Orlando Jai-Alai

What is Jai-Alai?

An International Sport

The world's fastest sport, Jai-Alai, offers more excitement, more action, more thrills and more fun than any sport in the world. This fast paced games stands alone on the merits of it's agile athletes who hurl a rock-hard ball, back and forth, at speeds up to 150 miles per hour! But, when one adds the dimension of wagering, with the opportunity to win up to $10,000, jai-alai becomes the ultimate sport!

Jai-alai partidos (games) were originally played professionally only on Sundays and holidays by the Basques as an attraction for local crowds. (Every town and even the smallest village has its own patron saint or virgin and celebrates it with a holiday). The courts used to be in the open air with nothing else but the three walls and floor required, without a roof or screen for crowd protection nor lights for proper visibility when dark.

From being a regional sport, it spread out to different cities within Spain and as far as mainland China and Egypt, as well as to Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, the Philippines, Italy and Indonesia, among others. Naturally, through the years, some frontons opened doors and others closed. But, undoubtedly, wherever jai-alai was played, it created an interest in the audiences and got many youngsters to play the sport. This interest contributed to the creation of a great number of excellent players throughout the frontons of the world.

Today, the United States is the goal of every player. From the early 1970's on, some of the American companies opened their own schools in the Basque regions of Spain and France, helping the youngsters by providing them with facilities and equipment, as well as teachers, at no cost. World Jai-Alai, based in Miami, has promoted the most extensive amateur jai-alai program ever, with a number of schools in Spain, France and one in Miami, Florida.

Although Jai-Alai was known in the Basque provinces within France, it was not played professionally to any large extent by the youngsters of this area. In recent years, however, with the opening of the schools, many French youngsters have enrolled in the professional rosters of American frontons. The same thing has happened with their American counterparts. Every day, there are greater numbers of American players, throughout the frontons of this country.

Definitions: jai-alai (hì´ lì´), noun, Sports. Also called pelota, handball-like game of Spanish Basque origin. It is played as either singles or doubles on a three-walled court (fronton) with a hard rubber ball (pelota) that is hurled with a wicker basket (cesta) attached to the player's arm. The sport is popular in Latin America and is played in some states (e.g., Florida and Connecticut) where jai alai betting is legal.

fronton (fròn´tòn´, frôn-tôn´) noun, Sports. "An arena for jai alai." [Spanish frontón, wall, fronton, augmentative of frente, forehead, face, from Old Spanish fruente, from Latin frons, front-.]

Email: Orlando-JaiAlai