“The Sports Search” is a column by Jack Waterman about unusual sports.

Welcome back to the Sports Search! After a long winter break full of NFL playoffs, NBA Christmas games and college sports galore, it’s refreshing to be back enjoying sports that I’m not seeing on TV every half hour. I feel it’s an issue when I start planning my days around when certain mainstream games are going to be on. Maybe all of us could rotate some of these unfamiliar sports into our daily routines. Mix it up a little.

As winter slowly comes to a close (although I feel rather disingenuous saying that considering I’m writing this from Los Angeles, where winter consists of one cold-ish weekend), many people’s sights are set on a warmer spring season.

Lonely pools will soon begin to fill with people as the sun lingers in the sky later and later into the day. No one can truly say when or where their first cannonball of the year will occur, but we all know it will be nothing short of glorious. Whether swimming for exercise or for enjoyment, the pool is a paradise.

Football is played in heavy pads on uncomfortable turf. Hockey in freezing conditions with a dangerous puck flying around. And even basketball with its potentially season-ending tile floors. However, the pool is a safe haven. Within it, there is an incredibly unique sport that you have probably played before without even knowing it was a real sport.

Introducing… Biribol!

Predictions

With this sport carrying a foreign name that gives me no hints into its nature, I referenced one picture to aid my predictions. What came up was a relatively small pool (at least for what was happening in it), eight guys wearing swim caps and Speedos and a small volleyball net stretching across the middle of the pool. Almost what you might see in someone’s backyard, but a lot more organized.

I’m not saying I’ve played this exact sport before, but I’ve played this sport a thousand times and know exactly how it’s played. I mean, I don’t know the rules, the objectives, the energy required, or just about anything else about the game, but I do inherently know the game, simply because I have played it countless times. I think that we all have.

I feel like it’s a childhood (and honestly adulthood) staple to have played, what my very uncultured mind is calling, water volleyball. My experience with this game doesn’t always involve a net, but definitely involves some not-so-pumped-up ball, launching yourself off the pool floor into the air like a spider monkey and climbing out of the pool around a thousand times to retrieve an errant hit.

However, I can only imagine that my description lacks some sophistication and doesn’t do the necessary talent to play justice. My best guess is that the game is played similarly to volleyball, but with two teams of four in a small pool.

The objective would be to get the ball to hit the opponent’s side, with each team getting a maximum of three hits before getting the ball over the net and one player not being able to hit it twice in a row. As well, I would think anything not water is out of bounds.

What about the edges of the pool though? I’ve always played that a ball that hits the edge and bounces back in is fair play. Could be an interesting strategy…

Besides all of that, I’m sure there is a point goal to get to, maybe 21. I’m sure there is some bumping, setting and spiking (I know a lot about volleyball). But most of all, I pray players can use the floor to gain some extra height out of the water, purely for my own nostalgia.

The Rules

Biribol is played in a pool eight meters long, four meters wide and 1.5 meters deep. Going across the middle of the pool is a net that is 2.62 meters tall for the men and 2.4 meters tall for the women. As well, there is a designated attack area with a line that crosses the pool 1.25 meters away from the net on each side, and each side has a specific serving corner measuring 1 meter x 0.8 meters.

Each team has four players, or two in the doubles variation. Like volleyball, Biribol games are decided by best-of-three or best-of-five sets of 21 points. If the games reach the final set, the winning point becomes the 20th point, instead of the 21st. Teams must win by two points in order to take the set, meaning a score of 20-21 wouldn’t end the game, but rather 20-22 would.

During the game, players can use any part of their body to hit the ball, as long as the team gets the ball over the net in three hits and no one touches it twice in a row. A point is scored when the ball hits the water, or a team commits a fault. Faults can be anything from touching the net to lifting the ball instead of hitting it. Upon further investigation, I discovered that a ball that hits a corner or edge of the pool, but bounces back into play, is fair game.

The best receivers make one-handed grabs like they’re nothing. The best point guards swish three-pointers all day. The best biribol players hit the edges without question.

History

Biribol was first created in Brazil, some time in the 1960s, by professor Dario Miguel Pedro. He was looking to create a similar game to volleyball, but one where people could learn to swim in a safe and fun manner. It has since been recognized as Brazil’s first nationally-created sport.

While its influence hasn’t spread much outside of Brazil, it is as popular as ever within the country’s borders. Currently, there is a Biribol Brazilian National League, where teams from all around the country compete. Each year, the competition comes to a close with the Biribol National Championships.

Luckily, I was able to find a website for the various leagues and tournaments for Biribol. Despite being in Portuguese, I found that this past weekend teams competed in the Copa Paulista. While it seems like COVID-19 has shut down much of the competition over the past two years, there were plenty of results from 2019, as well as information about future games and tournaments.

Biribol is ready to be back.

Conclusion

Finding information on this sport was no easy feat. Despite being somewhat disheartened at first, I had a moment of realization that changed the way I thought about it.

Maybe there isn’t any desperate need for someone like me to be able to see everything about this sport.

Western culture broadcasts everything about everything, focusing on drawing in popularity and money through any means necessary. Biribol is a sport created and played almost exclusively in Brazil. I imagine it’s an integral part of their culture. Their own sport. While it may seem odd to someone like me, I can see reason as to why it hasn’t been massively broadcasted or commercialized across the globe.

Brazil is likely incredibly content enjoying Biribol for themselves, and simply catching a glimpse of one of the more niche sports in our world is very fulfilling.

“The Sports Search” runs every other Monday.