The Revival of Pelota Maya

Revival might be a little bit of a stretch, but the ancient game of Pelota Maya has found some new popularity in Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras, in the last decade. Most impressively, a crazy Swiss guy living in Antigua in 2005 organized a league for a year that saw teams of leather-clad players using everything but their hands: Elbows, knees, hips, forearms and shoulders, among other body parts, to keep a rubber ball in the air in a game resembling something between hockey, football and volleyball. Sadly, that league died with Claudio, but there are still people playing the game in Central America.

Whether or not you’re able to catch a live game, if visiting Mayan ruins in Guatemala’s Tikal, Mexico’s Palenque, Copan in Honduras or a number of other areas in Latin America where the Maya once lived, you’ll likely stumble across what used to be a playing ground.

It’s believed the game dates to about 1200 BC, with men competing with a hard rubber ball that weighed as much as 9 pounds, trying to move it to the other end of the court and put it through a tiny ring not much greater in diameter than the ball itself. Suffice it to say, most believe it was a fairly low-scoring game given the ring size and the weight of the ball .but that was the original Pelota Maya.

While no longer the case, if you’re lucky enough to find a game or have the opportunity to play, the ball only weighs about a pound now and they no longer behead the captain of the winning team as human sacrifice. While I would likely throw the game with this understanding, it was an honor to lose your life following your team’s victory. Oh, the times they are a changin’.