Ladder ball

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Tailgaters playing ladder ball at a tailgating party in Austin, TX.

Ladder ball is a lawn game similar in game play to horseshoes. Simply put, you toss a "bola" (2 weights on the ends of a piece of rope, named for the South American tribal weapon it resembles) towards a short ladder. It is a popular game played at outdoor parties, campsites, and beaches.

The object of the game is for players to cast their bolas around the rungs of a "ladder".

1 Alternate names
2 Playing the game
3 Scoring
4 Tournament Play
5 Drinking Games
6 External links and notes

[edit] Alternate names

Ladder ball goes by an impressive number of alternate names. Although a comprehensive list is elusive, some of the variants are:Bolo Toss, Goofy Ball, Norwegian Horseshoes, Top Toss, Snakes, Hillbilly Golf, Polish Golf, Horseballs, Tower Ball, Bolo Golf, Gladiator, Bola, Snake Toss, Blongo Ball, Ladder Toss, Bolo, Pocca Bolo, Rodeo Golf, Dingle Balls, Bolo Polo, Cowboy Golf, Testicle Toss, Redneck Golf, The Snake Game, Willy Ball, Slither, Zing-Ball, Snakes & Ladders, Hillbilly Horseshoes, Flingy Ball, Norwegian Golf, Monkey Bars Golf, Swedish Golf, Polish Horsehoes, Dandy Golf, Montana Golf, Australian Horseshoes, Ladder Game, Monkeyball, Rattlerail Toss, Golfball Horseshoes, Arizona Golf Balls, Spin-It. hi Derek Rohde

[edit] Playing the game

Without a national or international governing body to deliberate rules and determine standards, there are variations in almost every aspect of the game.

[edit] Equipment

The bola is a length of cord attached to two objects, one at each end. It is only important that the objects at each end are equivalent and the lengths of the cords are the same. Typical games are made with balls and braided string, but a large washer or a monkey's fist knot also serve the purpose when tied with any available flexible cord. Golf balls are often used in home-made games, and commercial versions are of similar size but use a softer material. To differentiate teams, the cords (or the objects fastened to them) used by each team are a different color.

Each ladder consists of three horizontal bars with equal vertical spacing, often constructed of PVC pipe. Ladders may be equipped with a base to stand alone or be mounted on stakes. Each rung of the ladder has a point value, and each bola left hanging on a rung at the end of a round scores that many points.

[edit] Equipment List

A complete game set will typically include:

Three bolas per person or team
Enough bolas for three people or teams
Two ladders
A bag or box to carry the game

Again, variations in game sets are the choice of the owner. Sets may include more or fewer bolas per team, limit the number of teams, or change the number of ladders. How a game is transported depends mainly on the extent to which the ladders come apart or fold.

[edit] Setup

Ladder ball requires a long, narrow playing area. Ladders are placed approximately "ten paces" apart. To make the game easier, children are often allowed to set the distance with their own stride. The width required depends on the skill level of the players; the people waiting for the throwers will want to be safe.

For the first round, a coin toss, a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors, or some other suitably random method, is used to decide which team will toss first. The team scoring highest in the previous round is the first to toss in the next round.

Ladder ball is played in rounds, each round consisting of one player from each team tossing bolas. The first player tosses one bola, followed by a player from each remaining team. Bolas can be tossed in any way the player chooses, as long as they are tossed individually.

The foul line is an imaginary line at the front edge of the ladder's base. If the ladders are mounted on stakes, without bases, the ladder itself becomes the marker for the foul line. Players must not step across that line during a throw, or the results of that throw will be reversed (other bolas that were moved will be restored to their position before that throw).

[edit] Rules Variations

The number of ways these rules may be altered to suit personal tastes is limited only by one's imagination. Some examples of modified rules are:

Have each player throw all of their team's bolas, one at a time, before the next player takes a turn.
Make each player choose on which side of the ladder they will stand, and they will stand there every time they throw.
Have each player throw all of their team's bolas, add up the score, and remove the bolas before the next player takes a turn.
Set a time limit for games.
The team with the highest total score at the beginning of each round could throw first.

[edit] Scoring

[edit] Points Per Bola

Scoring depends on the location of the bolas at the end of each round. Each rung is assigned a point value, and each bola's points are added to the team's score. Bolas that miss do not score points.

The bottom rung is often deemed the easiest to score on, since it is common for a bola to drop from one rung onto a lower one. Also, a bola thrown short will sometimes bounce onto the bottom rung. Landing on the bottom rung is awarded one point.

The top rung is the next in difficulty, since the strategy of using a high arc to drop directly onto the ladder will most often score there. Landing on the top rung is awarded two points.

The middle rung is the hardest to land on, so it is awarded the highest point value. Landing on the middle rung is awarded three points.

