{"id":1321,"date":"2018-05-13T16:58:21","date_gmt":"2018-05-13T14:58:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bailongball.com\/?p=1321"},"modified":"2025-09-30T19:05:43","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T17:05:43","slug":"bailongball-open-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bailongball.com\/en\/bailongball-open-air\/","title":{"rendered":"BailongBall Open Air"},"content":{"rendered":"\"\"<\/p>\n

It was still winter when some of the players, who practice regularly at „Taiji am Neuhof“ in Bensheim (Bergstra\u00dfe, Germany), decided to have fun beyond training. Start date was the first Saturday of April and we were rewarded with the first nice spring day of the year – lots of sun. And so we were all in a good mood, when the half dozen of us met at „Beauner Platz“ in the city of Bensheim.<\/p>\n

Apart from having fun, we also wanted to publicly present this still somewhat largely unknown sport to promote it a little. You can always do a lot of talking and explaining when friends ask you about the sport. But none of it can substitue a live performance. It is only then, when people watching the elegance and the estethics of a ball, which seems glued to the racket, turn wide-eyed and flabbergasted. They just do not understand how it all works – the players seem to defy the law of gravity.<\/p>\n

After a short warm-up, we passed the ball in our circle, which ever way we felt like. The pros among us managed moves that not only the onlookers were marveling at. Even some of the other players watched in awe. A couple of attempts to emulate the moves were rather clumsy – much to the amusement of others. And yet, with a little practice some did manage.<\/p>\n

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Most importantly, however, we had lots of fun the entire time. Every so often passers-by stopped to ask the name of our game. An elderly lady explained she had played every racket sport there is, Badminton, Tennis – you name it. But this sport really fascinated her. And there was this couple trying to explain to their son, that was he was seeing was not a magic trick but the result of many years of practicing; which the boy was not to thrilled about.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, we had our second meeting. Initially at „Beauner Platz“ we changed locations to „Rinnentor“. There we will meet every second Saturday of the month at 11 AM until fall. Interested? Come and join us – to play or simply to watch.<\/p>\n