All you need to know about jombola

A close-up of the racquet and ball used in Jombola.

UTTER the word “jombola” to a Malaysian and chances are they will relate it to football.

But that is a common misconception as jombola has nothing much in common with football other than they are both games played with a ball.

Jombola founder and Jombola Association of Malaysia (JAM) president Sukdev Singh, 62, who is also a retired history teacher, shared that even some school teachers who attended the jombola introduction course packed along football boots.

The problem is because of a tendency for Malaysians to pronounce it as if it were two words –“jom-bola” instead of pronouncing it like “jamboree”.

This homegrown racquet game is inspired by tennis and badminton but also incorporates some elements from table tennis and squash.

The racquet is shaped like the one used in tennis but is closer to the size of a table tennis bat.

The ball is larger than a tennis ball but is lighter, thanks to its high-grade foam construction.

It can be played indoor or outdoors by using any existing badminton or even sepak takraw court with the height of the net set to 1.32 meters.

There is singles as well as doubles play in the game with its rules and scoring system much like badminton.

Jombola has a lot going for it, partly due to its accommodating nature and being an economical game – a single ball at RM10 will last for months.

The most interesting aspect will probably be players from different racquet sports approaching the same game with very different views and techniques.

It was formally introduced in 2011 after being in development for five years with the help of a control school.

According to JAM, there are almost 5,000 jombola players out there and it has been played in a number of schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor since 2014 as well as universities across the country.

It has also been introduced to China, India, South Korea and Thailand.