Whirlyball!

I experienced something today that I had never heard of before coming to Ann Arbor - the game of Whirlyball. I don't know if any of you have heard of this game, but it is SO much fun! You can play with a max of 10 people (5-on-5) and the whole thing lasts for an hour (at least, those are the blocks of time you can pay for). You ride around in bumper cars (so already this sounds like fun, right?) and use scoops to throw whiffle balls at a basket. The basket looks like a basketball backboard but in place of the regular net, there is a hole in the backboard with a net in it.

We played with some of John's friends in a 3-on-3 game. It was a ton of fun, but I am SO sore and it took me a long time to even score a basket. In the bumper car, you have a lap seatbelt on, so whenever you get bumped by someone (or run into the wall), you get a jolt into the seatbelt. Thus, I have some bruising on my hip bones that I put ice on when I got home. My abs are sore from contracting whenever I got bumped, and my upper arms are sore from throwing the ball, so it was a great workout! The only part I didn't like was the fact that the bumper cars have no brakes. So once you get going, you can only stop by running into something, turning sharply, or letting the car slow down naturally (but that takes a long time).

Anyway, I would highly recommend it if there is a Whirlyball place near you. I think we will go again before I leave for the summer.

Here is a photo from the web since I forgot my camera: