ulama
Ulama: The Mesoamerican Ballgame
Vanessa Sylvain
History and Philosophy of Sports, Section 04
Dr. Thomas
September 10, 2013
The history of sports goes back as far as humankind. The same way humans have evolved from beginning stages, is the same way sports have too. So this means a variation of sports have been around since around 1800 B.C, worldwide. In that time, humans played for life or death; it was all about survival of the fittest. One area that had their community involved with sports was Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica is a region that extends from the desert region of northern Mexico, southward to include Belize, Guatemala, as well as western Honduras and El Salvador. Ulama was a popular sport that was played in Mesoamerica, and even in modern time it is played In Mexico, (Mechikoff, p.39). From reading about this ball game, I learned about how the game was played and the difficulty level, why it was played, and how it compared to modern day sports now.
What did you learn about the ball, the uniform, the court and the game? Ulama is a historical and now modernized sport that goes way back to 1800 B.C, and it is one of many that is played with the perfectly circular ball to play it’s games. Ulama’s ball was created with rubber, from rubber trees, that weighed about 8 to 9 lbs, by the Olmecs and was played with by Yucatan’s pre-Columbian Maya’s, as well as the Totonacs, Zapotecs, and the mighty Aztecs, (Mechikoff, p.39). With the observation by the Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortes, he witnessed that the players used a firm piece of leather that covered their hips and buttocks, because that was the part of body that was used to strike the hard rubber ball. The players also wore gloves but did not touch the ground with their hands. The game was very fast paced and exciting. The purpose of the ball game was for the ball to be hit or returned from one player to another and to get the ball through a stone ring. Players would pass
Vanessa Sylvain
History and Philosophy of Sports, Section 04
Dr. Thomas
September 10, 2013
The history of sports goes back as far as humankind. The same way humans have evolved from beginning stages, is the same way sports have too. So this means a variation of sports have been around since around 1800 B.C, worldwide. In that time, humans played for life or death; it was all about survival of the fittest. One area that had their community involved with sports was Mesoamerica. Mesoamerica is a region that extends from the desert region of northern Mexico, southward to include Belize, Guatemala, as well as western Honduras and El Salvador. Ulama was a popular sport that was played in Mesoamerica, and even in modern time it is played In Mexico, (Mechikoff, p.39). From reading about this ball game, I learned about how the game was played and the difficulty level, why it was played, and how it compared to modern day sports now.
What did you learn about the ball, the uniform, the court and the game? Ulama is a historical and now modernized sport that goes way back to 1800 B.C, and it is one of many that is played with the perfectly circular ball to play it’s games. Ulama’s ball was created with rubber, from rubber trees, that weighed about 8 to 9 lbs, by the Olmecs and was played with by Yucatan’s pre-Columbian Maya’s, as well as the Totonacs, Zapotecs, and the mighty Aztecs, (Mechikoff, p.39). With the observation by the Spanish explorer, Hernando Cortes, he witnessed that the players used a firm piece of leather that covered their hips and buttocks, because that was the part of body that was used to strike the hard rubber ball. The players also wore gloves but did not touch the ground with their hands. The game was very fast paced and exciting. The purpose of the ball game was for the ball to be hit or returned from one player to another and to get the ball through a stone ring. Players would pass