Crazy sport: Mintonette

Have you ever found yourself out of breath when playing soccer? Frustrated by the messiness of football? Wondering if boxing is beneath you? Maybe you feel like no sport can live up to your high standards. Well, in 1895, businessmen at the YMCA in Holyoke, Massacheusettes had the same problems.While they were excited to fit some physical activity into their schedules, many of these men found basketball, the most popular sport at the time, to be too lively for their white-collar lifestyles. Thus mintonette was born. Inspired by the less fashionable sport of badminton, this crazy sport was originally played using a basketball and a tennis net. Mintonette offered upper middle class men the style and class that they were looking for, and the sport quickly took off– just two years after its creation, the rules of mintonette were added to the YMCA’s athletic handbook.

Since mintonette is a game invented by the bourgeois, the rules are incredibly strict. The ball used for the game must weigh between nine to 10 ounces, and have a circumference of exactly 65 centimeters. An important aspect of mintonette is that the ball must not touch the ground. This is because the ball could get dirty if it touches the ground, and important businessmen should not have to get their hands dirty. Mintonette is also a non-contact sport, because tackling other men is incredibly improper. During play, no one player may hold the ball, representing the state of equality that rich white men have in the workplace. A violation of any rule results in a point being awarded to the other team, so the players must take great care not to commit any violations or errors. 

Typically, mintonette is played with twelve players, 6 on each team, but multiple informal variations including six-player and four-player mintonette are played outside of competition. In competition mintonette, one lucky business executive may be chosen to play a special role throughout the game. This player can enter and exit the game whenever they wish, replacing any player as long as they stay more than three meters away from the net. While this may seem chaotic, the game’s referee maintains order by making sure that before a substitution, the players stand as still as they can on the sidelines and awkwardly touch each other’s hands. This way, everyone can clearly see who is entering and exiting the court, and the referee can write everything down in a little book.

Throughout the years, mintonette has remained a rich man’s sport. For families with summer homes on the coast, mintonette has become a common beach game. But, while 30-something businessmen were the originally intended players of this crazy sport, as the years progress, younger generations have dominated the court. Today we are more likely to see a CFO’s daughter playing mintonette rather than her father. It is very difficult to get far in the mintonette scene without expensive training from a young age, and experience in a high-level mintonette club. Affluent families spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on the finest training money can buy, and many of the cultural elite are willing to pay a pretty penny to have their children join the best mintonette club in town. The young prodigies in these clubs travel the country in preppy outfits, ready to dominate the classy competition. 

So, if you’re looking for a fun, new sport to play, consider the following questions: Do you have a pool in your backyard? Have you been to Walt Disney World or Disneyland more than once? Does your family go on a cruise every year? If you answered yes to any of these questions, mintonette might be the crazy sport for you! But, if you’re having trouble finding a mintonette club in your area, you might want to try searching for it using its more popular name– volleyball.

Source: Britannica