Court and Equipment
In its essentials, jai alai resembles handball. However, the players wear long, narrow, curved wicker baskets (cestas) on their playing hands, enabling them to propel the ball with terrific speed.
The ball has a diameter of about 2 inches and is very hard. It is made of virgin de-para rubber from Brazil, is hand wound, and covered first with a layer of linen thread and then with two layers of goat skin.
The cancha (court) is 176 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 40 feet high. There are three walls: a front wall (frontis), a back wall (rebote), and one side wall, to the left of the players. On their right is the spectators' gallery, protected by steel netting. The front wall is made of granite; the rear and side walls of Gunite, a pressure-applied cement; and the floor of specially hardened concrete, 12 inches thick.
The walls are marked with 17 lines. The eleventh line from the front wall is the service line and the service court is between the fourth and seventh lines. The other lines are merely guides to help players judge the distance and angle of the shot.
Progress of Play
Standing behind the service line, The server must bounce the ball and throw it off the front wall so that it lands on the floor within the service court. Only one attempt is allowed. If the ball doesn't land in the service court, the returner wins the point.
The ball must be returned before it has bounced twice on the floor. Returning involves catching and throwing it with a single fluid motion. The player cannot catch the ball and then wind up to throw it. If the ball pops out of the cesta and is caught again, it results in loss of the point.
Because opponents share the same court (as in squash and handball), they have to stay out of one another's way. If one player blocks the other's path to the ball, it is interference and results in loss of point if the judges feel that the ball could have been returned except for the interference.
Types of Competition
There are three forms of the sport: singles, doubles, and a special elimination system devised for parimutuel betting. In the elimination game, there are eight players on the floor; when one loses a point, that player is replaced.
Winners stay on the court. A player who has made 3 points has qualified for the finals, and he leaves until two others have also qualified. Then the three qualifiers play off to determine win, place, and show positions for the betting.
A point is scored when another player's shot goes out of bounds, either by hitting the wire screen or by hitting one of the penalty areas marked on the walls; or when the ball hits the floor twice without being returned. The ball can be played off the back wall, side wall, or floor, but it must hit the front wall before it hits the floor a second time. As in tennis, the server gets two chances to make a good serve.