As you all know, there are four primary professional sports in the world. However, as of recently, many new and extreme sports have been rising to stardom with innovative ideas and propositions. For example, the WWE came up with the XFL which was suppose to be a hardcore version of the NFL. Unfortunately, its ratings weren't as high as expected, but ideas like those are what makes sports innovating. Changing the rules, adding new elements, and combining different styles of play all work well to make an interesting sport to play or watch. One of the most recently invented sports is called SlamBall. And trust me, this one is actually fun to watch...

"SlamBall is played 4 on 4 on a full court. Hockey-style full contact rules are offset by a looser interpretation of dribbling rules, resulting in innovations in ball control. An uptempo, fast breaking style is tempered by complex half court set plays. Defensive rotation becomes a necessity, as players launch from the outer reaches of the Slam Zone to attack the rim." -Quoted from SlamBall

So in a basic sense, SlamBall is a combination of mainly basketball with the contact rules from both hockey and football. Not only does this create an awesome playing atmosphere, but the pace of the game is very fast and similar to that of a video game. This is no joke, SlamBall is a real sport. Now, onto how the court is organized.

"The SlamBall court is designed to accomodate full contact action and non-stop athletic competition. The court is enclosed by plexi-walls to keep the ball in play. HotSpot trampolines extend play to heights of up to 17 feet above the game floor. Play space is extended behind the basket for complex strategy." -Quoted from SlamBall

This is the really cool part about SlamBall. Rather than having a typical basketball floor, they added four trampolines around each basket. Thus, you can get high-leaping players who may only be five feet tall. This gives the game a whole new perspective with high-flying dunks, real jump shots, and fake shot passes that really adds to the excitement. The plexi-walls bounce the ball right back which means the player must be aware of his position. So you're probably wondering about the rules. Well, they're pretty simple. First off, full contact is legal in SlamBall. While kicking and punching is out of the question, you can still plow over the ball carrier if you're trying to go for a steal. Secondly, there are fouls in game. However, fouls are only called when tripping or holding an opponent occurs. If this happens, the referee will call a one-on-one faceoff where the person who was fouled will have to race to attempt to dunk the basket while the person who fouled him must defend the basket. This can build up rivals between different teams and take the gameplay to a whole new level.

So you're probably wondering, how does a team score points? Simple. If a player performs a slam or a dunk, it counts as three points. Why? Because it is very difficult to get close to the rim with defenders using the trampolines and full contact being allowed at the same time. You score two points for a layup, jump shot, or and other type of move inside the semi-circle as long as it isn't a slam. Finally, you can also score three points on a jump shot outside of the semi-circle. This can introduce complex strategies as if the baseline is being covered, then the player can simply take a jump shot. Either way, as you can see on the right, high-flying slams are often common. In fact, if a player catches a breakaway, he can usually go for some high-flying stunt dunks. One time, I saw Sean Jackson perform a 360 through the legs dunk and it was purely awesomeness, my friend.

Alright, so you've read the description of the sport, and maybe you're interested in watching it sometime. Well, to start off, this sport started its national airing on August 3rd, 2002 on TNN. It comes on every Saturday night, 8:00 EST and lasts about one hour. There is usually two games and two teams get a bye. There are six teams total in the league - Rumble, Slashers, MOB, Diablos, Steal, and Bouncers. My personal favorite is the MOB, but all the players are amazing athletes. If you want more information on this crazy sport, please visit the official site.

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