Landing a bola on a rung includes many configurations, the most common of which is to have the cord over a rung with a ball on either side. Bolas bouncing off the ground do count in scoring. As long as a bola is supported by a rung, it scores.

One possible way for a bola to land is to have a bola wrap around a bola that is already on the ladder. Both bolas are considered to be supported by the same rung and score the point value of that rung.

If that second bola has one ball on either side of the next rung down, it scores points from both rungs.
If that second bola is touching the ground, a ruling will be needed regarding whether the second bola is being held up by the first. If the ladder is not staked down, one resolution could be to lift the ladder.

Another interesting scoring configuration is having the cord wrap around a vertical bar between rungs. Assume the bola will slide down to the next rung (or to the ground) unless it is being supported by another bola, and award points to the bola accordingly.

[edit] Winning

Play continues until the round where at least one team's score reaches or passes twenty-one. The team with the highest score at the end of that round is the winner.

In the case of a tie, play additional rounds with all of the teams involved in the game. When a round ends with one team having a higher score, that team is the winner.

[edit] Scoring Variations

Varying Rung Values

The value of each rung can be altered. As described above, the point value of each rung is often, from top to bottom,

2, 3, 1

Instead, the point values could be

1, 2, 3
3, 2, 1
15, 25, 10
Assigned by the roll of dice

Awarding Bonus Points

Additional points can be awarded for:

Landing all bolas on the same rung
Landing one bola on each rung
Missing the rungs, but landing a bola inside the rectangle formed by the base of the ladder

Changing Score Rules

Bolas that are wrapped around a vertical bar could be disallowed for scoring.

Bolas bouncing off the ground could be disqualified and removed from the round.

Different Requirements To Win

The winning team could be required to lead by at least two points.

Requiring an exact score to win. The winning team must get exactly twenty-one. If a round's score would put a team over twenty-one, that round's score is not used.

An alternative to this variation is to subtract a round's score from the team's score if it would otherwise put a team over twenty-one.

  For example:
     Red Team scores five points in a round when the team score
  is eighteen. Since their score would go to twenty-three, five
  points are subtracted from the team score, making their score
  thirteen.

The score required to win could be changed to fifteen.
Cancellation Scoring: During games with only two teams, one alternative scoring method is cancellation scoring. The team winning each round would only add on the difference between the scores. (The lower score of each round is subtracted from the higher score.)

  For example:
     Purple Team scores six points in a round where Blue 
  Team scores five. In cancellation scoring, Purple Team 
  only adds one point to their team score and Red Team's 
  score remains unchanged.

A different style of cancellation scoring can be used for any number of teams, looking at individual bolas. If all teams have a bola on the same rung, one bola from each team is removed. The values of the remaining bolas are then added to their team's score.

  For example:
     Green Team lands one bola on the middle three-point rung
  and two bolas on the two-point rung. Orange Team also lands
  a bola on the two-point rung, but the other two land on the
  one-point rung. Yellow Team has all of its bolas on the top
  two-point rung. Each team removes a bola from the two-point
  rung. There are no other three-way matches. Green Team adds
  a three-point bola and two-point bola for five team points;
  Orange Team has two one-point bolas for a total of two team 
  points, and Yellow Team has two two-point bolas to get four 
  team points.

[edit] Tournament Play

Casual games can have decisions made by consensus when an unusual situation is encountered. A tournament should have rules that are more formalized, or at least should have a few decision-makers on hand to discuss matters and provide a ruling.

In the interest of time, the individual games of a tournament can be shortened to fifteen points.

Common ways to organize a tournament in which only two teams play at a time are with a tournament bracket.

For tournaments where a faster pace is desired, a round-robin tournament could be organized with more than two teams playing in each game. In typical tournament situation where teams compete in a game that involves only one other team at a time, a round-robin tournament involving 16 teams would require 120 games be played. However, ladder ball can be played with more than two teams at a time, and since the chart for a round-robin tournament does not have one game depend on the results of the previous games, six results can be charted from a single game with four teams.

     For example:
     Four teams are playing together on a single pair
  of ladders. After a few rounds, Team Plaid achieves
  the winning score. Team Plaid is recorded as having
  beaten the other teams and retires from the game. 
     After several more rounds, Team Stripes finishes
  first among the three remaining teams. Team Stripes 
  is then recorded as having beaten the remaining two
  teams, and retires from the game.
     After a few more rounds, Team Solids gets to the
  winning score, and is recorded as having beaten the
  remaining team.

With only four sets of ladder ball, played with up to four teams each, a full round-robin tournament with 16 teams could be completed in only 10 games.

In the case of a tie,

All teams involved in the game play additional rounds until one team leads by two points.
In games where a winning score must be matched exactly, additional rounds could be played with all teams involved in the game. The teams that tied would be forced to drop below the winning score and attempt to get back to the winning score in the following rounds. All other teams would simply go for the winning score.