with the ball. In other words, your opponent is another "target", with the same point value as the target. The threat of being pegged might serve as incentive not to get too close to your opponent's goal, doing away with the need for "foul lines". For that matter, leaving your goal open to an over-your-head attack (ala soccer when the goalie comes too far out) might be enough incentive in itself to render "foul lines" redundant. More experimentation is needed.

While I don't envision Contraball reaching the status of multi-billion dollar televised spectator sport, I'm hoping this sport can gain at least as much acceptance as handball, squash, or racquetball to become a viable option when 2 or 4 people want to get together for an afternoon of rousing sport at the gym.

I'd love to see sports gyms and recreation centers across the country (world?) recognize and support Contraball. I think a Contraball court could be easily set up on an existing basketball/racquetball/volleyball court. Really, the size of the court or room itself doesn't matter because walls or bounds don't really come into play. All that's needed is a court with 2 appropriately-sized objects to serve as targets (maybe partition walls?) placed the correct distance from each other, and the 2 parallel foul lines in the middle.

Since I don't have the power of industry behind me, Contraball uses table-tennis balls and paddles, though I'm very open to the idea of alterations to the equipment (like a ball with dimples to enhance the spin-curve effect). If Contraball takes off, we could see specialized "Contraball" equipment.

And I, Stephen A. Hunter V, will go ahead and hereby copyright this sport. I encourage you to play and enjoy this fun sport, but I do claim the right to not have my sport claimed to be invented by someone else. And if it ever does become a multi-billion dollar televised sport, I claim the rights to the formation of any governing body or national league. :-)