Attention! Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce a brand-new sport to you!

SOCKBY

HISTORYSockby is an ancient sport, dating back to 2012 AD, when the Mayan civilization still idolized the ball and Egyptians used a fan of palm-leaves or coloured feathers fixed on a long handle, i.e the umbrella!

INVENTIONOnce Marco Polo, the world renowned merchant traveler, who had just come back from his business trips to Egypt and Teotihuacan (central Mexico) and was looking through the photos on his iPad with Retina display, had one of those “aha” moments. He came up with an idea of merging those two cultures and inventing a new sport!

SOCKBY: the BALLSince Marco didn’t have a ball at hand, he used his old socks to make a ball. However, the “ball” was quite weird, as the pair of socks binded together had a different behavior from conventional balls. They didn’t bounce back after hitting the floor… That was ok for the inventor though. Most importantly he got some money from Reebok for placement and endorsement

SOCKBY: the BAT

The “Umbrella-bat” Marco came up with was 40cm long, however, it can be of any color and size for you.

SOCKBY: the FIELD

After a trial and error session which lasted for a whole day Marco noted that the “Field” should measure 6 by 2 meters. A couple of unfortunate moves inspired another guideline: the tournament should be held at a venue hosting no ancient valuable vases or mirrors. If you are not superstitious, you can put up with the concept of the mirror though ;)

SOCKBY: the PLAYERS

“Sockby is played by 2 people. Period”, Marco wrote in his diary. “Whoever dares to violate the rule will have the Curse of the Pharaohs haunting him for good!”

SOCKBY: the CLOTHING“No suits and bow ties! Casual clothing will do unless the event is attended by royalty.”, was the next note in Marco’s diary. “Oh, not to forget! Sacked feet! This is an intentional attribute to limit and slow movements.”, was added later.

SOCKBY: the TIME

“The match should last for 5 minutes.”, thought Marco, puffing and panting.

SOCKBY: the SERVES

The players serve in turn (the idea is to hit the ball so that it passes the goal line, drawn 10 sm ahead of players). Player A serves the ball to player B, who serves it back to player A: the latter should grab the ball with an open umbrella this time: he is now the goal keeper (if one of the players fails to hit the “ball” back at the opponent, the latter serves again. BTW, the “ball” is hit with a closed umbrella; the opponent hits it back with a closed one too, while the goal keeper “grabs” the ball with an open umbrella as mentioned above).

SOCKBY: the POINTSFor each goal the player gets 5 points. 3 points are deducted from his score for a missed goal and 2 points for failing to hit the ball back. The player with most points wins.Marco was now happy! He knew, that apart from his discoveries he would be remembered for Sockby: a game that found fans all over the world and soon was included in summer Olympic games program. That was in 2020…