We start this section with my first love: Basque pelote. Being from the Basque country, I got into Basque pelote early in my childhood. How to best describe the sport? It is a collection of sports that involve using either your bare hands or different types of rackets or “baskets” to hit a hard ball against a wall. It can be played 1 VS 1, 2 VS 2 or sometimes 3 VS 3. The rules are simple: hit the ball against the wall until the ball falls outside of the allowed area, or until the other team fails to get it. Once a team arrives at a certain number of points, it wins.
The sport can be played in 3 different areas, 1 outdoor, and 2 indoors. The outdoor are a is called a fronton, and is pretty much a big pink wall. Sizes can vary across towns, but every town in the Basque country has at least one fronton. They are open to the public, which makes it a perfect opportunity to have fun outdoors!
The most played sport of this collection is called Pala, or rubber paleta, as it involves using a wooden “plate”, the pala, to hit a rubber ball on the wall. The palas weigh between 300 and 500 grams, and can be found anywhere in the Basque country for a low price. Instead of rubber balls, people typically play with tennis balls in casual settings.
I played a lot of this sport, and still do when I go home. But what I mostly played was hand pelote, the bare hand version. It is rather difficult to describe it to people who don’t know about it, but it basically consists in hitting a ball (or pelote as we call it) with your bare hands (although some wraps are allowed). The pelote is very sturdy, and weighs around 100 grams for adults who compete. It is wrapped in goat leather, so it is not as hard as a base ball, but they are very similar. So hitting it head on can be painful, and many players get injured. Of all the friends that did not know about it and tried, none of them liked it. I suppose it takes some conditioning to enjoy it, which I got early on in my childhood so that now, I always enjoy hitting it. It is this kind of pain that somewhat feels good! All the other sports that involve using a racket (most of the time a wooden one) don’t involve that pain, so I recommend anyone to try it some day!
The sport is played in France, Spain but also in some Latin American countries, such as Mexico and Argentina.
Here is a video of the bare hand 2017 France championship:
Enjoy!
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