Picigin (pronounced "pih-tsih-gheen") is an amateur sport game, created on "Bačvice" beach in Split,Croatia and played on some beaches in Croatia and Montenegro, but also widely popular in Novi Sad, Serbia where it is being played on a Danube river beach. It is played with a ball. In Croatia, it is very popular, especially in Dalmatia and Split, where it is played by people of all ages and both sexes. Recently the game has been exported to other places like Cala Gració in Ibiza.
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Its origins are in Split, a city in Dalmatia, where Picigin evolved from a game of water polo. Water polo was first played in 1908 by a group of Croatian students who brought it from Prague. They played it on a shallow, sandy beach in Split called Bačvice.[1]
The game involves several players in a circle passing around a small ball and keeping it in the air and out of the water for as long as possible. As such, the game somewhat resembles volleyball but it is played with a much smaller ball, the size of a tennis ball. There are usually five players and much running and diving in the shallow water. Picigin is a non-competitive sport: there are no opposing sides, no points, neither winners nor losers. It is a relaxing game where players start slowly and speed up when they want to. In the heat of the game, players are forced to run fast through the water and make acrobatic manoeuvres to keep the ball in play. Players don't catch the ball, they bounce it around with the palm of the hand.
Since picigin is an amateur sport, there are no strict or formal rules, but it is played according to tradition, with little variation.
There are 5 players in the game. Two of them are called sidruni (sidro = anchor, they are called so because they do not move from their places) and the other three are runners (trkači). The groups are often mixed both by gender and age.
Picigin must be played on a sandy beach in shallow water. The beach must be sandy because otherwise players could easily get hurt. It's best if the water is ankle-deep, because of mobility and also to soften falls, which are common because there's a lot of jumping around trying to reach the ball.
The traditional ball, called balun (otherwhise a dialectal name for a ball, but this name is strictly used, especially by expert players) in picigin is actually a peeled tennis ball, polished off a few milimetres. This kind of ball is best suited for bouncing. It is smooth and lighter than a normal tennis ball.
The most fanatical players believe it to be impossible to play picigin anywhere but on the sandy beach Bačvice in the historic city centre of Split, Croatia. There is also a widely distributed belief that the only proper garment to wear while playing Picigin is a tight speedo, "mudantine" in Croatian dialect spoken in Dalmatia.
Picigin is played on Bačvice year round and, in summer also often at night (reflectors can be used in the dark), and there is also a tradition of playing picigin on New Year's Day, regardless of weather conditions, and when the sea temperature is rarely above 10 °C.
Some of the best known players from Split are writer Đermano Senjanović, music professor Josip Veršić, Vili Jakovčević, theatre critic Anatolij Kudrjavcev and retired shipyard worker Roko Vrandečić.
Since 2005, the Picigin World Championship in picigin (Prvenstvo svita u piciginu) is organized every year on Bačvice beach in Split. Until 2008, players were given a task to do certain jumps, but from 2008, the winner is selected according to the artistic impression of a whole group.
In June 2008, picigin was pronounced a Croatian unmaterial cultural good, for a period of three years, and it is planned to get a permanent protection after that.[2]
There is even a more recent version of Picigin played on land with a soccer ball. Its origin is unknown but it is believed to be created by soccer fanatics a few decades ago for amusement. While it shares the same name as the beach version of the game, the rules are somewhat different. The game can be played from three and up to ten people. More than ten people would be to crowded and not as fun. The game starts off with kick-ups and the person with the lowest number of successive kick-ups has to be goalie, and stays in that position until he/she catches the ball, at which point the shooter has to exchange positions with the goalie. The other players position themselves behind the goal line from where they can shoot at the goal but only from air when they get a pass from the other player. The passing can occur any number of times until a clear opportunity for shot on target develops. The ball can touch the ground but the person who takes the shot on target has to do it from air. Every person starts off with ten points, which is decremented by one point of the goalies score for every goal he/she receives. Just like in regular soccer, when the goalie attempts to make a safe but the ball ricochets off him/her into the no play zone, a throw-in is given. This is often referred to as "Kecelja" in this game. The throw-in can be taken by any player which is a quick and dirty way of scoring a goal. The game stops when the first person reaches a score of zero points.