Picigin (pronounced "pih-tsih-gheen") is an amateur sport game played on some beaches in Croatia. It is played with a ball. In Croatia, it is very popular, especially in Dalmatia and Split, where it is played by people of all ages and both sexes.
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Origin
Its origins are in Split, a city in Dalmatia, where Picigin evolved from a game of water polo, first played in 1908 by a group of Croatian students who brought it from Prague. They played it on a shallow, sandy beach in Split called Bačvice. [1]
Description
The game involves several players in a circle passing around a small ball and keeping it in the air and out of the water for as long as possible. As such, the game somewhat resembles volleyball but it is played with a much smaller ball, the size of a tennis ball. There are usually five players and much running and diving in the shallow water. Picigin is a non-competitive sport: there are no opposing sides, no points, neither winners nor losers. It is a relaxing game where players start slowly and speed up when they want to. In the heat of the game, players are forced to run fast through the water and make acrobatic manoeuvres to keep the ball in play. Players don't catch the ball, they bounce it around with the palm of the hand.
Rules
Since picigin is an amateur sport, there are no strict or formal rules, but it is played according to tradition, with little variation.
Players
There are 5 players in the game. Two of them are called sidruni (sidro = anchor, they are called so because they do not move from their places) and the other three are runners (trkači). The groups are often mixed both by gender and age.
Terrain
Picigin must be played on a sandy beach in shallow water. The beach must be sandy because otherwise players could easily get hurt. It's best if the water is ankle-deep, because of mobility and also to soften falls, which are common because there's a lot of jumping around trying to reach the ball.
Ball
The traditional ball, called balun (otherwhise a dialectic name for a ball, but this name is strictly used, especially by expert players) in picigin is actually a peeled tennis ball, polished off a few milimetres. This kind of ball is best suited for bouncing. It is smooth and lighter than a normal tennis ball.
Tradition
The most fanatical players believe it to be impossible to play picigin anywhere but on the sandy beach Bačvice in the historic city centre of Split, Croatia. There is also a widely distributed belief that the only proper garment to wear while playing Picigin is a tight speedo, "mudantine" in Croatian.
Picigin is played on Bačvice year round and, in summer also often at night (reflectors can be used in the dark), and there is also a tradition of playing picigin on New Year's Day, regardless of weather conditions, and when the sea temperature is rarely above 10 °C.
Some of the best known players from Split are writer Đermano Senjanović[citation needed], music professor Josip Veršić[citation needed], Vili Jakovčević,[citation needed] theatre critic Anatolij Kudrjavcev[citation needed] and retired shipyard worker Roko Vrandečić[citation needed].
Events
Since 2005, the Picigin World Championship in picigin (Prvenstvo svita u piciginu) is organized every year on Bačvice beach in Split. Until 2008, players were given a task to do certain jumps, but from 2008, the winner is selected according to the artistic impression of a whole group.
In June 2008, picigin was pronounced a Croatian unmaterial cultural good, for a period of three years, and it is planned to get a permanent protection after that.[2]
References
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External links
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