Slamball: Full-contact basketball plus trampolines

Do you like basketball? Football? Trampolines? If you said yes to all of those things, then you will love Slamball. Played mostly in Europe and Australia, slamball is an intense game of full-contact basketball with trampolines embedded in the floor around the baskets. The object of the game is to get to the basket and score points, usually by dunking the ball. Substitutions are done while playing the game similar to hockey. Unfortunately, if you want to try it out, the nearest Slamball court I know of is in Syracuse. I hope they get one around the Long Island area soon!

The positions of Slamball are stopper, gunner and handler. The stopper is the main defender and the one who controls defensive plays. The handler organizes most of the offensive plays and helps out on defense, too. The gunner does most of the scoring and plays little defense. You can use combinations of five players in any of these positions.

Now that I have explained the game, let’s get into the real reason I’m here, which is the fact that the closest court is way upstate, in Syracuse. I think this game is fun, and if you like football and basketball, then you only need to play this one sport. I think Long Island needs a Slamball court. This will introduce a new sport to many people and show them what it’s like and how much fun and entertaining it is. I think it’s a great sport for kids to play and make a lot of friends.

You can find more about it at officialslamball.com.

Debbie Cain and Derrick Horodyski’s sixth-grade class, Chatterton Elementary School, Merrick