Skællen

Skællen, Norwegian for "The Skull", is a ball game that originates from Norway, where it was invented by a group of teenagers in the year of 2005.The basics of the game is having two teams of n size to compete against each other by skulling a ball against an oponent. "Goal" is achieved when and only when the oponent fails to cath it before it drops to the ground. So far, it has only been tested out with teams consisting of three players on each team. The game can theoretically be played anywhere, though it has so far only been tested on sandy and grassy surfaces. One very important thing with "the skull" is that apart from the basic rules, the rules of the game is decided when playing, by taking a short pause in the game and discussing the problem at hand.

Basics of playing

One of the two teams, e.g. Team 1, starts with the ball. Basically the teammates can then skull the ball to each other in a friendly matter for as long as they want. Each player has a limit of 5 steps before he has to skull the ball, either 1) as a pass to a friend ("friendly pass"), or 2) as an attack on a oponent. Team 2 must from the start be concerned with trying to catch the ball from Team 1, when they pass the ball to each other internally. Team 2 will be concerned with finding a player from the oponent team which they want to skull. The basic way of doing this is just by having all of your team mates close up on one of the oponents, and skulling him after some passing distraction. A player can either directly attack his or her oponent, or immediately skull the ball on an oponent after catching it from a team mate (volley). A "volley" counts two points, where as for an normal skull attack you only get one point. When one of the teams has reached ten points, they have won the first of three sets. [ [http://folk.ntnu.no/kjetisve/skallen/ Norwegian Skællen Association] ]

The Attack
The way of attacking your oponent is basically just to skull the ball against him or her with as much force you find neccessary to make the oponent fail to catch the ball before it hits the ground. To count as a point, the ball has to hit above the knee. In a special attacking teqnique called "the killer" (originally "dödare", from Swedish), where you must throw yourself against the ground while doing your attack, and aim from the knees and down on your oponent. Only three "killers" are allowed during one match. [ [http://folk.ntnu.no/kjetisve/skallen/ Norwegian Skællen Association] ]

Match standards

To match standards exist:

Skællen Regular-game, where the score limit is ten points on one of three sets.

Skællen Short-game, where the score goes up to five on each set.

Sources

* [http://folk.ntnu.no/kjetisve/skallen/ The Norwegian Skællen Association's web page] .
* Skællen's Facebook group, [http://www.facebook.com/inbox/#/group.php?gid=14206227599 SKÆLLEN] .

References