Palant

The essence of the game:

The game consists of competing two teams (minimum 10 people, 5 people in each team). One team acts as an attacking team and the other as a defending team. The attacking team is often called ‘team of heaven’ and the defending team is called ‘team of hell’. Points can be earned by knocking out the ball in course of which the player (who knocked out the ball) must overcome the longest possible distance and earn bases or lines (it depends on the version of the game). It allows  ‘the heaven’s team’ to score points. At the same time, the main goal of ‘hell’s team’ is to catch the ball and throw it to the other side (heaven’s team’s part of the field).

Parameters (playground, accessories):

Playground: The dimensions of the playing field depend on the possibilities offered by the area where players want to play the match. Most often it’s: 20m (width) x 40m (length) and 25m (width) x 60m (length). The two opposite, shorter sides of the pitch are appropriately named: the heaven line and the line of hell. In the middle of the pitch is the centerline. In the middle of the outer side of the heaven’s line is a semicirc circle from which balls are knocked out. Also from the outer side of the heaven’s line on the right is a waiting place for ,,burnt’’ players.

Accessories: wooden stick for knocking out the ball, ball

Rules:

Captains of two teams (1 captain to one team) are selected from the group of gathered players. If the conditions are favorable for this, then it’s also worth choosing a referee who will oversee the course of the game and who will stand up for fair competition. The referee, together with the captains of both teams must determine the playing time, which must be at least 40 minutes (20 minutes for the bouncing and catching team). After that, the captains of both teams draw the playing field. Then the process of selecting team compositions begins. The captain of the heaven’s team begins to choose and alternately with the captain of the team of hell choose the team members until the last gathered player. After selecting team squads, both teams can take their catches. The heaven’s team stands behind the heaven’s line, and the hell’s team stands across the square behind the centerline. Team captains (mothers) can bounce the ball 3 times and ordinary players only 1 time.  Hell’s team players are lined up to bounce the ball. The last in line is always the captain (mother). The player bouncing the ball is placed in the „slot” – (pl. gniazdo). In one hand he holds a stick and in the other the ball. It’s allowed to bounce the ball from above, from below and from the side. The ball can only be hit after throwing it with your own hand. It’s also important that the ball after impact must crosses the centre line  – it can roll over or pass it in flight. The ball can’t fly diagonally without crossing the center line. The player who sends such a strike will be in the burned (offside) position. After hitting the ball, the player abandons the stick and runs in a straight line to the line of hell and back to the heaven’s line. The entire run cycle is (slot-centerline-hell’s line-centerline-heaven’s line). The player must stop when the ball crosses the center line and can continue his run after the next player bounces the ball. Otherwise, he will be in the offside position.

In a offside position, the player is when:

• a bouncing player will miss his shot.
• when the ball after bounce will fly out (fly diagonally, without crossing the center line).
• when the running player continues to run after the ball crosses the centre line
• when a running player is ‘beaten’ (pol.zbity) by hell’s team players.

”Burning” – (being in an offside position) means that the player is temporarily excluded from the game and that he must be set up in the burnt-out lobby (burnt players waiting place). He can’t bounce the ball or run. He is waiting for the moment when he will be restored back to the game by a player who happily runs his distance, crossing the line of heaven. The hell’s team which is located on the other side of the playing field must catch the ball and throw it behind the center line to the side of the heaven’s team. The hell’s team has no possibilities of earning points, so their ultimate goal is to change sides as soon as possible.

The change of sides is possible when:

• When a player of the hell’s team will catch the ball in one or both hands.
• When ,,the palant’’ (a stick used to bounce the ball) is outside the slot (no matter how).
• When there won’t be no one in the heaven’s team to bounce the ball anymore.
• When the specified time (fixed bilaterally by the teams) will end without any change of sides.

A team of hell can only impede the opponent’s team to score points by beating their players.  ”Beating’ is a situation where the ball touches a running player of the heaven’s team. A player of hell’s team can touch the heaven’s team player by ball or throw it at him when he is far enough away. He can beat heaven’s team players when they are between the lines. Then the ”beaten” player returns to the waiting place  (for ,,burnt’’ players) and waits for the restore back by his teammates.

Beating is void when:

• The ball will bounce off the ground and only then will touch the heaven’s team player.
• When a running player of the heaven’s team will catch the ball thrown at him (he must then throw the ball to the side of the heaven’s team and go back to the line he reached before trying to get it.

