Hooverball this Sunday!!

Calling all CFAK members and friends: Come and play on Sunday at 10:30am while we still have some warmer weather!

Bring some food and drinks for the BBQ after. Everybody welcome – bring your friends, family and flatties!

History of Hooverball

Hoover-ball was invented, developed and perfected by White House physician Admiral Joel T. Boone to keep President Herbert Hoover physically fit. It is a combination of tennis, volleyball and medicine ball. Teams of up to five people play on a court 66 feet by 30 feet with an 8 foot volleyball net. A 4 or 6 pound medicine ball is used and scoring is exactly like tennis.

“It required less skill than tennis, was faster and more vigorous, and therefore gave more exercise in a short time,” Hoover wrote in his Memoirs.

“It is more strenuous than either boxing, wrestling or football,” wrote Will Irwin, a friend of Hoovers, in a 1931 article “The President Watches His Waistline” in Physical Culture magazine. “It has the virtue of getting at nearly every muscle in the body.”

The sport was without a name until New York Times Magazine reporter William Atherton DuPuy christened the game “Hoover-ball” for his 1931 article “At the White House at 7 a.m.”

Hoover-ball was played by teams of 2-4 players with a six-pound medicine ball over a net eight feet high on a court similar to one used for tennis. The game was scored exactly like tennis, and played in similar fashion. The server throws the ball. The opponent must catch it on the fly and immediately return it, attempting to put it where it cannot be reached and returned. The side that misses the ball or throws it out of bounds loses the point.

“It is a distinctly strenuous affair, best understood as exactly like tennis except that the net is eight feet high, there are no rackets and the ball is a hefty medicine ball weighing six pounds.” – The New York Times

The sport originated in 1928, when shortly after his election Hoover took a goodwill trip to South America. While aboard the battleship Utah on his return, he watched a game of “bull-in-the-ring,” a medicine ball game that was popular on naval ships. A soft nine-pound medicine ball was thrown from one to another of the players standing in a circle as the “bull” in the center tried to intercept it. During the trip, the president-elect played and enjoyed the game, which was the inspiration for Hoover-ball.

CFAK’s Hooverball “house rules” are a little different from traditional Hooverball. They’re a little more team friendly, and very CrossFit!

St Patrick’s Day WOD
“Green Beer & Burpees”

For time:

• Show up at the gym and find out…

Wear Green to the WOD. Post time to Comments.