Last Friday, a few friends had heard about a free event for “WhirlyBall“. Turns out a local radio station was going to be there and it was going to be free all night. Who doesn’t like free?! I had heard of a group at work going to Whirlyball as a team building event but wasn’t quite sure what it entailed. As soon as I looked up what “WhirlyBall” actually was, I was ready to go!

Whirlyball – Take a seat in one of these little bumper cars. (Steer clear of #13, it’s a slow one.) You have a little basket/glove followed with a plastic whipple ball. The goal is for each team to hit the backboard (see below) with the ball for 1 point and if you get the circle in the middle, congratulations, you’ve just scored yourself two points! This goes on for 7-10 minute games.

Don’t fool yourself, this is a lot harder than it looks. Those little cars are pesky! The car has a pedal. You don’t have to push it to go, it just kind of goes on its own. The pedal just makes you go faster. You have a joystick that you use to steer. Turn it left, you go right. Turn it right, you go left. Turn it all the way around, you stop. Turn it too much, you may go backwards, you may not go anywhere at all. Takes some adjusting.

You may find yourself pinned by an eight year old who proceeds to sit there and laugh at you and say “I got you stuck!”, but that didn’t happen to me. Nah. 

Some people take this pretty seriously. Check out those chin guards.

There’s even some leagues. Intense. I have some bruises on my knees from that joystick hitting them.

It’s still worth the fun!

When playing, be wise on who you pick to be on your team. You want them on your side.

There’s only a few of them in the entire country, but if one is near you, you may want to check it out!

It was one heck of a good time!