The all game wins the team which accumulates more points during a certain period of time. Points are earned by running through the heaven’s team player the entire cycle (slot-centerline-hell’s line-centerline-heaven’s line).

Variation of rules:

• The first variation of the ,,palant’’ is the palant, in which instead of reaching the lines, you can reach bases spaced around the playing field (located at an equal distance from each other). Points are then awarded in the same way as when reaching a line, only that after each full lap.
• The second variant of palant is palant developed by Polish Palant’s Ball Association for school activities. The game square was between 50-75m (length) and 20-25m (width). The dimensions depended on the age of the players. This variation differed from the common version in that there was no centerline in it (the player after knocking the ball had to run from the slot to the finish line and back) and the dimensions of the playing field.
• The third variation of the fingering consisted of a game on a rectangular pitch, behind the lines of each of the shorter sides there were fields called „kingdoms”. About 25m from the center of the border of „kingdom” was „halfway”, and at a distance of 50m it was meta. These points were determined by the posts dug into the ground. There were nearly 11 players on each of the two teams. In each of them there was a ‘mother’, a ‘redeemer’ and 9 ‘kids’. The game was started by a team that was in the kingdom, which was determined by an earlier draw. The ball was first knocked by the kids (have 1 hit), then the redeemer (has 2 hits) and the mother (has 3 hits). The ball was bounced after it was knocked out of its own hands without being thrown by the opponent. The ball had to cross the halfway line after the bounce. After the ball was bounced, the player made a run to the halfway post or finish line. This depended on the moment that the ball returned to the kingdom side, which was the goal of the opposing team. She could also „beat” a running player by throwing or touching him with the ball. If this was done when the running player was outside the kingdom and didn’t touch any post, then the bouncing team was losing the kingdom. The whole game won the team which reached more dashes which was earned for bouncing the ball and ‘buying out’ all players (1 dash) or for making the same one string (2 dashes). 
• The fourth variant of the palant is the palant, in which the ball wasn’t thrown by own hand, but it was thrown by the opponent. This variety resembles the most modern baseball. It was considered the most difficult.

Additional information:

• Palant can be played on any surface and on the playing field of different dimensions (it depends on the needs and capabilities of the players collected).
• The way that bases or lines are selected is also not strictly defined.

GAME CONTEXT

Origin, distribution, history:

The word ‘palant’ is derived from the Italian word ‘pallante’, which means a football player. The beginnings of the palant can be found in the Middle Ages, specifically during the reign of King Sigismund Augustus and Sigismund the Old. The first mention of the palant in Polish context is dated for 1610. This mention is related to a palant playing in the Czech Republic. However, according to the author, poles played the best. In the 18th century, Priest Jędrzej Kitowicz wrote that even doctoral and professorial staff played entertainment matches in their spare time. In the 19th century, the palant was so widespread what allowed to includ it in the physical education school program.  After World War II, a palant league was established in Silesia. In 1957 was founded Polish Palant’s Ball Association. In the 1960s, the palant lost its importance because it was the victim of a media’s witch-haunting. The Polish Palant’s Ball Association was then abolished, and the increasing industrialization and urbanization began to push the sport even further into the abyss of oblivion, eliminating the playing areas that were needed for development. However, there is now an increasing trend in interest in palant.

Who and where (did) they play?           

Palant was a sport of the whole society. It was played by people from every class and social strata. It was a sport widespread in every region of Poland, but according to many sources – the best region was Silesia, where was organised even the league competition. This sport was played on league pitches and city backyards.

British historian Norman Davies (in his book God’s Games) wrote that baseball popular in the United States originates from a palant played by a large group of Polish immigrants.

Palant lost its importance in Poland in the 1960s. However, it doesn’t exclude the existence of traditions associated with this sport. For several centuries, a religious and sporting celebration has been organized every year in Grabów in the Łódzkie voivodeship in honor of the palant. It is the Feast of the Palant. It is an event that attracts crowds of residents of Grabów and surrounding villages and even tourists from remote areas Polish. This holiday allows to continue the traditions associated with Polish traditional sport, the beneficiaries of which are young people, adults and the elderly. This confirms that the palant has a close connection with the Polish national identity.