SANTA MONICA, Calif. – If its organizers have their way, a new sport could be coming in time for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
It’s called teqball, a cross between soccer and pingpong – as unlikely a combination as that sounds. Although little known in the U.S., teqball has attracted about 5,000 players in 100 countries, the International Teqball Federation in Budapest says.
Teqball was created in Hungary in 2012 by former professional soccer player Gábor Borsányi, businessman György Gattyán and computer scientist Viktor Huszár.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misspelled the name for players of the sport, who are called teqers. It also misspelled the name of Teqball USA CEO Ajay Nwosu. The story has been updated, but clients who used earlier versions are asked to run the correction found here.
The sport is played on what looks like a slightly arched pingpong table, with a clear barrier in the middle where a net normally would be. But the similarity to table tennis mostly ends there.
There’s no little hard, white plastic ball. Instead, players rally a full size soccer ball back and forth. Like volleyball, they can contact the ball a maximum of three times before it must be lofted over the barrier onto the opponent’s side of the table.
As in soccer, players can’t touch the ball with their hands. Any other part of the body is allowed – head, shoulders, chest, legs – but you can’t touch the ball with the same body part consecutively.
Players – known as teqers – lose the point if the ball hits the ground or they miss the opponent’s side of the table on a return.
“Ninety percent of the players that come into teqball will be from soccer,” said Mark Millan, who plays teqball and is a play-by-play commentator for ESPN’s teqball coverage. “Once you start playing this game, you’re going to realize that the touches are similar to soccer, but you’re playing a very different game.”
A game consists of three sets of 12 points each. As in tennis, teggers also get two chances to complete a serve.
Teqball can be played inside or outdoors, whether it’s in the confines of a soccer venue or overlooking the beach in Santa Monica, where tables are set up near the bike path, a popular destination for locals and tourists alike.
Teqers put on quite a show on a recent Friday, sometimes standing back 10 feet from the table and maneuvering the ball as if they were putting on a hands-free juggling act, with dramatic airborne kicks, headers and shoulder taps before pinpointing the ball on a target space smaller than a poker table.
“We play almost every day in front of one of the most populated beaches in Los Angeles,” Millan said.
