Tchoukball - Healing Competition

Tchoukball is the invention of Dr. Hermann Brandt, who created the game to illustrate the concepts he developed in his award-winning paper called 'A Scientific Criticism of Team Games.' It is, reportedly, played in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Germany, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, Israel, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Australia, Canada, U.S.A., Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Tchoukball.
Apparently, the idea is to keep the ball from hitting the ground. The bouncy thing (officially called a "rebound surface") is placed on either end of the field. Once the ball is bounced off the bouncy thing, the other team has to catch it.

As you read the following, from their summary on how the game is played, take special note of the sentence I italicized:

"The team that has possession of the ball has a three-pass limit before being forced to shoot the ball at the rebound surface on either end of the court. Members of the other team must place themselves according to where they expect the ball to land, so that they can catch it before it touches the floor. Meantime, members of the other team look to position themselves to recover the ball after it rebounds from the rebound surface, before the ball can touch the floor. During the course of the game, the players of each team are not allowed to interfere with players of the other team: they may not intercept passes, interfere with the movements of the person carrying the ball or his teammates, or stop a defender from positioning himself to catch the ball after the rebound."

According to Dr. Brant, as quoted by the American Tchoukball Corporation, "Tchoukball avoids the tense competitiveness which afflicts many of our national team games at present. The game allows each player to express himself within his own physical and intellectual capabilities, and players of different capabilities can play together without a weaker (or even handicapped) player being played out of, or left out of, the game.

"The dimension of the playing area can be adapted to obtain different physiological effects, and also to ensure the effective organisation of teaching. In cases where space is limited, the game makes a high density use of the space available.

"Also the ball should not touch the ground, therefore the game can be played on virtually any reasonably smooth surface; from the gymnasium or sport hall floor to the beach, including grass, tarmac or beaten earth surfaces."

Again, incontrovertible evidence that the search for newer, healthier competition, is very much alive and tchouking.